Relaxation, Nature, and Waterfalls

Last weekend Jessi and I were able to get away and enjoy some of the nice weather that we were having.  We went to Cataract Falls which is very special to us (where I proposed almost 3 years ago :) ) and had a picnic lunch, did some hiking, and some relaxing.

Oddly enough, the 23 years that I’ve lived here I had not been here until about two years ago, and was amazed at the beauty of this place.  It truly is a great place just to get away and enjoy nature, and the people that you’re with.

We had a good afternoon and it proved to get away from our normal schedules and clear our minds.

Upper Falls just below the picnic area

Upper Falls with the covered bridge in the background. The bridge is just used for foot traffic now.

Looking downstream from the Upper Falls, just to the left of the picture is where the mill would have been.

If you want to check out some more of the pictures you can click here.

Filed under: Family, Nature , cataract falls, hiking, indiana, Nature, waterfalls

Birdwatching

Yesterday my father in-law and I decided to go do a little bird watching in Goosepond FWA.  This is something that I really enjoy doing when I’m down in that area.  It is hard to believe that there were people that actually protested the creation of that area a few years ago, that’s not my point though.  Every year thousands of Sandhill Cranes flock to the marshland and make it their temporary home.  If you have not seen thousands of these birds in one group it is truly a site to see.

We had gotten a tip that there were some Whooping Cranes in there as well.  If you don’t know what they look like here it is: They are one of the most amazing birds I’ve ever seen. They were near extinction and are now divided into two groups in North America, one west of the Rocky Mountains, and one of roughly 100 birds east of the Rock Mountains, this was the flock that the ones that we saw were apart of, even though we only saw 3 of them.  These birds were first guided on their migration path by an ultralight aircraft all the way from Canada to Florida.  Each of the birds are banded and are able to be tracked through the reporting of the sightings by birdwatchers.  Seeing these birds created a sense of awe in me.

After we moved on from that location we drove on up the road to where a Bald Eagle had had its nest a couple of years ago, but hadn’t returned because of the encroachment on the nest by people trying to cause trouble.  Much to our surprise we were looking at the nest and saw something sitting on top of it, sure enough, the eagle was back!  That was just the icing on the cake, the bird was perched on top of the nest just like you would see in a picture.

My lesson for the day:  These wildlife areas are there for you so get out and enjoy them.  I would bet that you will enjoy the stillness of nature and watching these creatures.  They truly are a sight to be seen.

I’d love to hear about some places like this in your area, so leave me a comment telling me about it.

[photo #1 by ulisesgirl]

[photo #2 by ariseandrejoice]

[photo #3 by art photo]

Filed under: Nature , bald eagle, cranes, eagle, goosepond, marsh, migration, nest, sandhill cranes, whooping cranes, wildlife

White Landscape

Last night on my way with my wife for our date, we stopped by one of my favorite places, close to where we live. This Fish and Wildlife Area, known just as “Chinook,” was very peaceful with a fresh blanket of snow.  Here are some shots:

An ice covered lake with a wooded backdrop.

Chinook’s largest lake, with a large woods around it.

One of the highlights of the trip was seeing a large redtail hawk sitting in a bare tree very close to the road, unfortunately he flew the coop before we could get a picture.

Clicking the pictures will take you to my Google Photo Album where you can see more of the pictures that we took.  Enjoy!

Filed under: Nature

Hiking Excursion

Here are some photos from my little hiking excursion yesterday.  To my surprise, it was a lot prettier than I expected during this time of the year.

Filed under: Nature , chinook, hiking, photos

Great flood of 2008

As you have probably already heard, we had a little bit of water come down in our area last Saturday.  Luckily, we were all ok, and nobody else had any series injuries.  We were really blessed to be able to get out ok.  We live on the ground floor of an apartment building and the whole place was flooded.  We had 21 inches of water in our apartment and some of our stuff was ruined.  Both of our vehicles were under water and one of them is totalled.  It was a very interesting weekend and the whole area has a lot of cleanup ahead of them.  The storms last weekend were some of the worst storms that I have ever seen and hope that I will never have to see any like them again.  I thank God that everybody is safe, and that we had great friends and family pull together and help us get our belongings out of our apartment.  Everything still has to be cleaned but things are coming together.  I have put up some pictures that you can find on Flickr by clicking the link on the right.  If you’ve been affected by the storms or know somebody who has please post your story, I’d be interested in hearing them.

Filed under: Family, Life, Nature , apartment, flood, indiana, rain, storms, terre haute, water