Today it was a glorious day and my wife had made arrangements to take some of our grandchildren for a walk in the park. I have not posted in a while and all is still not well in the world. So today I will take this opportunity to look for the silver lining in this otherwise less than settled time. The traffic has not been as bad lately; consequently, the skies have seemed bluer and the air cleaner. As I said in the last post we live close to Washington DC and within a few minutes, if you don’t get tied up in traffic you can be at Great Falls Park. The park is part of the National Park System administered by the George Washington Memorial Parkway. It has been a go-to-place for me since I was a child. In fact, as a young man, my first date with my wife was 44 years ago walking some of the same trails that we did today with grandchildren. The last few months have been a challenge for everyone, including a guy like me who likes a bit of adventure. Trying to see it all has not been an easy option. We are very fortunate in living close to family, and with the easing of some of the travel restrictions, today it was no trouble to load up four little ones and head off to see if we could get close to nature, take in a little history, and avoid the crowds at the same time. Knowing that it would be cooler and far less crowded we left before 8 am. I gave my oldest grandchild the assignment of keeping track of what we saw with the hope that he would write something about the trip which I could add to this post. This is what he came up with…
First, we saw the Ebony jewelwing damselfly. Damselflies are like dragonflies but they can fold their wings back. Popop did not get a picture before it flew away but, we did look it up on the internet so we are pretty sure it was that kind. It was green and it had black wings. It was really beautiful. Popop has photographed it before, so maybe he will show you that photo with the other photos at the end of this story.
We walked along the old Potowmack Canal, which was started by George Washington. It was meant to provide a way to bring products from the west to markets in the east at Georgetown and Alexandria. We read about the project on signs along the trail. Popop took some photos of the signs later in the walk. You can still see rocks that his company put there and I think you can see it in a photo with the little girl pointing to it. I laughed a little when my brother tried to jump from rock to rock but didn’t quite make it. He got his foot wet but he did not get hurt. We learned later that the canal was not a successful project because floods kept washing it away.
The next animals we saw were bald eagles. They were flying high above the Potomac River. They were very cool.
As we walked up toward the dam above Great Falls built to provide the water supply for the city of Washington D.C, we saw some goslings with their mother and sitting on the rocks in the river we saw mallard ducks. Popop took many pictures and made a short movie to capture our excitement of seeing the cute little babies.
We met two ladies who were birdwatching. They said they were listening to Warbling Vireos, but we did not see them. The ladies names were Robin and Kris and they said it was the first time they had heard them in the park. Later, we passed them on the way back to the falls and they said they actually saw them through their binoculars.
After a little more walking we heard some loud drumming. My brother said it must be the largest woodpecker in the United States and he even described the red crest it had on his head. It was very loud but we never actually saw it. Popop told us it was called a Pileated Woodpecker. We have seen them before near our house.
We learned the river can be very dangerous. We looked at the pole that showed the highest floods on the Potomac in recorded history. I also looked at a sign that showed the number of drownings between 2001 to 2013. There have been 24 drownings in that period and 112 people almost died, but got rescued before they drowned. Then we went to all three of the overlooks on the Virginia side. On the way to the first, we saw a deer and it’s baby. The fawn was very small and had white spots. It looked like Bambi as it walked on wobbly legs. Popop got a picture of it as it ran across the path to its mother.
We saw more animals including gray squirrels, turkey vultures, and some great blue herons. The adventure was awesome and cool. We got to see many animals that I’ve never seen at Great Falls Park. Be careful if you decide to visit. We saw a lot of poison ivy and you know they say, “Leaves of three let them be.” My two-year old sister had a hard time staying away from it. As soon as we got home, Nana made us all soap up in a plastic tub of water in the backyard. Nana has never gotten poison ivy, but Popop says it itches a lot. I hope none of us get it.
If you would like to see a few pictures. click here. We hope this cloud will continue to reveal its silver lining, but nonetheless hope it passes soon.