Parks « The Garden Worm blog

January 7, 2011

Pittsburgh! Part 1

Filed under: Parks,Travel,Winter — Judy @ 11:07 pm

Another day, another trip – this time a girls’ only trip to Pittsburgh. We started out with little to no snow on the ground, but hit white-out conditions in the famous lake-effect corridor near Pembroke. We thought we were doomed, but the weather quickly turned and the rest of the trip was clear and sunny. A rest stop in Meadville yielded an amazing sight along the highway in front of the Highway Department there.

This picture does not do justice to the incredibleness of this project called “Read Between the Signs,” a collaboration between the Pennsylvania DOT and Allegheny College. Discarded road signs are sculpted into various images and forms depicting the Allegheny Mountains, the French Creek watershed, roads, PennDOT workers, and surrounding farms and forests. More pictures and videos here.

Continuing onward towards Pittsburgh, we arrived at the “Steel City” or “City of Bridges” in the late afternoon.

It has been over 40 years since I’ve been there and I remembered the city as being dirty and ugly, truly a “Steel City.” Was I surprised! This city, situated at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers which join to form the Ohio River, has reinvented itself. Its economy now is based on education, technology, healthcare, and financial services and, in 2010, it was listed as the most liveable city in the United States by Forbes and Yahoo.

FRICK PARK
One of my sisters lives in Pittsburgh and after the long trip, we all got some exercise in nearby Frick Park. Extensive trails wander up and down and around the steep valleys and wooded slopes.

The light at this time of day was magical.

Interesting geological formations,

considerable biodiversity,

and extensive ecological restoration work by the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy

make this largest of all municipal parks in Pittsburgh a wonderful place to visit even on a late cold, snowless evening in January!

November 2, 2010

Corbett’s Glen

Filed under: Fall,Parks — Judy @ 6:19 pm

About a week ago, one of my sisters and I visited Corbett’s Glen again. It’s a beautiful area near where my grandmother used to live and we both remember following the old trolley bed behind her house with our Dad to the Glen. This, of course, was way before the trolley line became an expressway! While we were there, a train went by and brought more memories of waking up in the night to the trains rumbling by her house on the railway embankment.

Corbett’s Glen is an 18 acre hollow along Allens Creek (note: there is no apostrophe in Allens) which is now, after much inertia and politicking and pressure from developers, part of a larger 52 acre tract in the Allens Creek Valley under the umbrella of “Corbett’s Glen Nature Park.” Located just outside of Rochester, NY, in the towns of Brighton and Penfield, this valley is of environmental and historical importance.

Environment: “The Glen is surrounded on three sides by sandy ridges deposited as the glaciers that once covered the area melted and receded. It has wonderful waterfalls and features a variety of habitats, including a marsh, open fields, and mature woodlands on the surrounding hills forming the valley. Remnants of its previously forested state are located on the higher elevations of the Glen, where some oaks are estimated to be over 150 years old.”

History: “A major foot trail of the Seneca people traversed the valley, and a sacred burial site was documented in the 1800s. Sixteenth-century traders established ties with local natives at nearby Indian Landing long before Rochester was founded. In the 19th century, European settlers farmed the fertile valley lands and constructed mills to harness the manageable power of Allens Creek. The Glen is also the previous home to a pre-Civil War powder mill. It has been reported that powder from this mill was carted as far as Lockport and used to blast out larger locks when the Erie Canal was being enlarged.”

That embankment that I mentioned above was built in 1882 and crosses over Allens Creek in Corbett’s Glen by way of a vaulted arch bridge, probably the largest in upstate New York. The south entrance to the park is under this historic overpass and you feel like you are entering a secret world once you walk through.

The stone for the arch was quarried from bedrock at the edge of the Glen and you can still see square blocks lying in the creek with traces of the quarrying on the banks.

There are two miles of well-maintained trails through the park passing through all manner of habitat along Allens Creek. Check out these twin twisted vines we saw!

This little pool at the base of Postcard Falls probably has some nice trout hanging around in it.

Postcard Falls is very pretty and was probably named that because it was used on postcards sent from Rochester back in the day. Apparently, the Glen was a popular private park and picnic site back in the late 1800s – early 1900s.

The day that we visited was cloudy and a little cool, but the fall colors warmed things up.

Corbett’s Glen is a jewel and we will be visiting again soon. You can find more information here:
Genesee Land Trust
Allens Creek/Corbett’s Glen Preservation Group
Town of Brighton info
More pictures and info here from Upstate NY Waterfalls

Comments (3)

February 24, 2010

Mendon Ponds Park

Filed under: Miscellaneous,Parks,Winter — Judy @ 5:56 pm

Yesterday’s trip to Mendon Ponds Park to do a little cross country skiing was a good thing. Although the day was gray and foggy, the previous night’s fresh layer of snow made for great skiing. One can always find interesting things to look at out there and you really should take a camera, but a cell phone set to black and white mode sometimes is handy to have.

Mendon Ponds Park is the largest Monroe County Park with 2,500 acres of woodlands, ponds, wetlands and glacially created landforms. In 1969, it was named to the National Registry of Natural Landmarks due to its geologic history and presence of kettles (including a well-studied kettle hole known as the “Devil’s Bathtub”), eskers, a floating sphagnum moss peat bog, and kames. This park is definitely one to visit any time of the year – 21 miles of trails for hiking, skiing, horseback riding, and birdwatching (feed the chickadees, nuthatches, and tufted titmice along the Birdsong Trail!).

My favorite trail for XC skiing is the Quaker Pond Trail, a 2.7 mile loop of fairly easy terrain through decidous and conifer woods, and over a wooden bridge through the rushes at the pond outlet where you might catch a glimpse of the beaver lodges. There are other trails like the East Esker Trail that are great for harder-core skiing, but this trail lets you shrug off those worrisome cares and observe your surroundings without sliding into a ravine!

At the Quaker Pond outlet

Yesterday’s adventure saw deer crossing my path not 20 feet in front of me, numerous birds chipping and calling, and lots of prints in the snow. Some I recognized, some I didn’t.

The first is a member of the dog family (dog, wolf, fox, coyote) and it’s probably a domestic dog since this is a walking trail too, but the front print has elongated middle toes. One can always hope that it is something more exotic! The second one I have absolutely no clue on. Voles make tunnels under the snow, but the center trail is not that wide. Maybe it is just a fallen branch print and not a critter at all! The next one is definitely a deer print, of which there were many, crisscrossing the entire trail.

Next time, I will have to remember to bring my camera for the colors of Mendon are many – and the camera has a bigger battery and takes better pictures than the cell phone!

Comments Off

« Newer Posts