hiking – Geeky Girl Engineer

Grandview at New River Gorge National Park

Posted on July 2, 2022 by geek

Yesterday I went quite the hike within New River Gorge National park, and it was more of a hike that I thought it would be. I went to the Grandview area, and I hiked along the Grandview Rim trail. The trail is one way, so for the leg of the hike walking towards Turkey Spur, the end of the trail, I took the Castle Rock trail, which parallels the Rim trail for the first half mile. Castle Rock trail is gorgeous, and it takes you just below a wall of rock. At one portion of the trail, the wall of rock has a visible coal seam, which is extra interesting. However the footing on the Castle Rock trail is not even, and there is lots of ascents and descents, so it is a good workout. The rest of the trail, once back on the Rim trail is fairly easy going, especially compared to the Castle Rock trail. The start of the trail is the main overlook, which overlooks a bend in the New River, so you are viewing it from the base of a U shape. The end of the trail is Turkey Spur, which also overlooks the river, but at a location where in the foreground you see the river headed to the west, where it curves, then behind a hill, you can see the river looping around again and headed east.

Main overlook of New River

Castle Rock trail

Rhododendron growing in coal seam along Castle Rock trail

Coal seam along Castle Rock trail

Grandview Rim trail

Turkey Spur overlook with Thomas Burford Pugh Memorial Bridge over New River in foreground and New River also in mid-ground

Turkey Spur overlook of New River

Rhododendron

Kanawha State Forest

Posted on June 26, 2022 by geek

After visiting the Coal House, I went to Kanawha State Forest to do a little hiking. The park is pretty, but it had just rained, so hiking was a little difficult in that the trails were rather muddy. It has some nice trails, but unfortunately the map on the website is really not that helpful. One of the trails I wanted to see, the Spotted Salamander Trail, I only found because I asked some people hiking if they knew how to get to it. Still, it was a nice park to visit, and I got some exercise done. My guess is that the park is absolutely gorgeous when the wildflowers are in bloom.

Davis Creek trail

Spotted Salamander trail

Davis Creek trail

Calvert Cliffs State Park

Posted on June 11, 2022 by geek

I visited Maryland’s Calvert Cliffs State Park today, which I have been wanting to do for a while. The park is known for its beach where you can fossil hunt for shell and shark teeth fossils among others. The hike to the beach is not quite two miles. What I didn’t realize until I got here, mainly because the state’s website gives only the barest of information and is very unhelpful, is how lovely the trails are. The trail that is the most direct path to the beach first passes through a lovely wooded area. It then goes alongside a wetland area, which currently is filled with blooming water lilies. The wetland area is gorgeous and worthy of a visit to the park all by itself.

The beach is small and not someplace I would go swimming, but it seems everyone goes to this particular beach to hunt for fossils, not to swim. I found the geology of the beach to be quite interesting. There were rocks and other objects along the beach of which I couldn’t understand the origin. I picked up a few shells and at least one fossil. However, I also picked up a couple of items that I still can’t determine what they are, even if they are natural or human-made objects. I took photos of the objects I collected. If anyone can help me understand what the objects are in the last photo (also featured in second to last photo), I would appreciate you leaving a comment.

Calvert Cliffs SP trail

Calvert Cliffs SP lily pond

Water lilies

Calvert Cliffs SP beach

Fossils, shells, and other objects from Calvert Cliffs SP

Objects of unknown origin from Calvert Cliffs SP