This tree is among those that were damaged by Superstorm Sandy at Ohiopyle State Park.
Song: “Walk,” by Foo Fighters
OHIOPYLE, Pa. — It’s time like these I learn to walk again. I remember what it’s like to be human, where I’m in the now.
While my DH (dear husband) ran his 11 miles on the Great Allegheny Passage, the kids and I found something fun to do.
We explored the other side of the falls at Ohiopyle.
Our journey started with a stop of the bakery, were we got some yummy doughnuts for the kids, Gatorade and coffee for dad and an apple dumpling for me.
Once our bellies were full, we began our adventure, crossing over the Yough River into the forest. I love the bridge here. It’s long and give you a great vantage point of the town and forest surrounding it.
After we crossed the bridge, we took stairs to our path. The gravel path quickly showed us parts of was Ohiopyle — a perfect line of stones showed where a wall use to be. We can upon trees destroyed by Superstorm Sandy.
But the coolest part was beneath our feet. It looked like a dirt bike had come across a patch of concrete.
When we got to a sign indicating that there were fossils in the stones, the fun began.
“Mom, I see one.”
“That looks like the rain attacked that rock.”
“What about this one?”
“It’s got the stuff like in the pictures. I think you found something.”
The bike tracks were fossils, indentations left by a tree. We were stepping on fossils. To my Barbie-loving princess that was one of the coolest things ever.
Her brothers, on the other hand, were just trying to navigate the rocks and keeping out of puddles. They were too busy for fossils at the moment.
Eventually, we got to the other side of the falls, which is across the river from the observation deck.
We saw little waterfalls and the big one. We messed with puddles that had slivers of ice in them and ones that were full of leaves. The kids had the biggest smiles I’ve seen in a while on their faces.
Eventually our stomachs started to growl and it was time to get lunch. It was the hardest hike I’ve done in a while and my hiking buddies, while tired, weren’t complaining. It was, according to the princess, “the best adventure ever.”
We learned something and got some exercise. For this Mountain Mama, it was a win-win.
Mountain Mama Adventures 