Walking at Valley Forge | Photos
by Elouise
I’m feeling a bit nostalgic today. Yesterday evening, D and I looked at his photos taken during a visit with our West Coast daughter and her husband. Today I miss long walks and hikes through Valley Forge. I also miss visits with our West-coast daughter and her husband since Covid days began. The photos below were taken in April 2018.
Nearly two weeks ago our daughter Sherry and her husband Scott arrived for a long-anticipated visit. Yesterday we drove them to the airport for a flight back to the West Coast. Always it’s too short. Always I weep my eyes out, during and after (not without happy breaks). Always I feel softened and vulnerable. Always I love this break from routine. Always I’m loathe to say goodbye.
The day after they arrived we went for a late afternoon walk through part of Valley Forge National Park. Two things strike me when we visit the Park. One is the stillness and quiet, despite being just a stone’s throw from crowded highways and huge shopping centers. The other is nonstop birdsong, whether we’re walking by the meadow or through a wooded area.
Here are a few photos, minus the beautiful birdsong. The photo at the top shows us (minus D who’s behind the camera) just beginning our walk.
Looking out over the meadows, it’s tempting to think they were always there. Before the 1977-78 winter encampment during the Revolutionary War, almost all Valley Forge was forested. During the 6-month winter encampment, most trees were cut down for firewood and buildings.
Reclaiming the land as a national memorial involved delineating swaths of forest, creating managed meadows, and leaving space for a series of state highways, walking and biking paths, visitor facilities, monuments, memorials, reconstructed troop huts, and other renovated facilities such as George Washington’s headquarters during the encampment (a gift to the Park). The Park covers 3,500 acres (1,400 ha), gets over a million visitors per year, and is open year-round. Click here to see a visitor’s map of the grounds (not true to scale).
Here’s a little jack-in-the-pulpit beside a trail through the woods.
Now we’ll pause to ponder the look of young poison ivy in Pennsylvania. Isn’t it beautiful in the late afternoon sun? And don’t forget as you hike through the woods that so-called ‘dead’ poison ivy vines (often as thick as ropes) are also virulent.
The lovely little flowers below are not poison ivy.
On our way back to the parking lot D got a photo of an elusive red-winged blackbird. In the last photo below, I’m almost to the parking lot. Notice the shaded picnic tables to the left, and facilities for visitors on the edge of the parking lot just ahead.
Thanks for stopping by!
Elouise♥
©Elouise Renich Fraser, 9 May 2018
Photos taken by DAFraser, 29 April 2018, reposted 13 June 2022
Valley Forge National Historical Park
Nice post, Elouise. It really is a beautiful park.
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Thanks, Don. I love the quiet space it offers in the middle of a busy area crammed with businesses and vehicles of all kinds.
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Beautiful photos and so different from where I live. But the distance that children are living away from the parents is something that I can empathise with. We have two living in the same town but the others are 220, 750, 870 and 1330 miles away from us. Some we haven’t seen for several years. Both my husband’s and my siblings are even further away.
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Thank you, Robin. It’s so hard to have (in my case) even one child and her husband so far away. I can’t begin to imagine having six children, with four of them (and their families) so far away. The pattern in my larger family (cousins, etc.) is to live all over the globe–without, now, even an occasional reunion. Covid and politics seem, sadly, to have won this round.
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What lovely photos, and I’m so glad you enjoy the birdsong – what a treat that is, always. This time of year is always a tiny bit heart-breaking too, as if the beauty gets beneath our crusty winter defences at last and rejoices.
Thank you! 😀 xxx
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It’s so good to see your face, Fran! I love your last phrase about the role of Spring beauty. We could do with a bit of rejoicing over here, as well as maybe even off-loading some of our frigid “winter defences.”
Love and hugs, Elouise 🙂
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Precious “visitors”! 🙂 Beautiful scenery! 🙂 Wonderful memories made! 🙂
(((HUGS))) 🙂 ❤️
PS…seeing so many different birds and listening to them talk and sing is one of my fave things about spring and summer! 🙂
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