Dingmans Falls, Eshback Farm, and Tom's Creek

After returning from our Tennessee vacation I hit the ground running with working my three part-time jobs (subbing for two districts and part-timing at PEEC). Today is day six of at least eight days in a row. I've added up my hours between all three jobs, and I've worked 55.25 hours this week. Hopefully one will call me in to substitute teach on Tuesday. If that happens, I'll be working 12 days in a row and by that point my blood stream will consist entirely of coffee.

Where was I going with this?

Oh yeah. Working this weekend hasn't been too stressful because it consists of driving photographers around the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (DWGNRA). Even though I've been to these locations several times before, there is always something new or interesting to notice. The weather was pretty dreary but that didn't stop anyone.

First Stop: Dingmans Falls

We started bright and early at 6:45 a.m. and got to Dingmans Falls around 7:00. The gate was still closed so I parked at the end of the road and everyone loaded up their gear. We walked a mile and a half just to get to the parking lot, stopping to take pictures and rest along the way.

they call me mellow yellow (quite rightly)

fern with raindrops

Eventually we got to the actual trail and slowly made our way towards Dingmans Falls. Along the way we passed a smaller waterfall called Silver Thread.

If you look closely, you can observe wild photographers in their natural habitat.

Silver Thread Falls

I finally figured out how to make the water fuzzy!

This was where my photography stopped because that whole crazy "job" thing got in the way. Once I found out the gate to the road had been opened, I took a leisurely stroll in the rain back out to the van and drove it to the closer parking lot.

Side note: I live in Dingmans Ferry. Today we visited Dingmans Falls. The English teacher and grammar enthusiast in me wants to add a possessive apostrophe into the word "Dingmans" and it drives me crazy not to!

Next Stop: Eshback Farm

For our second stop, we went to Eshback Farm, also known as Nyce Farm or Van Gordon Farm. There are several buildings to take photos of here. I could easily have spent all morning wandering around and peering into the open/missing door-frames and windows.

I am the captain of this 15-passenger van.

I got a little obsessed with this building.

  I don't go into any buildings or structures in the park because it is both illegal and unsafe to do so. Luckily my camera has a nice zooming feature.

flowering dogwood and cherry plum trees 

None of the other red vents have a weather vane with a cow, which makes them de-calf-inated.

columbine

I had barely started taking pictures when it started raining. People also seemed to be getting grumpy, so we headed back early to get coffee and dry off.

Last Stop: Tom's Creek

After lunch we headed to Tom's Creek, which is a picnic area that has a path following a creek.Whose creek is it? It's Tom's Creek. Note that the name of this location has the possessive apostrophe. Pennsylvania, I will never understand you.

This is Tom. He's looking for his best friend, Creek.

"This plant is a great umbrella. Tom, get over here!" -Creek.

Flat millipedes, if you lived in my house I would squish you and then you'd be even flatter. 

Once again it started raining before we had gotten very far, so the lead photographer decided to call it quits for the day.

Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow!