Spring Silk ...

 “Look! Nature is overflowing with the grandeur of God.”

                   ~ John Muir

                     ~ 1838 ~ 1914

A spring splash of the silky, cascading waters of Hauser Falls at Eagle Point along the Kittatinny Ridge, also called Blue Mountain, glistens in the afternoon sun in this long exposure shot I captured April 11, 2022 at Lehigh Gap along the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail).

The Lehigh Gap in Slatington, Pennsylvania, is a crossroads where the Lehigh Gap Nature Center’s trails connect two historic trails – the Appalachian Trail and the D&L Trail.

Hauser Falls is one of the Five Falls at East Penn along a unique area of the D&L Trail.

Railroading has a rich history in the development of lower Carbon County as three railroads went through the Lehigh Gap.

East Penn Township had two of them on its side of the river as the Lehigh Valley Railroad ran along what is now the D&L Trail. The Lehigh and New England Railroad ran parallel about 75 feet higher on the mountain on what is now the Lehigh Gap Nature Center’s Bobolink Trail.

The engineering needed to build these railroads would be a wonder today, but when you consider that they were done a century ago it becomes more impressive. They built pools along the railroad to collect runoff similar to what we now have as detention basins.

These pools still collect water and they discharge the collected water at five waterfalls that can be observed year round when hiking or biking the D&L Trail.

The Appalachian Trail, a foot path, follows the ridge on both sides of the Lehigh Gap, running 1,245 miles south to Georgia and 930 miles north to Maine. Running from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.

Winter Gap ...

 “Is not January the hardest month to get through? When you have weathered that, you get into the gulf-stream of winter, nearer the shores of spring.”

                      ~Henry David Thoreau

                           ~ 1817-1862

The Lehigh Gap Bridge spans a frozen Lehigh River as the light of a looming late January sunset reflects in the icy waters and shadow dances on the Kittatinny Ridge, also called Blue Mountain, at Lehigh Gap in this painterly, HDR image.

The Lehigh Gap in Slatington, Pennsylvania, is a crossroads where the Lehigh Gap Nature Center’s trails connect two historic trails – the Appalachian Trail and the Delaware and Lehigh Heritage Corridor Trail (D&L Trail).

The Appalachian Trail, a foot path, follows the ridge on both sides of the Lehigh Gap, running 1,245 miles south to Georgia and 930 miles north to Maine. Running from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.

The Lehigh Gap Bridge was built in 1930 and rehabilitated in 1984.

O Kittatinny! ...

“I belong where there are mountains and snow and clear, crisp blue skies.”

                    ~ Tom Hiddleston

                       ~ English actor

                       ~ born 1981

The mountains, snow and clear, crisp blue skies coalesce to create a majestic winter vista on a late January afternoon where the Kittatinny Ridge, also called Blue Mountain, is the star of the landscape along the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail) at Lehigh Gap.
 

The Lehigh Gap in Slatington, Pennsylvania, is a crossroads where the Lehigh Gap Nature Center’s trails connect two historic trails – the Appalachian Trail and the D&L Trail.

Running from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.

The Appalachian Trail, a foot path, follows the ridge on both sides of the Lehigh Gap, running 1,245 miles south to Georgia and 930 miles north to Maine.

Kittatinny Color Pop ...

“For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity.”

     ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson

      ~French photographer

      ~1908-2004

It’s a Kittatinny color pop as evening shadows begin to fall during an early November sunset across the Kittatinny Ridge, also called Blue Mountain, in this artistic shot I captured along the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail) at Lehigh Gap.

The Lehigh Gap in Slatington, Pennsylvania, is a crossroads where the Lehigh Gap Nature Center’s trails connect two historic trails – the Appalachian Trail and the D&L Trail).

Running from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.

The Appalachian Trail, a foot path, follows the ridge on both sides of the Lehigh Gap, running 1,245 miles south to Georgia and 930 miles north to Maine.

 

In A Mountain Greenery ...

“… In a mountain greenery

Where God paints the scenery

Just two crazy people together

While you love your lover

Let blue skies be your coverlet …”

      ~ “Mountain Greenery”

    ~ popular song composed by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart

for the 1926 musical “The Garrick Gaieties,” first performed on stage by Sterling Holloway

    ~ recorded by artists including Bing Crosby, Mel Torme, Ella Fitzgerald & Tony Bennett

 

Shades of green color the bloomin’ Kittatinny Ridge – also called Blue Mountain – as it ascends toward a bright blue sky on a beautiful spring afternoon in late May along the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail) near the East Penn Township Trailhead in Bowmanstown, Pennsylvania.

Running from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.