“Ballet in the air ... twin butterflies until, twice white, they meet, they mate.”
~ Matsuo Basho ~ 1644-1694
~ Japanese Haiku
Mating white butterflies seem to do a delicate dance alighted on a leaf on an April afternoon along the Saucon Rail Trail, Hellertown, Pennsylvania.
~ Jack Kerouac
~ 1922-1969
It’s a mad orange sunset as an early spring sundown in late March creates silhouetted beauty surrounding the rooftop observation area of Trexler Environmental Center.
The solar panels seen in the foreground provide a significant portion of the energy needs of the building.
Located in the Central Range of Trexler Nature Preserve, Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, the center is at one of the preserve’s highest elevations and one of the spots that offer spectacular views at the 1,100 acre preserve.
When the late General Harry Clay Trexler (1854-1933) established the preserve in the early 1900s, he did it to save the American bison, elk and white-tailed deer from extinction and assure the species’ survival.
A conservationist along the lines of Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir, General Trexler understood the importance of nature and preserving wildlife in its natural habitat.
A successful businessman who amassed a fortune in the timber and cement industries and founded the Pennsylvania Power and Light Company, General Trexler began purchasing small farms in the low hills of Lehigh County in 1906. By 1913, he had transported eight bison and 20 Virginia white-tailed deer to the preserve. The elk followed soon after.
When General Trexler died in 1933, he bequeathed the property to the residents of Lehigh County. Today, the Trexler Nature Preserve is open to the public for passive recreation and nature watching.
“It’s almost impossible to watch a sunset and not dream.”
~ Sir Bernard Williams
~1929-2003
Early April shows off its flare for sunset over Grouse Hall Pond on a beautiful evening along the Ironton Rail Trail, which loops more than nine miles through Whitehall Township, the Borough of Coplay and North Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania.
The pond, the property of the Grouse Hall Fish and Game Association, Coplay, can be glimpsed from the trail.
The Ironton Railroad was a shortline railroad in Lehigh County. Originally built in 1861 to haul iron ore and limestone to blast furnaces along the Lehigh River, traffic later shifted to carrying Portland Cement when local iron mining declined in the early 20th century. Much of the railroad had already been abandoned when it became part of Conrail in 1976, and the last of its trackage was removed in 1984.
In 1996, Whitehall Township purchased 9.2 miles of the right-of-way from Conrail, transforming it into the Ironton Rail Trail.
