Another blog from my four day solo expedition to Reavis Falls in the remote eastern Superstition Wilderness. Here we will descend briefly to the canyon of Reavis Creek, below the Reavis Falls.
Shadows rising on the canyon walls are from Lime Mountain and Castle Dome. In the far canyon, below Two Bar Mountain, is a shadow from the notable cliff and prominence to the right, that rises above Reavis Falls, fall below and out of sight in the canyon.
Here is that prominence from that same day, late afternoon when the sun is just starting to be low enough to throw the cliff into relief. This is a single shot with a canon 200 mm lens. This day I had climbed out of Reavis Creek, up to to this point on the slopes of Lime Mountain. Here I enjoyed an afternoon, evening, night and early morning of the following day.
The second day of the solo expedition, I hiked into the canyon of Reavis Falls from a camp at the canyon mouth. Looking up from the creek this same cliff was prominant against the sky.
Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
A Great Blue Heron spotted from Bear Trail during a family hike, perched on a splayed root of a tree undercut by flooding, fallen into Buttermilk Creek bed.
A heron recurves its long neck while perched. Adult herons have few natural predators and are rarely preyed upon due to their large size and sharp beak, but bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) are known to attack great blue herons at every stage of their lifecycle from in the egg to adulthood.
Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Treman lake is formed by a dam on Buttermilk Creek, the trail around the lake is less frequented and popular with the locals, climbing up and down the glacially formed hills. Some popular resorts maintain trails that feed into the park.
A footbridge framed by hemlock trees traverses Buttermilk Creek where the East and West Treman Lake Trails meet. This season, 2019, this bridge was overwhelmed by driftwood piled up by spring flooding, impassable. We pick our way across the creek bed and over the water. Little ones needed a carry. An adult fisherman, to right of driftwood, provides perspective.
August 20129, Buttermilk Falls New York State Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York.
Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Pam and I ambled around the Arboretum for our Easter 2023 outing. We discovered this seeming lily growing from the muck along the Treman Woodland Walk. Scientific Name: Lysichiton camtschatcensis. Common names: Asian skunk cabbage, white skunk cabbage, Far Eastern swamp lantern or Japanese swamp lantern.
This is a plant found in swamps and wet woods, along streams and in other wet areas of the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Kuril Islands, Sakhalin and northern Japan. The common name “skunk cabbage” is used for the genus Lysichiton, which includes Lysichiton americanus, the western skunk cabbage, noted for its unpleasant smell. The Asian skunk cabbage is more variable: plants have been reported in different cases to smell disgusting, not at all, and sweet.
All photography using the IPhone 14 ProMax triple camera, raw format, edited on the phone.
In Japanese it is known as mizubashō (lit. “water-banana”) from a supposed similarity to the Japanese banana, a name with poetic rather than malodorous associations. It is not closely related to the true cabbage.
Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Thank You for exploring with me the South Rim trail of Taughannock Falls State Park on this first day of Spring 2023.
Photographs with video from this walk, with nature sounds and music in 4K HD
Click photograph for a larger view. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.
Here, before the epynmous creek flows over the falls, glacial outflow carved this deep canyon through relatively soft sedimentary rock. Distant Lake ViewThe place for rest and wonderLooking into the gorgeSouth Rim view of fallsTaughannock creek below the fallsRed Barn on Gorge Road, off South Rim rial.Perched on the north rim of the gorge, the Visitor Center for the Falls Overlook is visible before trees leaf out.On spring’s first day Taughannock Creek is full beneath the old railroad bridge, now a connector between South and North Rim Trails.The creek here plunges into the chasm below a former railroad bridge. Gorge from Railroad Bridge Walkway
Looking back after crossing the Gallery Footbridge we are rewarded with this view, providing a better understanding of the site. It is evening on a mid-September evening, Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
Here we are on the Gorge Trail of Treman State Park. My readers have seen this marvelous stone bridge from a distance. Here it is on the west side, facing east/northeast and looking down into the gorge. It is evening on a mid-September evening, Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York Copyright 2023 […]
Here we are on the Gorge Trail of Treman State Park. My readers have seen this marvelous stone bridge from a distance. Here it is on the west side, facing east/northeast and looking down into the gorge.
Spanning the eastern side of the gallery entrance of the gorge.
It is evening on a mid-September evening, Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York
Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
“Enfield Falls, like many other towns, grew around its grist and sawmills. Farmers coming to this mill about the middle of the 19th century could do errands while waiting for their grain to be ground. In Enfield Falls at that time, there were two sawmills, a shingle mill, cooperage, tannery, carding factory, store and hotel. By the late 19th century there was also a post office.”
“As farmers turned asway from growing wheat, Enfield Falls evolved from a busy milling center to a place appreciated for scenery and a quality hotel. Robert and Henrietta Wickham build and ran the hotel for many years during the middle of the 19th century. The hotel hosted popular dances in its ballroom. Guests could also dine and rest at the hotel.”
This placard from the Mill Museum at Treman Park is the source of much of today’s information. I used italics and quotes to attribute this source.
The sign in the heading of this post “hung near the hotel at least as early as 1883. In that year, D. Morris Kurtz mentioned it in his “Ithaca and Its Resources”: “At the foot of the hill is the Enfield Falls Hotel, but you look around in vain for the falls or even any sign of them. Upon the side of the stable into which our horses are driven is nailed a small board, on which is painted ‘Admission to the Falls, 10 cents.’ In reply to our inquiry the bright little urchin that takes charge of the team says, ‘Down there they are,’ pointing to the rocky wall which apparently forms the eastern and an unsurmountable boundary to the valley. And to ‘down there’ we proceed……“
Treman Gorge Trail from the Old Mill enters a narrow gallery looking here southeast along Enfield Creek, passing over a stone footbridge. This was the control point in the 19th century for collecting the ten cent admission fee. Here are some photographs of the entrance as it exists today. The retaining wall, footpath and stone bridge were constructed in the 1930’s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The site was far rougher for those earlier visitors.
The Gorge Trail next to Enfield Creek on a midsummer morning. Robert H. Treman State Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New YorkThis walkway, retaining wall, path, stone bridge were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, “Roosevelt’s Tree Army,” during the Great Depression in the 1930’s. The north side is sedimentary rock worn through over the ages by what we call Enfield Creek today.
Photograph captured on a midsummer morning. Robert H. Treman State Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York
Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
Can you see the small difference between yesterday and today’s take on Devil’s Kitchen? Is the change and improvement, degradation or no difference? User Response Requested: respond in comments.
Aptly named Devil’s Kitchen is where Enfield Creek passes over these 20 foot falls before the Lucifer Falls 115 foot rock face cascade. Captured on a Memorial Day morning. Robert H. Treman State Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York.
Here they are side by side.
YesterdayToday
It is 9:00am on a Memorial Daty morning Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, Ithaca, New York,
Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
Aptly named Devil’s Kitchen is where Enfield Creek passes over these 20 foot falls before the Lucifer Falls 115 foot rock face cascade. We are occasionally appalled by families and adventure seekers climbing over these falls, wading in the water downstream and other insanities happening next to a waterfall so dangerous it is named after the Prince of Darkness and this very location “his” kitchen.
I am not one to talk, though. One winter on this very spot when the Gorge Trail was closed for winter, black ice brought me down almost into the water. All for a winter scene (photograph) of this marvel. Thankfully, I am wiser for the experience.
It is 9:00 am on a Memorial Daty morning Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, Ithaca, New York,
Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
Michael Stephen Wills Photography 