A Frigid 'New Year'

The start of a New Year has brought with it frigid, sub zero temperatures. A 'bomb cyclone' as the meteorologists term it is making its way up the Eastern seaboard tonight with 60 mile an hour winds and snow and ice and sleet. This frigid weather immediately took me back to a visit I made almost a decade ago in January to Hocking Hills State Park in Logan, Ohio. I watched and waited for the perfect opportunity when frigid cold and snow would leave an ethereal landscape of white. Then I set out to photograph the frozen waterfalls in Hocking Hills.

My favorite image was of the Upper Falls of Old Man's Cave. A twisting path lead down to the waterfall with a thin layer of snow that had blanketed the region the night before. The path was slippery as the snow had covered the remains of an ice storm earlier that week. Temperatures were in the mid 20's so I drove to Walmart in Logan and bought thicker gloves to wear. My North Face jacket, wool scarf,  thick gloves, boots and jeans were just enough to achieve my goal against the cold. It was simply stunning to see huge frozen icicles hanging from what I later learned was Blackhand Sandstone cliffs. I fell straight down on my bum once making my way to the base of the falls. Here's an excerpt about Old Man's Cave.

Old Man's Cave derives its name from the hermit, Richard Rowe, who lived in the large recess cave of the gorge. His family moved to the Ohio River Valley around 1796 from the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee to establish a trading post. He and his two dogs traveled through Ohio along the Scioto River in search of game. On one side trip up Salt Creek, he found the Hocking Region. Rowe lived out his life in the area and is buried beneath the ledge of the main recess cave.

This next image is the very frozen over Middle Falls of Old Man's Cave with barely a sliver of water falling over. I struggled to get a decent vantage point to snap this image. I finally gave up and snapped this image and moved on. Sadly though, I couldn't reach the Lower Falls. The stairway down was a solid sheet of ice. You couldn't get down and you would never get back up. There is also an Upper and Lower Gorge between the different falls which I didn't photograph. The entire length of the trail to these falls and gorges is approximately a mile.

Thanks for coming along with me on this trip back in time. I would love to be there right now taking new images in various perspectives having learned so much more about photographing waterfalls since that day. Stay warm and bundle up if you go out of doors. Thoughts of warm mittens, hot cocoa and warm bowls of soup come to mind as I put up this post. ENJOY!