The Halloween weekend started Friday afternoon with an Oscar Meyer Wienermobile sighting:
Oscar Meyer Weinermobile
Not the best shot I ever took, but there it was in front of me on Freemansburg Avenue so I had to capture the moment.
Saturday was the CAT Halloween Bike Ride. Anne and I raided the last dregs of a Halloween costume pop-up store and scored some fairly disturbing masks, then we rode around town with the usual crew. There were not many people out and about, but we did see some themed backyard parties, here and there in the neighborhoods we passed through. We also saw a few houses where people really outdid themselves with the decorations.
Anne and Me
My Halloween Mask
Halloween Decorations
Crazy House
Crazy House
Crazy House
Crazy House
Crazy House
Sunday we participated in Bethlehem’s 100th Annual Halloween Parade, where I got a few shots at the start:
Skeleton Dance Crew
Police Escort
Parade of the Century
Grand Marshal
Our quartet met that afternoon, followed immediately by Trick or Treat. It was a weekend!
We went down to Sand Island, to look at the flooding we got after Wednesday’s heavy rain. This was the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, and though we got a lot of rain, maybe five inches or so, it was an all day affair — I’ve seen more shocking results from a heavy thunderstorm, at least in our neighborhood. The sheer volume though, of the rain that fell everywhere around here, made the situation with the rivers a very different story….
Conestoga under the 378 Exit Ramp
Sand Island
The Lehigh Climbs Its Banks
Hill To Hill Bridge
Hill To Hill Bridge
Hotel B
The Monocacy
I Blame Bitcoin
Monocacy Under And Over The Bridge
Colonial Industrial Quarters
Industrial Quarters Under Water
The Old Mill, Flooded
Water Works
Monocacy In Flood
Monocacy Upstream From Broad Street
Forks Of The Delaware
Forks Of The Delaware
The Lehigh, when we saw it at Sand Island, was running high; it was almost over its banks, and was running vigorously, almost angrily, and fast. The canal had overflowed onto the island and was pouring down into the river, but if the river were another foot or two higher that flow would have reversed. There was everywhere a sense of overwhelming power, unleashed and rushing past.
(The Monocacy Creek was also flooding, but I’ve seen it worse — it goes up fast and comes down fast.)
The last two photos are at the confluence of the Lehigh with the Delaware in Easton. Normally there is a 10 foot high waterfall at this spot, where the Lehigh goes over a dam, but yesterday it was invisible, except for a scary line of whirlpools that kept forming and disappearing.
Well it came down in buckets as predicted. Then, also as predicted, the rain stopped yesterday afternoon and the sun came out. We took a walk down to the Colonial Industrial Quarter to look at what the Monocacy might be doing — yikes!
We stopped in Boulder on the way home from Estes Park, to visit the National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesa Laboratory. This is a lab and museum partway up a mountain outside of town, designed by I.M. Pei, and with a bunch of hiking trails out back that continue up into the Flatiron Mountains. We hiked about, then visited the museum before continuing home. Here are some pictures from our hike:
On the trail to the Flatirons
The NCAR Mesa Laboratory
Boulder area, seen from the NCAR Trail
Kyle and Emmi
The Flatiron Mountains
Flatiron Mountains
The Flatirons as seen from the trail
The NCAR Mesa Laboratory, seen from higher up the hill
This was our second hike/exploring day in Rocky Mountain National park. We decided to start the day with a big breakfast, so Anne and I went into town to get donuts, but we were delayed on the way by some elk in the road. So here are some obligatory elk photos, taken abut 50 yards from our cabin:
Elk in the road
Elk among the cabins
Elk cows, one with tags
Bull Elk with cows
Our main event of the day was to go up to the Alpine Discovery Center, which was a long, uphill drive, through several layers of ecosystems. Some photos from a lookout along the drive:
Mountain ecosystems
Anne and Emmi
Elevation-based ecosystems
Finally we were in the alpine tundra, and then at the discovery center where we walked to the very top of the hill. Some hot chocolate at the center, then we hit the road again, stopping at another overlook for more tundra. Tundra photos:
Emmi, Kyle and Anne at the Alpine Center
Snow and tundra above the tree line
Emmi and Anne above the Alpine Center
The top of the hill
Looking down at the Alpine Centeer
Fragile Tundra Environment
Rocks driven to the surface by Ice-Age “frost heaves”
Rocks on the surface of the tundra
Rocks driven to the surface by Ice Age “frost heaves”
Anne at the lookout
Emmi and Kyle above the treeline
We stopped at another overlook, further down the hill:
Pines and aspens on the mountain
Kyle, Emmi Anne and me.
Our final destination was a place called Moraine Park, which was a wide valley where the elk could be found. There was also a creek — the Big Thompson River? — and some vegetation restoration areas, which were fenced off from the elk but accessible by gate. These were the last photos of the day:
Well, we’re staying another day, the snow and especially the ice being too much for us this morning — we packed and left, drove to the local bakery, and scared ourselves so much we went back to the hotel for another night. What that means is that I now have a bit of downtime, and can post some more of my photos, starting with our first day in Estes Park:
Our Cabin
The view from our cabin
The view from our cabin
Elk in the ballfield
On our first day in the park, we hiked from Bear Lake to Emerald Lake. No photo does justice to the spectacular beauty that surrounded us, but here are a bunch that seem to capture the light, and the beauty and the drama:
Mountain View
The mountains from the trail
Trailside trees and roots
Trailside view of the mountains
Trailside view of the mountains
Nymph Lake
Nymph Lake driftwood
Nymph Lake
Mountains
Dream Lake
Dream Lake and mountains
Trout in Dream Lake
Anne and Emmi on the trail
Emerald Lake
Anne and me at Emerald Lake
Pine Trees
Rocky Forest
Trailside forest scene
Anne and Kyle on trail
Bear Lake
Finally, some roadside pictures of rutting elk we passed on our way out. If you look you can see the bull (the one with the antlers) just left of center.
Here are my photos of the Denver Botanical Gardens, which we visited last Wednesday, starting with some wildflower and similar gardens near the entrance:
Then came some a water garden, a kitchen garden and a small desert landscape:
We ended with the Asian-themed, English garden, and futuristic landscapes, ones more generally connected with art or architecture:
We never did get to look at the indoor gardens and greenhouses — the day was so nice that we explored the outdoor gardens until the place closed.
Bethlehem had its St Patrick’s Day Parade on Saturday the 16th, which was breezy and chilly but otherwise a fine day. We went up the street and watched it go by, here are some pics:
It was a perfect springlike day Monday, so I hopped on the Iguana to do a little OpenStreetMapping — there was a note on the website saying that a Moravian spiritual retreat just outside of town had been closed, and I thought if I could go there and confirm it on the ground, I’d go ahead and make the change when I got home. The former retreat was right next to a new park too, so I could also do a little exploring when I got there.
My ride was pretty low-key: I was just out in street clothes and boots (and my helmet), something I’d been doing lately for casual riding; I was also inspired to keep it simple by Bike Snob’s recent article… I tooled up Main Street to Macada, then Altonah, then made a right onto Santee Mill Road, which is basically as bucolic as the City of Bethlehem gets. I was looking for a road/path off Santee Mill to take me into the park, but never found it (I saw later it was smaller than a sidewalk and very easy to miss). No matter, I continued forward, back into civilization, and entered the park from the front. Just outside the park entrance was a house where the retreat would have been; the house had posts out front, from which there might once have hung shingles, and the shingles might once have said “Spiritual Retreat” or whatever, but the shingles were gone now and there was a big “Private” sign by the driveway. So Phase 1 of my exploration was complete…
That left the park — officially, “The Janet Johnston Housenick & William D. Housenick Memorial Park” but apparently just called “Housenick Park” by normal people. This is a parcel of land donated by Janet Johnston Housenick, granddaughter of Archibald Johnston, the first mayor of the consolidated City of Bethlehem (he was also chief architect of that consolidation, and a high ranking executive at Bethlehem Steel — he was as Bethlehem as it gets). The land was once part of the Johnston farm/estate, and it includes the old Archibald Johnston Mansion. The park is fairly new and still under construction/renovation, but there are a bunch of new footpaths and old carriage roads, and I cruised around for about an hour, taking pictures.
Archibald Johnston Mansion
Driveway to the Big House
Monocacy Creek
Monocacy Creek
House on Hill
Lime Kiln
Inside the Lime Kiln
Behind The Big House
Monocacy Creek
Archibald Johnston Mansion
The Archibald Johnston Mansion
It’s hard to believe looking at it, but the estate only dates from the 1910’s or 1920’s — it looks typical of a farmstead from about 100 years earlier — and the house was built using Bethlehem Steel beams. There was a boat house and tennis courts (or the ruins of them), but there were also lime kilns and the remains of orchards, ornaments in a hobbyist’s historical reenactment of country-squire life.
The ride home was uneventful, and pleasant though the day was getting breezy. I returned via Township Line Road, which eventually becomes Altonah, and basically retraced my steps from there. I went about 16 miles all told, and total ride time was just over 2 hours
We got out for some walks a few weeks ago, and one of the walks took us through Nisky Hill Cemetery. This is one of the places where our friend Deb does her “walkabouts,” hiking around town and taking photos — she’s a prodigious walker with an enormous stride, and she has an incredible, artist’s eye for great shots. I might not have her skill or her eye (I don’t even walk that fast), but if you put me in the right place with a camera, even I might come home with a couple of keepers. Here are my favorites from that walk:
Cemetery and Blast Furnaces
Looking at The Steel from Nisky Hill
The Past Laid To Rest
The Blast Furnaces Are Quiet Now
The old Bethlehem Steel mills and blast furnaces look like they’re practically on top of the cemetery, but they’re on the other side of the Lehigh River. (By the way, this “looking down the hill at a giant industrial site, in a valley by a river” is a very Pennsylvania thing for me.)
We took another walk a few days later, up the hill and through the University, up stairways past ancient stone buildings and frat houses, and at the top we explored Mr. Imagination’s sculpture garden, now starting to fall apart in the woods.
Anne at the Millennial Folk Arch
The Millennial Folk Arch, view from the other side.
