We Start the Year …

Sunday, 1 January

… as we intend to finish it next December 31 — with a fun outing.

When we were living in Salt Lake City, we started a tradition of going on a New Year’s Day outing.  It didn’t matter if it was short, or long.  It didn’t matter if it was near, or far.  It didn’t matter if it was a walk, a hike, or a drive.  As long as we were out and about, that’s all that mattered.  The idea was that if we started the year off right by doing something outside the house, the rest of the year would follow suit with travel a-plenty.

I have to admit that we’ve seldom had as nice a day as we did today for our traditional outing.  It was comfortably warm, with the temps in the mid-50F (13C) range when we left the house just before noon to head to Great Falls Park.  Though it was a bit cooler than yesterday, we had plenty of blue skies and sunshine for most of our two hours in the park.

Great Falls Park overlooks the Potomac River.  Here, the river tumbles over jagged rocks, gathering speed as it forces itself through the narrow Mather Gorge.  It’s not often that we come here at mid-day, but we wanted to give the day a chance to warm up so we could enjoy our stroll.  And our picnic.  Yes; as we did yesterday, we packed a simple lunch — PB&J sandwiches and grapes — to enjoy at one of the many picnic tables near the visitor center.

Simple food on a beautiful, un-winterlike first day of the year.

After our al fresco meal, we joined the throngs of visitors checking out the falls from the three overlooks.  We’re not used to sharing the sights and sounds of Great Falls with crowds as we’re usually at the park in the wee hours of the morning, well before the gates are even open.  But share them we did for a little while. 

At Overlook #1 we’re closest to the falls.

A slightly different perspective, but still from Overlook #1.

overlook #2 (top right) offers a view of most of the falls.

The best view of the falls is from overlook #3.

One thing we found surprising today was the volume of water roiling and tumbling, capped with white froth.  It’s been a fairly dry winter thus far, so we were expecting a rather puny showing, but the falls delivered on the promise of spectacular views.  Of course, the water level was nothing compared to how much the river can rise.

This pole shows the high water marks from past floods.
To give you perspective, I'm 5'2" (~1.57m)

proof that the river can wreak havoc in the park; this photo is from the 1996 flood.

As the clouds moved in to obscure the blue skies and sunshine, we headed away from the overlooks to walk the Ridge Trail.  Here too we paid the price of our mid-day visit; we actually had company on the unpaved trail that is usually deserted in the early morning.  In places, it’s more of a rock scramble than a walk, which can be a deterrent as well.  There are no views of the falls, but if you’re a little daring you can catch glimpses of Mather Gorge and the Potomac.  Of course, there is a difference between being daring and being stupid; we maintained a safe distance from the edge, though in some of the photos it may not seem so.

By the time we returned to the car, the skies were really heavy with clouds portending rain.  You could say that the front that will be bringing the forecasted winter chill on Tuesday was sending a warning shot across our bow.  No problem; seeing as how we were heading home, we didn’t mind the light rain that accompanied our departure from the park.

You might have noticed all the photos of Mui and me in this post — yeah, I know; hard to miss.  As I noted in a previous post, I’ve been scanning our pre-digital-era photos for several weeks now.  In looking at them, we were struck by how many of those photos included one or both of us in them.  Well, I guess we were inspired :-)