I am pleased to add the 69th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will occasionally publish these brief Posts.
I am fortunate to live within 30 minutes of the 35,000-acre Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. Occasionally, when the urge strikes… when I need a Nature fix, I’ll head to some feature of this world-class, complex, 55-square-mile Tennessee River ecoregion. I scratched my Nature itch on the morning of August 27, 2026. I’ll take you along virtually to Buckeye Impoundment and Blackwell Swamp. I intend to share the late-summer morning visual delights. I have no in-depth ecological mysteries, puzzles, or discoveries to examine. Don’t anticipate a quiz or challenge; sit back and enjoy!
Buckeye Impoundment
I published a Great Blue Heron photo essay on the Impoundment from my October 6, 2024 visit (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2024/12/05/buckeye-impoundment-in-early-october-on-the-wheeler-national-wildlife-refuge-part-one/). I excerpted the two photos and narrative below from that post.
Excerpt (No, not plagiarized; I authored both posts!): On an August 2023 aerial tour, the impoundment appears as a mosaic of agricultural fields, meadows, and marsh vegetation.
I photographed the winter-flooded impoundment on January 6, 2020, when the flooded wetlands attract waterfowl vacationing from frozen northlands.
The impoundment is a complex, diverse ecosystem that ebbs, flows, and fluxes with the Corps of Engineers’ controlled flooding. [End of Excerpt.]
The seasons don’t advance visibly from late August to early October. We won’t have a killing freeze. It’s unlikely even to see a frost by then. Sure, the vivid foliar greens will fade; yellows and browns will evidence desiccation and leaves wearing out from six months of intensive photosynthesis.
Although my iPhone lens can’t capture them, a handful of great egrets populate every naked-eye view.
I recorded this 61-second video on that fine late-August morning.
Stunning cerulean sky; cumulus and wispy cirrus clouds reflected in standing water; and wetland meadow vegetation!
On a cooler autumn day, I will return to Buckeye Impoundment with a lawn chair, my spotting scope, and some more time to linger and enjoy.
Delightful Herbaceous Vegetation
I am a tree guy, hoping to learn more about the lush herbs and forbs of our region. I’m grateful to iNaturalist, which guided me to Bigpod Sesbania on the right. I don’t even attempt to identify the wetland herbs and grasses on the left.
Common evening primrose earns its moniker, opening its flowers at dusk and closing them mid-morning. Hawkmoths pollinate the nighttime flowers.
Cardinal flower seems appropriate here in Crimson Tide country!
Elderberries clung in clusters on bushes roadside along HGH Road.
Blackwell Swamp
The Corps of Engineers maintains the Blackwell Swamp water level year-round. Great egrets, great blue herons, and seasonal ducks populate this heavily vegetated body.
I recorded this 52-second video at Blackwell Swamp.
I enjoy the sky view on every visit… the vista above and its water reflections.
Closing
I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection. I am fortunate to live just a dozen miles due north of Alabama’s 35,000-acre Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, where I wandered for several hours on June 9, 2026. A quick, low-investment visit to Nature pays high dividends in peace of mind, satisfaction, exercise, and learning and discovery.
On a cooler autumn day, I will return to Buckeye Impoundment with a lawn chair, my spotting scope, and some more time to linger and enjoy. (Steve Jones)
Nature’s special treats await our discovery, our understanding, and our interpretation!
Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/IMG_2438.jpeg-08.27.26-WNWR-Buckeye-Impoundment.webp1200900Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2026-11-04 15:12:402026-11-04 15:12:40Brief-Form Post #69: Late Summer Stopover at Blackwell Swamp and Buckeye Impoundment on Wheeler NWR!
My friend Tim Kelley, a licensed pilot for 44 years, graciously treated me to an overflight of the Alabama Cooperative Extension System’s Graham Farm and Nature Center in Jackson County’s Paint Rock River Valley. We departed Huntsville Executive Airport on August 22, 2026, at 2:00 PM under clear skies at 90 degrees Fahrenheit. My objective was to get a better overview of the Center, understand its topographic position within the Cumberland Plateau and Paint Rock River Valley, and appreciate the beauty, magic, wonder, and awe of this special place. We circled the 491-acre property at ~3,000′ altitude, 2,300′ above the valley floor and 1,300′ above the summit of Maxwell Mountain.
Tim rented a Cessna 172 Skyhawk, a fine machine for our aerial exploration.
We flew west from the airport to examine a property Tim wanted to see. We then flew to GF&NC, following Route 72 east to the county road leading north to the property. Our return flight was due west about 20 miles.
I recorded this 58-second video over GFNC.
We agreed to plan a repeat flight during the dormant season, when hardwood foliage no longer obscures ground features. Importantly, I will coordinate better with Tim in advance on the flight pattern needed to achieve the images I seek. I refer readers to the old saw that I’ve communicated about experience and learning:
Experience is what you get right after you need it.
We seldom learn by doing things right.
The property maps imposed on existing aerial photographs provide proper N/S orientation.
This image leans about 30 degrees east of north; the view is NNW. The pavilion, Connestoga overnight wagons, classroom, and kitchen headquarters unit occupy the open high ground at the upper left. Its position furnishes a clear view to the valley and the prominent ridge beyond.
My first on-the-ground visit to GF&NC evoked a sense of the Place and its Spirit. I viewed Graham from above through a spirit-filtered lens that reached back more than a century of family farming and 13 millennia, when Native Americans foraged, hunted, and farmed the valley and hillsides.
Wendell Berry, author, essayist, conservationist, and farmer, died August 31, 2026. I am still early in my evolving relationship with GFNC, yet I am embracing its beauty and spirit. I believe that Love is in the air!
We have the world to live in on the condition that we will take good care of it. And to take good care of it, we have to know it. And to know it and to be willing to take care of it, we have to love it. (Wendell Berry)
The property home-place sits to the left at woods’ edge, at the base of Maxwell Mountain.
This is the view to the east across the valley. We are banking above the Maxwell Mountain summit. The home-place is at lower right.
Now looking southwest, the home-place is straight ahead. The tree-identification trail we’re establishing is along the lower slope of Maxwell Mountain.
This view is to the northwest.
The valley extends northward from Graham.
This final view looks southeast toward the confluence of Larkin Creek and the Paint Rock River.
Mr. Berry never visited Graham Farm and Nature Center, yet he knew it well:
The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope.
The primary motive for good care and good use of the land-community is always going to be affection, which is too often lacking.
Louis Bromfield, author of Pleasant Valley, his mid-20th-century non-fiction account of restoring soil health to his old worn-out Ohio Farm, wrote:
The adventure at Malabar is by no means finished…. The land came to us out of eternity, and when the youngest of us associated with it dies, it will still be here. The best we can hope to do is to leave the mark of our fleeting existence upon it, to die knowing that we have changed a small corner of this earth for the better by wisdom, knowledge, and hard work…
Tim and I flew again on October 23, 2026. We departed due east at 5:00 PM to have dinner with Tim’s brother Scott in Chattanooga. We ascended to 5,500′ altitude over the Paint Rock River Valley. I easily identified the aerial imprint of Graham Farm and Nature Center as it passed under me. I’ll be ready for our dormant season property overflight. We returned after dinner well after sunset, at 4,500′. Bright urban, suburban, and rural lights lay beneath us in succession as we departed Chattanooga. Then we entered the total darkness of the isolated Paint Rock River Valley. The Center is a special place, day or night!
In some small way, I hope to apply the power of my affection for the Place and the Spirit to the service of the Graham Farm and Nature Center Mission:
Graham Farm and Nature Center offers visitors educational experiences in agriculture and environmental stewardship. Explore farm tours, multiple hiking and biking trails, and hands-on learning opportunities, making it an ideal destination for families and nature enthusiasts to enjoy outdoor activities and scenic surroundings.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
I view my engagement (with Graham Farm and Nature Center) as a calling, and a noble cause to sow seeds so that others might do their own part to change some small corner of this Earth for the better. (Steve Jones)
The primary motive for good care and good use of the land-community is always going to be affection, which is too often lacking. (Wendell Berry)
The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope. (Wendell Berry)
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones.
I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL
A reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied by untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and understand their Earth home more clearly.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature-Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2025) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books compile personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. They offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is, in large measure, my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_2381.jpeg-08.22.26-View-to-SSW-GFNC-from-3000.webp1200900Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2026-10-27 10:27:462026-10-27 10:27:46Over-Flight of the Alabama Cooperative Extension System's Graham Farm and Nature Center!
I returned to Graham Farm and Nature Center at 7:30 AM on August 22, 2026. The ten Research and Mentoring for Postbaccalaureate, Woods to Water (RaMP-W2W) participants and three program staff arrived mid-afternoon the previous day. Staff stayed overnight in the GFNC Conestoga wagon accommodations; students overnighted in tents adjacent to the pavilion. I was here by invitation to observe, interact with the enrollees, and offer formal comments in the classroom. Administrative Support Specialist II Donna Sands asked me to “Tell them your story.”
Having first visited GFNC on July 4, 2026, I am already a champion for the place, its mission, and its special spirit. I welcomed the chance to spend a day with the RaMP-W2W program at this great learning and exploration facility in the heart of northeastern Alabama’s Paint Rock River Valley.
The University of Alabama-associated RaMP-W2W website narrative succinctly describes this 12-month dreamscape learning experience that bridges a bachelor’s degree to graduate school or a professional career.
Woods to Water (W2W)
Training the Next Generation of Ecologists and Natural Resource Managers
Post-Baccalaureate Program
The Woods to Water (W2W) project is an experience-based post-baccalaureate learning program aimed at helping early career scientists understand critical linkages between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The program will provide a year-long, immersive, cohort- and field-based program in standardized methods and data science.
The Woods and Water Program provides:
Stipend support and free housing.
Collaborative interactions with leading scientists, technicians, and researchers at The University of Alabama, the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), and the Jones Center at Ichauway (JCI)
Training in key field techniques that link water, carbon, and nutrient fluxes among ecosystems
Comprehensive classroom, field experiences, laboratory, and independent research approaches to building skills and self-confidence in field research
Opportunities to present and publish research and facilitate transition into the ecological workforce.
Development of skills required to succeed and stand out in today’s STEM job market
The Research and Mentoring for Postbaccalaureates (RaMP) in Biological Sciences program is a National Science Foundation (NSF) program to establish networks to support full-time research, mentoring, and training for recent college graduates who have had few or no research or training opportunities during college. Broadly, its goal is to create a competitive and highly representative science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce in the U.S. with a focus on the biological sciences. Projects are expected to train individuals for a range of potential career pathways in the biological sciences, including: research-focused M.S. or Ph.D. graduate programs; entry-level positions in industry, federal, tribal, or state agencies, education and research centers, or not-for-profit science-based organizations; or other STEM careers.
I recorded this 60-second video of the RaMP participants gathering before breakfast
RaMP-W2W is a competitive program; these are exceptional young men and women embarking on an exciting journey. The visit to GFNC officially launched the 2026-27 RaMP-W2W year.
The ten participants list their home addresses as follows:
Lehi, UT; Oakland, CA; Auburn, AL; Santa Cruz, CA; Chattanooga, TN; Clarksville, OH; New Orleans, LA; Tuscaloosa, AL; Lexington, KY; Fairhope, AL
Widely dispersed geography, diverse topical interests, and varying career aspirations define the group. Their futures will lead in many directions. Their stories will share this common year-long bond and will diverge in whatever route they choose. Some know their intended path. Others are not so certain.
Center Director Mike Sims led the orientation session after breakfast.
What better way to begin the RaMP kickoff than a series of team-building challenges? Mike directed them through a series of challenges.
I recorded a sixty-second video of a team-building challenge.
Mike demanded that participants follow strict rules and guidelines, practice selfless teamwork, and share purpose and spirit. I enjoyed watching the process unfold from the comfortable shade under the pavilion canopy.
A late-summer cirrus sky over the Center backdropped the challenge.
Jonathan Nemati, Wildlife Programming, introduced the group to Center reptiles.
I recorded this 58-second video of the group interacting with Jonathan’s reptile discussion.
Snakes and box turtles highlighted the reptilian cast.
As summer’s heat fades to cooler temperatures, the outdoor classroom will have greater appeal.
Telling Them My Story
The August 22 weather was more conducive to offering my remarks in the Center classroom. That was the easy decision. More difficult: choosing which elements of “My Story” to share with these incredibly bright, enthusiastic, and ambitious learners. I came with a satchel of books, each flagged with Post-its marking relevant quotations. After spending the morning with the group, I had a good idea of where to start, and then let our one-hour interaction unfold through their reactions, questions, and interests.
I had recently read Ben & Me (Eric Weiner, 2024), a book commemorating our country’s 250th anniversary celebration and recognizing (and appreciating) Ben Franklin’s pivotal role. My copy of the book sprouts multi-colored Post-its marking kernels of wisdom and reflection worthy of revisiting. One stands out, and that is where I began my remarks;
Distrust not providence!
Written in Yoda-esque fashion, Ben opined in three words that the hand of providence guides, directs, counsels, and influences our journey… if we allow. In effect, Ben implored, Trust Providence! I have, and it has made all the difference. Some examples:
The spring I graduated high school, the local community college announced it would open a pre-forestry program in September.
The program Director and I stayed close for half a century. He opened the door to a Maryland Forest Service summer internship through my undergraduate degree.
The Director arranged a junior year transfer with full credit to the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF at Syracuse University).
A faculty mentor there steered me to a paper and allied products manufacturing company in the southeastern US.
My industrial forestry career advanced rapidly with assignments of increasing responsibility across 12 years in Virginia, Georgia, and Alabama.
A second SUNY ESF mentor encouraged me to eventually enter a Ph.D. program with him after gaining forest industry work and life experience. He pledged to hold up his end of the agreement if I committed to bring what he saw in me back to ESF. We completed the challenging, life-altering Ph.D. (Applied Ecology) pursuit in 36 months. My wife of now 54 years shared the journey with me, offering support, love, and adventure.
We chose from five diverse positions after the doctoral degree; one of them was a faculty position in the School of Forest Resources at Penn State University. The other four were outside of higher education. In essence, “Five roads diverged in a yellow wood.” (Robert Frost)
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
…..
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
We trusted providence then, and continued through the following 40 years, serving nine universities and in retirement.
I have stayed true to my natural resources passion, extending to my formal retirement mission:
Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
I modeled my mission after words that Louis Bromfield used to describe his life’s passion for rehabilitating the old, worn-out farm he owned and tended near Mansfield, Ohio, in the mid-20th century:
The adventure at Malabar is by no means finished… The land came to us out of eternity, and when the youngest of us associated with it dies, it will still be here. The best we can hope to do is to leave the mark of our fleeting existence upon it, to die knowing that we have changed a small corner of this earth for the better by wisdom, knowledge, and hard work.
I urged the attendees to seek and secure fulfillment, reward, and purpose in the natural sciences… to find the power of passion for Nature in the service of reason
Albert Einstein observed that Nature holds the key to human and life permanence:
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
I encouraged them to recognize and appreciate their good fortune in being selected for this incredible learning and life experience. From my end-of-career, life-sunset perspective, I said, You are blessed! Providence has opened a door… a gateway to whatever awaits. Open your arms, your mind, and your heart to opportunity, adventure, and challenge. Don’t resist what emerges.
Distrust not Providence! This year-long RaMP-W2W adventure at the University of Alabama, the National Ecological Observatory Network, and Georgia’s Jones Center at Ichauway (a half-year at each for the ten participants split into two groups) can and will shape their future.
Learn from the conservation great ones, like John Muir:
It’s always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.
When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.
Flourish on your one great dewdrop… your infinite storm of beauty! Serve humanity through your devotion to understanding the natural sciences. I wish you well.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
Distrust not providence. (Ben Franklin)
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
Flourish on your one great dewdrop… your infinite storm of beauty! Serve humanity through your devotion to understanding the natural sciences. I wish you well. (Steve Jones)
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones.
I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL
A reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied by untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and understand their Earth home more clearly.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature-Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2025) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books compile personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. They offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IMG_2356.jpeg-08.21.26-GFNC-Team-Building.webp10211200Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2026-10-21 13:38:472026-10-21 13:38:47"Sharing My Story" with CoHort-II of RaMP-Woods to Water (W2W) at ACES Graham Center!
NOTE: Some of my GBH photo essays were not routinely distributed from mid-February through mid-June. I will resend those one by one, beginning the first week of July. Here is my Post from May 17, 2026 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/05/17/lawson-branch-loop-shoal-creek-preserve-spring-2026/)
A friend requested transportation to and from a hospital in Huntsville, Alabama, for a diagnostic test that would take 3 hours from admission to release on July 14, 2026. I had no time to go home and no desire to sit in a waiting room, so I drove ten miles south of Huntsville to Ditto Landing Marina on the Tennessee River (Lake Wheeler). I was curious to see what I might find hidden in plain sight along the gravel road on the waterway’s north side downstream. This trail (west of the Highway 231 bridge) is within the easternmost extent of the 35,000-acre Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. Come along with me virtually as I kill two hours within the wilds of what is technically the City of Huntsville, Alabama!
The River
I recorded this 53-second video from the park bench at Ditto Landing Marina.
I wanted to luxuriate longer after my trek, but I didn’t want to keep my friend waiting in the recovery room.
I find an undeniable magnetism in rivers, lakes, skies, and the great outdoors. Although traffic over the bridge consumed any silence and overwhelmed Nature’s music (breezes, soft-wave sloshing, birds, and even children laughing and playing), the distance softened the distraction to an acceptable soothing.
Yes, I would prefer a more isolated natural setting absent a busy highway, a marina behind me, and a modern bridge spanning the river. However, I remind myself that I am within 40 minutes of my residence in Alabama’s largest metropolitan area. Also, I must keep in mind that the Tennessee River is not some wild and scenic waterway. I am viewing Lake Wheeler, one of the necklace of TVA impoundments (Nickajack, Guntersville, Wheeler, Wilson, and Pickwick are the five dams stretching from Chattanooga downstream through Florence and beyond. I can’t both celebrate that I live within an hour of the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, a national treasure, and lament that being here doesn’t provide a wilderness experience… pristine and untrammeled by man.
I recorded this 59-second video within earshot of the highway. I accept and salute it for what it is, and for the fulfillment the place and its special Nature awards a lifelong outdoor enthusiast.
The main channel is alongside the gravel road (left). An adjacent backwater (a slough) is situated beyond the riverway on the inland side of the trail.
At several spots along the road, secret pathways and visual portals reach through the forested buffer to favorite fishing spots at the river’s edge.
The Forest
I recorded this 63-second video along the gravel road about one mile downstream from where I parked.
Loblolly pine trees grow luxuriously on agricultural land abandoned and planted when the TVA or COE purchased the property to be inundated and adjoining buffer lands tied to the same owners. These floodplain fields are extraordinarily fertile.
Here is my 60-second video of these ~90-year-old forests.
A planted row of loblollies lines the road.
A heavy summer shower wetted the forest the prior evening. Stem flow reached the ground, leaving a patterned trunk as the bark plates began to dry.
A lush understory paw paw patch caught my eye.
Roadside Summer Flowers and Plants
A longtime enthusiast of spring ephemeral wildflowers, I’ve grown fond of our prolific summer bloomers. The spring flowers arrive when dormant woodlands are otherwise grey and drab. I suppose my vernal exuberance for the new blossoms is owed to living further north, where winters were more serious and relief more deeply appreciated. My appreciation now stretches from emerging spring into continuing summer. Here’s a brief catalog of the beauties I photographed along the trail.
Common morning-glory and large bindweed.
Plains coreopsis, a magnificent portrayal of mid-season grandeur.
Dayflower’s cerulean majesty.
American trumpet vine blossoms and seed pod.
Not yet blooming, this hollow Joe-Pye weed is nearly as tall as a basketball hoop.
Its base and top represent a single season’s growth. A perennial, it will die back to ground level in the autumn, and then loft again to ten feet next year.
American pokeweed is another perennial that will produce a tremendous amount of biomass.
Although I allow myself to enjoy the beauty and fragrance of Japanese honeysuckle, I refuse to celebrate the success of the aggressive Asian invasive.
This overwhelmingly successful and particularly combative legume arrived in the US from Japan and China in 1876 at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. In 1953, the USDA stopped advocating the use of kudzu for erosion control, and in 1972 the agency officially designated the plant a weed. Just imagine how our poor native pokeweed feels bearing an official common moniker of American pokeweed!
I celebrate what something as simple as Two Hours to Kill can reveal and return as satisfaction and fulfillment!
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
I can’t both celebrate that I live within an hour of the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, a national treasure, and lament that being here doesn’t provide a wilderness experience…pristine and untrammeled by man. (Steve Jones)
I am pleased that something as simple as Two Hours to Kill can reveal and return as Nature’s satisfaction and fulfillment! (Steve Jones)
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature inspire, inform, and reward you!
Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones.
I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL
A reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied by untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and understand their Earth home more clearly.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature-Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2025) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books compile personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. They offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/IMG_2146.jpeg-07.14.26-Ditto-Mid-morn.webp1200900Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2026-09-23 05:13:152026-09-23 05:13:15A Couple of Mid-Summer Hours to Kill at Huntsville’s Gateway to the Majestic Tennessee River!
[Some of my GBH photo essays were not routinely distributed from mid-February through mid-June. I will resend those one by one, beginning the first week of July. Here is my Post from March 24 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/03/24/mid-december-above-ground-exploration-at-cathedral-caverns-state-park/)]
I toured the Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES) Jackson County Graham Farm and Nature Center on June 24, 2026, with friends Chris Stuhlinger, Bill and Becky Heslip, and Roxanne Pennington. I served as ACES Director from 1996 to 2001, leading the unification of Auburn University and A&M University’s distinct extension programs under a Federal Court Order that settled a long-standing legal dispute involving both institutions and the state of Alabama. I had looked forward to seeing the 491-acre outdoor education, conservation, and preservation enterprise borne of a dedicated joint endeavor. Come along with me for my initial observations, reflections, photographic images, and brief videos.
Doorway to a Special Place: Wisps of Memories and Vapors of Possibilities
I had driven past the Center on prior trips through the valley to visit a waterfall owned by friends about two miles beyond. I saw the GF&NC signage, but knew only enough to whet my curiosity and prompt me to arrange a tour and orientation, which led to scheduling this visit. I felt a deep connection, sentimental I suppose in part, from my intimate role in forging and leading the inter-university, involuntary (Federal Court-ordered) cooperative venture that stood during the era of my tenure in the national spotlight. My purpose is not to focus on what we then termed The Unification. The ACES directorship was the toughest role of my university administrative career. I’ll mention only that Auburn University President Bill Muse said, “We asked Steve to do the impossible, and he damned near did it!”
Driving onto the property, the Paint Rock Valley and surrounding Cumberland Plateau terrain beguiled and bewitched me. I reflected on my third book, Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature, co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit (published in 2019). My book Introduction included:
Awakening to nature does not require a trip to the Grand Canyon or a trek across the Gobi. Nature is in our backyard, a trip to a nearby city park, or a state park just down the road. Anyone can develop a relationship with nature wherever you are, a point I reiterate in each and every nature-inspired life and living address I deliver. My relationship with nature is spiritual. I view my engagement as a calling, and a noble cause to sow seeds so that others might do their own part to change some small corner of this Earth for the better.
I awakened to the Nature of this special place when I entered the Graham Farm and Nature Center. The sense and spirit beckoned me, pulled me into its magic. It was real and palpable, strengthening with each moment during our six hours on the property, seeing and inhaling its essence, meeting and getting to know staff, and sharing ideas and dreams. Wisps of memories and vapors of possibilities infused my vision of a potential volunteer niche role for me, an admittedly self-satisfying venture for yet another chapter of my retirement. I recently crossed my 75th birthday threshold, entering my 4th quarter of a century of life on Earth. A senior former forestry faculty colleague remarked in response to my fourth quarter of a century comment, “Remember that in football, in the 4th quarter, every play counts!”
I share a relevant excerpt from Notes from the Field: Paint Rock and the New Nation (July 4, 2026) by Bill Finch, Founding Director, Paint Rock Forest Research Center, located in the same valley and ecosystem as GF&NC:
Paint Rock appears to have escaped the worst of 19th and 20th century deforestation and plowing. But the modern forest is a dim reflection of what it was in the 18th century. Mountainsides then as now likely supported the most diverse assembly of deciduous trees and shrubs in the United States, in some places so tall and dense they blocked the sun for much of the year. But the slopes may have been less uniformly covered in trees. Fragments of sun-loving, summer blooming sunflowers, tall green gentians, lilies, moon-flowered silphiums, and warm season grasses still dot the slopes, the remnants of what must have been extensive nearly treeless glades. Plants that are now rare in that forest, like smoketrees and the federally threatened Morefield’s clematis vine, are struggling to find the light they once knew.
I have no doubt that this Paint Rock Valley is a Special Place. I recorded this 60-second video as a brief introduction to Graham Farm and Nature Center.
I will not burden you with tireless narrative based only upon a preliminary superficial reconnaissance. I’m hooked enough to return to get to know her better, and share what I learn, both the obvious and the mystery.
The Center
As Chancellor, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, America’s Arctic University, I fell in love with America’s Last Frontier. Alaska is not just a vast place…it’s a spirit, an abiding spirit. Robert Service, a Brit who spent several years in the Yukon during the turn of the prior century goldrush days, expressed the Far North essence more clearly than any I’ve read. Excerpting from his The Spell of the Yukon:
There’s a land — oh, it beckons and beckons,
And I want to go back — and I will.
It’s the great, big, broad land ‘way up yonder,
It’s the forests where silence has lease;
It’s the beauty that thrills me with wonder,
It’s the stillness that fills me with peace.
Granted, Alaska is unmatched. It’s also not within an hour and 15 minute drive of my house! I welcome a Nature affair with a special place of beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration… where I want to go back — and I can… and I will. Graham Farm and Nature Center fits the bill!
Allow me to rely upon selected photos and brief videos to present a GF&NC overview. I pledge to develop focused photo essays from future visits. The pavilion and operational hub occupy a commanding knoll at the valley core of the 491-acre property.
An old photograph of the pre-ACES Graham farm is among exhibits that reach back into the farm and valley’s rich history.
Our June 24, 2026 contingent consisted of Bill and Becky Heslip, me in the rear echelon, Center Director Themika L. “Mike” Sims, Chris Stuhlinger, Roxanne Pennington, and Administrative Support Specialist II Donna Sands behind the camera.
Although we didn’t have an opportunity to visit this charming woods-edge cottage, we understood that it will see future use as an overnight accommodation.
We visited the trailhead of a mountain forest trail. When summer’s heat abates I will return to explore this and many other trails.
The valley does indeed beckon.
Even the open land near the creeks promises discoveries in ecotype transition from field to meadow to brush to forest to wetland to stream channel.
Meadowland transitioning to brush then to forest will afford learning and discovery to Center visitors for the ages.
Wild carrot presented its lacy blossoms in the lower meadows.
I’m eager to follow and admire the Center’s changing seasonal faces. Multiply the one-hour-of-one-afternoon a hundred fold to anticipate the Nature-magic that lies ahead.
Larkin Creek enters Paint Rock River at this juncture on the property. I look forward to seeing the flow when it is not turbid from recent flooding, and also when the streams are at overflow. This landscape feature lies 1,000 vertical feet below the property’s highest. Spring at the union arrives more than a week in advance of the peak; autumn a week later. The place and its seasons are complex, varied, and exhilarating.
I recorded this 60-second video of the Larkin Creek juncture with Paint Rock River.
Perhaps I will find reason to stay overnight in the Connestoga Wagon Pampering Accommodations!
Here is my 60-second video of the overnight pampering wagons.
Chris and I are returning to GF&NC on July 30 to scout a tree and shrub identification trail, providing fodder for a subsequent Great Blue Heron GF&NC photo essay.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
I view my engagement (with Graham Farm and Nature Center) as a calling, and a noble cause to sow seeds so that others might do their own part to change some small corner of this Earth for the better. (Steve Jones)
The sense and spirit of this special place beckoned me, pulled me into its magic! (Steve Jones)
Remember that in football, in the 4th quarter, every play counts! (Dr. Russell Briggs)
Awakening to Nature does not require a trip to the Grand Canyon or a trek across the Gobi. (Steve Jones)
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones.
I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL
A reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied by untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and understand their Earth home more clearly.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2025) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/IMG_1969-2.jpeg-06.24.26-Nitas-View.webp12001132Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2026-08-05 10:03:182026-08-05 10:03:18First Time Visit to Graham Farm and Nature Preserve
NOTE: Some of my GBH photo essays were not routinely distributed from mid-February through mid-June. I will resend those one by one, beginning the first week of July. Here is my Post from February 25 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/02/25/early-december-nature-explorations-along-the-natchez-trace-parkway/)
On April 4, 2026, two retired friends and I attended The Wings Over North Georgia Airshow near Rome. Normally, I focus these weekly photo essays on wildland forays, principally woodland ventures. I did not anticipate finding a Great Blue Heron Post topic during a day at the regional airport. However, my Dad, a WWII Pacific theatre Army Air Corps veteran, instilled in me a love of flight and weather (as well as Nature). The variable weather on April 4 prompted me to see the Nature of Wings Over North Georgia as a GBH Post topic.
The local forecast called for frontal rain to arrive near sunset. However, the first convective pop-up shower arrived soon after we set up our viewing lawn chairs without rain gear, a quarter-mile from the car! We toughed it out, thinking this was a rogue shower. The sky to the west, upstream in the firmament, looked bright and mostly clear. Fear not!
The show began, umbrellas transitioned from rain-shields to sun-brellas. Brilliant sunshine encouraged a few darkening cumulus to develop.
The crowd enjoyed a spectacular performance by an F-15 squadron of the Louisiana Air National Guard.
I recorded this 14-second video as one of the jets screamed down the flight line. My friends did not notice that behind my sunglasses I watched with tears in my eyes, my long-deceased Dad standing with me.
An innocent looking cumulus entered from the west, dropped a brand new rain curtain as we watched, and soaked us for no more than five minutes. The shower deepened and the sky darkened as it moved east-northeast into the north Georgia Appalachian foothills, providing a perfect backdrop for the looping smokeplane!
I recorded this 56-second smoke stunt plane video.
Climate and weather are the fundamental essence…the prevailing substrate…for every facet of Nature that drew me into foresrty and that powers me through retirement. There are those who wonder why anyone would waste time talking aimlessly about the weather. I can’t think of anything I’d rather discuss!
The weather held through more stunt and novelty performances. We all awaited the main act, the US Air Force Thunderbirds.
I recorded this 59-second video of the Thunderbirds taxiing out. I nervously watched cumulus building upstream to the west.
Rain drops peppered us as the six Thunderbirds reached the far end of the runway.
Never one to miss a good downpour, I recorded this 16-second video of the drenching shower.
It was far too late to return to the car for raingear. I took solace that my skin has never leaked; I’ve been wet many times before!
Mild temperatures and the promise of returning sunshine eased the discomfort for those who’d prefer to watch rain through a window.
I recorded this 31-second video as the rain ended.
Finally, the birds flew! I recorded this 37-second video (three segments spliced).
Still dripping from my rain-soaked hat and hair, I masked the emotion-triggered tears as these incredible flying machines powered over Rome, Georgia.
Deep memories, sweet nostalgia, the power and beauty of flight, and the magic and science of our dynamic weather lifted me high into the spring sky.
Dad died 30 years ago. I delivered his eulogy, including John Gillespie MaGee, Jr’s High Flight, Dad carried a copy in his wallet.
High Flight
“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there, I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air….
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace. Where never lark, or even eagle flew — And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod The high untrespassed sanctity of space, – Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.”
High Flight is a 1941 sonet written by war poet Magee, inspired by his experiences as a fighter pilot of the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II. Magee began writing the poem on 18 August, while stationed outside London He mailed a completed manuscript to his family on 3 September, three months before he died in a training accident.
You may recall President Reagan referencing High Flight in memorializing the Challenger crew.
Nature comprises the firmament, the soil, the terrain, and all life that abounds…and all that has come before, that is, and that will be. I relished a few hours experiencing high flight, variable spring weather, good friends, and sharing time with the man who shaped my Nature-psyche and lives within me yet…until I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth!
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace. Where never lark, or even eagle flew.(John Gillespie Magee)
Deep memories, sweet nostalgia, the power and beauty of flight, and the magic and science of our dynamic weather lifted me high into the spring sky. (Steve Jones)
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones.
I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL
A reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied by untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and understand their Earth home more clearly.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2025) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/IMG_1422-3.jpg-04.04.26-Wings-Over-North-Geogia-After-Second-Shower.webp1200682Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2026-07-08 08:08:212026-07-08 08:08:21The Nature of the Wings Over North Georgia Airshow!
Judy and I returned to our homeland in Western Maryland to attend the rehearsal and wedding for Judy’s great-nephew (her sister’s daughter’s son) on August 1 and 2, 2025. The venue was the Back Barn at Piney Run, located on the Allegheny Front in Garrett County, at an elevation of approximately 2,800 feet. I resided and performed forest inventory for two summers (1970 and 1971) on the nearby 52,000-acre Savage River State Forest. In my view then…and now…the upper elevations of Garrett County are Heaven-on-Earth! I love her terrain, forests, weather, and firmament.
Co-author Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit and I published Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature, which aptly characterizes my feelings toward special places. My story of Garrett County and its State Forest is undoubtedly one of passion. I cherish my memories of the place and my introduction to a central element (forest inventory) of forestry practice.
I recorded this 59-second video reflecting on this Heaven-on-Earth wonderland!
I’ll employ this Brief-Form Post to highlight sentiments stirred by our t00-condensed August 2025 visit. Visibility reached the horizon across rolling fields and woodlots. A split rail fence added character and ambience. What you can’t see in the images is the low humidity, fresh breeze, and upper-60s midday temperatures, blessedly much lower than what is typical back in northern Alabama. Breathing deeply, the scenery and feel whisked me back to my young adulthood.
I recorded this 60-second video to emphasize the glory of the afternoon.
Low-base clouds scurried across the hills, rewarding us with contrasting shades of grey, white, and blue. I wanted a lounge chair and far more time than festivities, chores, and familial socializing allowed.
Even the multitudinous shades of green strutted their stuff, their palette richly deepening as sunset approached.
I present a third brief video echoing my sentiments about this special place and its everyday Nature!
Some photo images require no narrative.
The split rail fence harkens to a time long ago. I view the countryside as timeless, unchanged in the half-century since the forester-in-training cruised the forests of Savage River.
The Back Barn venue served the occasion well. I hope the newlyweds’ embrace persists as long as this special place has gripped my heart.
Monarch Domain
A patch of milkweed bordered the cornfield adjacent to the grassy parking area. I wished safe travels to the adults who will transit to Central America before fall leads to winter.
Wild carrot complemented the wedding veil theme!
Windmills on the Ridge
I saw scores of windmills across the highland front in both Maryland and adjacent Pennsylvania. Are these 90-meters-to-hub mechanical monstrosities a solution or just another facet of rushing too quickly to adopt a fix-of-the-moment? Fewer than half of the rotors were spinning. Is that a typical percent utilization? You probably noticed my applying the term monstrosities, suggesting my present day bias. These things are ugly! I see them as scars upon the pastoral landscape…blemishes on the countenance of my special place! Have we prematurely abandoned nuclear in favor of wind? Is coal the evil that some people consider it? Is human-induced climate change truly an existential threat to modern human civilization? Our climate prediction models are not reliable, yet we place tremendous trust in their declarations of unprecedented consequence.
Just 13,000 years ago, these rolling hills, transformed by periglacial climate owing to a massive continental ice sheet less than 100 miles to the north, stood 400 feet higher above sea level than they do today. The ice age abated; the ice sheet melted; correspondingly, the sea level rose some 400 feet…all of these planet-altering results occurred naturally, long before the era of fossil fuel powered industrialization.
I write in my introduction to Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: I am sounding a clarion call to understand and appreciate our relationship to Earth and our imperative to act accordingly. Mine is not a perspective of doom and gloom; others have followed that route and fallen short of the destination. I am not ready to endorse wholesale, sole reliance on renewable energy, but that is a topic for another day. I will say only that my special place is diminished. I am not assured that the solution is worth the economic, social, environmental, and aesthetic price. Rash action is the folly of fools.
I offer the counsel of Albert Einstein and Galileo Galilei:
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods. (Albert Einstein 1879-1955)
In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. (Galileo Galilei 1564-1642)
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
Breathing deeply, the scenery and feel whisked me back to my young adulthood. (Steve Jones)
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. (Aldo Leopold)
Even the multitudinous shades of green strutted their stuff, their palette richly deepening as sunset approached. (Steve Jones)
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL
Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/IMG_8410-1.jpg-08.1.25-Back-Barn-at-Piney-Run.webp15122016Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-11-25 07:20:592025-11-25 07:20:59Piney Run on the Allegheny Front in Western Maryland: Reminiscing on a Special Place
On August 9, 2025, I assisted with the delivery of a Teacher-Educator Adventures in Alabama State Parks Workshop at Joe Wheeler State Park. Funded by a grant from the Caring Foundation of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the workshop introduced the 23 participants to the Nature of the park face-to-face. They engaged with expert naturalists, experienced field-based learning, and received program curricula, lesson plans, and teaching kits. My role was simple: offering opening words of inspiration and lunchtime reflections on Aldo Leopold, a pre-eminent conservation scholar of the twentieth century.
A recently painted water tower welcomed visitors to Joe Wheeler State Park.
Just a 50-minute drive from my Madison, Alabama residence, the park welcomes me at least once every season. I enthusiastically agreed to assist with the Saturday workshop.
Setting
We gathered at the Day Use Area pavilion along Lake Wheeler, enjoying fair skies and a summer breeze. Alabama State Parks Chief Naturalist, Renee Rainey, welcomed participants and introduced speakers and staff.
Renee is a tireless champion of Nature education and interpretation.
Words of Inspiration
Asked to offer words of inspiration, I emphasized that Nature education is a process of outdoor immersion, discovery, illumination, inspiration, and encouragement. I reflected on the dual, and seeming contradictory, emotions I felt when I first encountered a full profile view of Alaska’s Mount Denali (McKinley) from the nearby, and much lesser, Mount Quigley in 2005. Simultaneously, the feelings of absolute humility and overwhelming inspiration brought me to tears…and nearly to my knees. The gleaming towering white mountain ediface reached high above me, just 20 miles south of where I stood. Breathless, I knew that nothing in my life matched its glory…its significance…its eminence…its symbol of Creation and God. Countering the weight of Humility, its Inspiration lifted me…buoyed me…reminded me what John Muir knew all along:
When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.
I counseled that their role as educators requires an approach steeled in humility and inspiration. Humilty in recognizing that they are changing the world through each young person they reach, educate, and encourage.
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. (Robert Louis Stevenson)
And Inspiration in accepting that the differences they make can last a lifetime and beyond…permanent, resilient, and immutable, like Denali Mountain.
Pulitzer Prize novelist and essayist Louis Bromfield wrote in his non-fiction Pleasant Valley of his life’s work rehabilitating his old worn out Ohio Farm:
The adventure at Malabar is by no means finished…The land came to us out of eternity and when the youngest of us associated with it dies, it will still be here. The best we can hope to do is to leave the mark of our fleeting existence upon it, to die knowing that we have changed a small corner of this earth for the better by wisdom, knowledge, and hard work. (Louis Bromfield (1896-1956)
Whether shaping Malabar Farm….or an eager sixth grader…wisdom, knowedge, and hard work, fueled by passion, and laced with humility and inspiration, carry the day.
What a great pleasure and privilege to engage with enthusiastic educators.
Setting the Stage
Environmental Educator and Main Guest for the workshop, Jimmy Stiles, introduced Dr. Scott Duncans’s Southern Wonder: Alabama’s Surprising Biodiversity. My intent is not to reiterate workshop content. Instead, I want to give you a feel for the major themes and a sense of the exquisite setting.
Why should we focus on our state’s biodiversity? First and foremost, Albert Einstein, instructed us:
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
We cannot truly know our state and teach environmental education without understanding our location, climate, geology, geography, and surrounding ecosystems. Biodiversity is interwoven with all those factors.
The ever-present lake served as backdrop for the entire day.
Jimmy presented how the ice age that ended 13,000 years ago influenced Alabama’s present-day biodiversity (my 60-second video).
Jimmy and NW District Naturalist Amber Coger presented where we are, the Highland Rim, emphasizing the importance in knowing our location and context.
Fishing as a Learning Exercise
Obviously, Lake Wheeler and its associated ecosystem is a major component of where they are. Joe Wheeler State Park Naturalist, Jennings Earnest, oriented the teachers to one of the lake’s residents, its ubiquitous sunfish. For some participants, this was their first fishing experience. Excitement ran high!
Here’s my 60-second video of Jennings readying the educators to fish.
Exemplifying a critical characterization of teaching, Jennings exudes passion and enthusiasm
He admits that he has the best job on the planet!
I recorded this 57-second video capturing the moment when one of the teachers landed a sunfish.
Not a trophy, but a successful teachable moment.
The day could not have been better. These moments along the lake will accompany participants into their fall classrooms and will infuse the spirit and passion of their teaching.
Often I find that others who preceded me constructed verbiage long ago far superior to any utterances I might make to express timeless wisdom. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was among them.
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.
I believe our workshop instructors planted seeds that will multiply manifold times through the students they touch.
Meeting Animal Friends
Again, I offer some photos with narrative unecessary: box turtle and American aligator.
Black kingsnake.
I recorded this 46-second creature-teacher video
Knowing our setting and introducing some of our common animal neighbors impressed participants.
Measuring Vegetative Cover
Jimmy conducted an exercise adding an element of quantifying elements of our surroundings, like measuring vegetative cover in field and forest edge.
I recorded a 56-second video of measuring vegetative cover.
I remember summer days prescribed burning, marking and cruising timber, laying out roads, and other field tasks during my 12 years practicing industrial forestry…hard demanding days of exertion, sweating, challenge, and near exhaustion. And, too, younger days! As a 74-year-old retiree, such days would be more than I can handle. The state park workshop required no such toil. Total relaxation, at least physically. A bit of intellectual engagement, which knows no limit to date, just some continuous tuning by teaching, speaking, writing, and woods-sauntering!
Steve’s Shoreline Ramble
I explored during sessions, wandering (and wondering) along the lakeshore. As I’m drafting this narrative, some Leonard Da Vinci wisdom emerged from my mental recesses:
It’s not enough that you believe what you see. You must also understand what you see.
I regret not including that wisdom in my lunchtime message. The workshop’s core theme is opening the educators’ eyes to understanding the Nature around them. Empowering them to see, appreciate, and understand all that lies hidden in plain sight, like the magnificent eastern tiger swallowtail sipping nectar from a buttonbush.
Or the clouded skipper on a buttonbush nearby.
Buttonbush seedpods give the plant its moniker.
I added each participant to the distribution for my weekly photo essays. I hope at least a few find time to read this edition. I know I learned as much as they did. I admire their eagerness to learn and I sensed their desire to deliberately incorporate Nature into the fabric of teaching.
I am privileged to occasionally interact with educators committed to learn from and teach in accord with Nature.
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. Robert Louis Stevenson
I care to live only to entice people to look at Nature’s loveliness. John Muir
Alabama State Parks Foundation
I’ll remind you that although I serve on the Alabama State Parks Foundation Board (Secretary), in part because of my love of Nature and in recognition for my writing many prior Posts about visiting and experiencing the Parks, any positions or opinions expressed in these Posts are mine alone and do not in any manner represent the Foundation or its Board.
I urge you to take a look at the Foundation website and consider ways you might help steward these magical places: https://asparksfoundation.org/ Perhaps you might think about supporting the Parks System education and interpretation imperative: https://asparksfoundation.org/give-today#a444d6c6-371b-47a2-97da-dd15a5b9da76
The Foundation exists for the sole purpose of providing incremental operating and capital support for enhancing our State parks… and your enjoyment of them.
We are blessed in Alabama to have our Park System. Watch for future Great Blue Heron Posts as I continue to explore and enjoy these treasures that belong to us. I urge you to discover the Alabama State Parks near you. Follow the advice of John Muir:
And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.
In every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks.
I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.
Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
Nature doesn’t steal time, it amplifies it. (Richard Louv)
I embrace Nature’s relentless magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration — her infinite storm of BEAUTY! (Steve Jones)
Every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is written indelibly in or powerfully inspired by Nature. (Steve Jones)
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL
Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/IMG_8525-2.jpg-08.09.25-JWSP-BCBS-Workshop-scaled.webp25601920Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-11-12 02:31:042025-11-12 02:31:04Teacher-Educator Adventures in Alabama State Parks Workshop Lakeside at Joe Wheeler State Park!
On the morning of August 2, 2025, my son Matt, Alabama grandson Jack (17), and I hiked to the Canyon Overlook at Maryland’s Rocky Gap State Park. We then visited the Habeeb Lake spillway and returned to the parking lot along the Lakeshore Trail. We enjoyed Nature’s beauty, magic, wonder, and awe hidden in plain sight along the trails. I dutifully captured the bounty with photographs, brief videos, observations, and reflections.
Habeeb Lake
I’ll begin with the 243-acre lake, which post-dated my high school era visits to what is now Maryland’s Rocky Gap State Park.
The spillway cuts through its own geologic history written in sandstone strata. The view west from the dam shows the beginning of the canyon and the southern toe-slope of Evitts Mountain.
I recorded a 59-second video from the footbridge crossing the spillway.
The life-circle is rounding. I visited the park when I was 17. Matt visited with me when he was 17. Now he is there at age 48 with me and his sister’s 17-year-old son. They are a core element of what I consider Nature’s beauty, magic, wonder, and awe. The image of them and the lake speaks volumes to me on life and living.
Life is great; God is good!
Rocky Gap Canyon
I walked with friends to the canyon 57 summers ago (age 17), with no signage, just a crude path through the woods. All that has changed, but the canyon has not; it is still a marvelous natural gift.
The southern toe of Evitts Mountain, where Jack and I hiked four days prior, extends downhill from right to left. Rocky Gap Run flows past Evitts’ toe.
I reecorded this 59-second video of the gap.
I never tire of rocky crags and surrounding forests, whether back in Alabama or within the Appalachians into Pennsylvania, New York, and beyond.
The physical landscape remains constant. Rough and weathered sedimentary geology, trees rooted on steep hillsides, and ecosystems that change subtly over shorter segments, yet tremendously over the entire 2,190-mile Appalachian Trail.
Trees and Shrubs: Echoes from Decades Past
Table mountain pine’s range does not extend to Alabama. I encountered it often when I served as a forester’s aid on western Maryland’s Green Ridge State Forest between junior and senior undergraduate years. I found it mostly on xeric stony sites in ridge and valley Allegany County. Its form is gnarly, seldom growing straight and tall. Its needles are coarse and spiny. It finds anchorage in shallow soils.
Contrarily, white pine, whose range barely extends into northeast Alabama, grows well in western Maryland. Among the eastern US pine species, white pine is my favorite, especially on rich sites from the Smokey Mountains north intoPennsylvania, New York, and New England. Its history intertwine significantly with the birth of our nation.
The strength and size of Eastern White Pine is so renowned, it may have been a bigger factor in the start of the Revolutionary War than tea and taxes. King George I assumed ownership of the tallest Eastern White Pines in the forests of New England, appointing a legion of surveyors to mark their choices with a symbol of three hatchet slashes known as The King’s Broad Arrow. This indicated that they were for use by the British Royal Navy only. They were shipped back to Britain.
Already rankled over the issue of taxation on tea, many colonists whose livelihoods depended on Eastern White Pines disregarded the mark and harvested the trees anyway. When six mills in New Hampshire were searched for trees bearing The King’s Broad Arrow, the owners were charged with disobeying the King’s law, and many townspeople rioted in protest.
Some historians believe that this conflict was a key in bringing about the American Revolution and the first real acts of rebellion against British rule. The Eastern White Pine was such a potent symbol for colonists that it became the emblem emblazoned upon the first colonial flag. (Northeatern Lumber Manufacturers Association online)
Paraphrasing Aldo Leopold, I love pine trees, but I am in love with white pine!
I recorded this 58-second video highlighting white pine and hemlock.
Hemlock thrives in lower slope forests of Rocky Gap and vicinty.
Rhododrendron and mountail laurel likewise transported me to those halcyon days.
Black huckleberry evoked strong memories.
Black gum (aka sour gum and black tupelo) grows commonly from northern Pennsylvania deep into Alabama. The photo at left demonstrates the species’ tendency for lateral branches to extend at right angles to the bole. An insect injury on the leaf at right has discolored the leaf spot to its distinctive autumn red.
As is so often the case, I could have traipsed this forest for hours, discovering the riches hidden in plain sight.
Special Features
I like naturally expressive tree faces. A physical injury began the process, opening a portal for internal decay. A woodpecker excavating a nesting hollow. A squirrel gnawing edges to enlarge the opening. Both tree are actively callousing the edges in attempt to close the openings. The tree at left has successfully closed the left upper opening. The other tree has almost buttoned the lower hole.
Each of these red oaks can tell a story of your choosing. At left, I see two eyes, one covered by a patch; the other eye wide in surprise or amazement. Its mouth could not be more expressive! The one-eyed oak at right is fearful…deeply concerned. I categorize both inviduals as tree form oddities or curiosities. Our forests are rich with wonder, awe, and mystery.
I seldom explore Nature without detecting magic in plain sight, prompting deep thought and mirthful musings, igniting a burst of wild imagination. Albert Einstein, the preeminent theoretical physicist of the twentieth century elevated imagination above laborious scientific rumination:
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.
Pinchusion moss embraces a back oak base, bringing to mind a neck scarf on a breezy winter morn.
Orange jelly or orange witch’s butter (Dacrymyces chrysospermus) is a species of jelly fungus that grows on dead pine wood. Trail crews bucked the fallen pine to clear the trail, I’m estimating within the past two years. Already the fungus has infected the wood and is now producing spores to secure the future, a goal embraced by all organisms.
We saw two timber rattlesnakes sunning near the dam, this one more exposed than the other, a yellowish variety. The beautiful individual, sporting nine rattle buttons, kept its head behind a rock. I wanted a better image, yet not enough to stumble over the stones for a full-length image!
Such is the case with many subjects of my Nature exploration and photography…we must be satisfied with what she reveals. I know she unveils little to nothing if we do not venture into her realm. A fishing enthusiast friend reminded me often that there is one way to guarantee not catching a fish — stay home! My photo of a snake with hidden head, although not complete, came with a full-bodied set of memories. A first (and second) rattlesnake sighting nearby for my son and grandson. The depth of their awe and amazement, awakening some admitted level of primal fear. Their reaction to hearing the second one vigorously rattle an alert. My thrill in being there with them.
John Muir long ago captured the thrill:
In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
I never tire of rocky crags and surrounding forests, whether back in Alabama or within the Appalachians into Pennsylvania, New York, and beyond. (Steve Jones)
In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. (John Muir)
I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious. (Albert Einstein)
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL
Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/IMG_8349-1.jpg-7.29.25-RGSP-Habeeb-Lake.webp15122016Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-10-22 09:51:142025-10-22 09:51:14MD's Rocky Gap State Park: Habeeb Lake and the Canyon
I grew up in Cumberland, Maryland, one of the transportation gateways to and over the Appalachian Mountains, a portal to the Ohio frontier and beyond. The Potomac River Valley rises over 600 feet from Washington, D.C.’s tidewater to Cumberland. I visited my hometown in late July 2025. My two Alabama grandsons, Jack (17) and Sam (11), accompanied us. On July 28, we three sauntered two miles through the Narrows along the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP), a 144-mile Rails-to-Trails that stretches from Cumberland to Pittsburgh, PA. I offer photos, brief videos, reflections, and observations on the intersection of human and natural history, overlain by my personal musings.
This view is downstream from the western terminus of the C&O Canal. Years ago, I biked from this point on the foreground gravel trail, the 184.5-mile towpath to Georgetown. Flood control construction in the 1950s erased the canal and towpath infrastructure at this location, leaving the gravel path along the levee for beginning the trek to Washington. West Virginia, across the river, rises to the right.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal began as a dream to wealth in the West. Operating for nearly 100 years, it was a lifeline for communities along the Potomac River as coal, lumber, and agricultural products floated down the waterway to market. (National Park Service)
Railroad commerce proved economically superior and better able to withstand river flooding, which in 1924 forced the canal’s closure.
Today the canal (A National Historic Park) endures as a pathway for discovering historical, natural, and recreational treasures.
[Dedication: I dedicate this Post to John Milford Parker, Jr. who passed away September 3, 2025. John was among the three people who accompanied me on the bicycle trip to Georgetown. We also occasionally fished, hunted, and hiked together when I returned to western Maryland to visit family. From his obituary: The hunt is over; the woods are still. May he rest in peace on God’s eternal hill.]
From the same point, Cumberland’s hilltop steeples rise where colonial Fort Cumberland once commanded the frontier transportation hub. Beyond the churches, Haystack (left) and Wills (right) Mountains tower nearly 1,000 feet above the Narrows gorge.
This 60-second video sets the stage for my trek with Jack and Sam through the Narrows.
The historic railroad station stands less than a quarter mile from the 184.5-mile canal photo point. In my younger years I biked the GAP from Pittsburgh to this endpoint. Sam explored the eastside plaza. Six and one-half decades earlier, at about Sam’s age, I watched my maternal grandfather depart the station for his final B&O Railroad train run to Pittburgh. A World War I veteran, Pap engineered both steam locomotives and diesels. I watched his departure with rapture and deep envy. Rapture because I revered Pap and loved trains. Envy because my teenage brother sat in the cab waving with Pap as they tooted farewell heading to Pittsburgh.
As the three of us completed our morning walk through the Narrows, the Western Maryland Scenic Line locomotive surprised us departing, like Pap so many decades ago, from the station outbound through the Narrows.
I recorded this 60-second video of the mighty engine departing Cumberland.
The fading train reminded me that I’m gazing at my own metaphorical sunset from a long and distant dawn, when Mom and Dad brought me to see Pap’s retirement departure. I’ve been blessed to have lived well across the decades, returning repeatedly to these Allegheney Mountains, and their Nature that has nourished and enriched my life and living. So much in my own life, and across Nature, distills to seasons, chapters, and volumes. I’ve enjoyed 74 spring surges in ecosystems and terrains where I’ve resided…from these mountains to the Adirondacks to Alabama’s southern Appalachians to New Hampshire’s Whites to the Alaska Range and more. Different sections in Earth’s physical and life library.
So much for my home-woods nostalgia. Let’s head to the Narrows. My recollection is that the Narrows GAP trail is the only paved segment of the 144-mile total length. The shrub-vegetated strip borders the trail on the highway 20-feet below, which hugs Wills Creek another 20-feet below it. The far side at the base of Wills Mountain carries two tracks of the still active Chessie System. The RR sign below signals bikers and pedestrians to carefully cross the rail ahead as the GAP crosses to the tail-slope side of the trail.
The Narrows is a natural canyon. Its geologic history is complex. Wills Creek occupies the canyon that separates Wills and Haystack. The Creek did not cut down through the continuous ridge called by the two different names. Instead, the ridge rose up during the Appalachian-building process, and the stream cut its path as the landmass uplifted. I will stop there before I venture even deeper into a science remote from my own.
I recorded this 52-second video of the Narrows near our turn-around point two miles from Cumberland.
We began our trek 15 minutes before a heavy shower forced us under the eaves of a commercial building near the trail. We dried as the skies cleared and a hot summer sun baked us.
I recorded this 57-second video offering commentary on my 74-year personal and professional story that began in these Allegheny Mountains.
The Haystack Mountain tailslope forest provides afternoon shade for the trail. Knowing the long period of coal-fired rail traffic, I wondered how many times hot cinders ignited the forest. The current stand has likely not burned since the onset of diesel locomotives.
We found a large patch of Japanes knotweed, an aggressive invasive. I reluctantly admit that the plant has particularly attractive shiny foliage.
After the shower, the boys stand dripping beside one of the benches, acknowledging a longtime GAP proponent and supporter.
I could not resist posting this snapshot as one of 15-or-so rail pedal-carts trundled toward Cumberland. The recreational vendor boards passengers at Frostburg, about a dozen miles up the GAP from Cumberland. I’ve biked the route, enjoying a nearly pedal-free coast to the Narrows and then a flat ride to the railway station. The occupants pedaled past us. In Cumberland, the passengers return to Frostburg aboard the Western Maryland Scenic Line. The vendor somehow transports the carts back to Frostburg. Perhaps a diesel engine pulled them as a train?
An historic frontier transportation and industrial hub, Cumberland now draws sustenance from its Natural beauty and recreational amenities. The place I loved as a youth, that shaped my future direction and life, has deepened and polished its Nature-luster, drawing me to its breast…nurturing me and fanning a nearly latent homing instinct. No, don’t fret…I won’t be vacating my retirement domicile, but I did feel the attraction.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
A historic frontier transportation and industrial hub, my hometown now draws sustenance from its natural beauty and recreational amenities. (Steve Jones)
The place I loved as a youth, that shaped my future direction and life, has deepened its Nature-luster. (Steve Jones)
Our death is not an end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation. For they are us; our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life. (Albert Einstein)
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/IMG_8156.jpg-07.27.25-Narrows.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-09-10 09:30:022025-09-10 09:30:02Observations from the Narrows in Western Maryland: A Step back to My Roots!
