Falling Spring and Hills Creek Falls in the Snow

This past weekend, we headed up to Snowshoe, WV for a long weekend of skiing, snowstorms, and frozen waterfalls. In past years, we had driven up on Friday and skiied Saturday and Sunday and returned on Monday. Saturday’s the busiest skiing day, so this year, we drove up Saturday, skiied Sunday and Monday, and then drove back Tuesday, hoping to encounter fewer people on the slopes. We left early Saturday morning as we planned to hit some waterfalls on the way up (of course!). Given the cold weather recently, there was good chance some might be frozen! In Virginia, we headed north on US-220 through Roanoke and Covington. About 9 miles north of Covington, we stopped at the pull-off on the side of the highway for Falling Spring Falls. This beautiful 80-foot waterfall is visible roadside so we first got some pictures from the overlook.

The source of the water is a naturally heated spring, so this waterfall was not frozen. However, there were some nice icicles hanging from the cliff face and some snow and ice around the rocks at the base. We then headed down to the base following a faint path from the picnic area. Near the top of the waterfall, there was a rope swing - I guess people swim in the pool near the top when the weather is warmer. It was way too cold today to even think about swimming, though this water is warmer than other creeks.

The path heading down to the base was quite steep and the snow-covered rocks made the going a little treacherous.

But we made it safely down to the base and got some gorgeous pictures from here.

As we started making our way back up, we saw some people at the overlook. By the time we made it back to the parking area, they were heading back to their car and commented that we were very brave to head down there (or very stupid). Leaving the waterfall, we continued driving north on US-220 and stopped for lunch at Cucci’s at the Varsity between Hot Springs and Warm Springs. There isn’t a whole lot of restaurant choices so we stopped at the first place we saw. This restaurant is located inside a gas station so we weren’t expecting much. Sandy and I split a Buffalo Chicken Pizza and it was surprisingly good for gas station food. After lunch, we got on VA-39 and headed west into West Virginia. In Marlinton, we turned onto US-219 south and then right onto WV-55 west into Monongahela National Forest. Upon entering the forest, we finally started seeing snow accumulation on the ground. The road had been plowed, but was still a little slushy. In about 11 miles, we turned into the entrance for Falls of Hills Creek Scenic Area. The short forest road to the parking area had not been plowed, but enough other vehicles had driven through the snow that we were able to make it about a half-mile to the parking at the trailhead. From the parking area, we started hiking the short trail to see the three waterfalls along this stretch of creek.

Like the forest road, the trail was completely covered in snow and we had to follow footprints to stay on the trail. Many of the rhododendrons and other trees were heavily weighed down with snow and ice and were leaning over the trail, so we had to duck down or go around in many places.

Despite the challenges in hiking this easy trail (that is handicapped-accessible for the first portion), it was a beautiful snowy scene. Soon we came out at the overlook for Upper Falls on Hills Creek.

This 25-foot waterfall was completely frozen, but there was no good spot to view it from. We continued on the trail from here and began descending via steps and switchbacks.

The steps were rather slippery with ice, so we used the handrails to keep our footing.

Next, we stopped to see Middle Falls on Hills Creek, a 45-foot waterfall that was also completely frozen. At this overlook, we had a nice view of the frozen waterfall.

Then we continued down to the lower waterfall. This waterfall is over 60 feet and the most impressive of the three and the only one that was not completely frozen.

However, there was an amazing cone of ice at the base of the waterfall. It was about half the total height of the waterfall and I thought it resembled a giant blue pineapple.

We spent a little while down here enjoying the view and then started making our way back up to the parking lot.

On the way back up, Sandy peeled a layer of ice of the leaf of a rhododendron. It looked just like the leaf, but transparent.

Leaving the forest, we headed back to Marlinton and checked into our home for the evening - the Old Clark Inn, a cute little bed-and-breakfast. After getting settled into our room, we were getting ready to head out for dinner when we saw Steve and Loye checking in, along with their friends Luis, Mary, and Phil. We knew they were going to Snowshoe the same weekend as us, but we didn’t realize they’d be staying at the same hotel. After they got settled in, we all headed for dinner in Marlinton. After dinner, we socialized for a bit in the common area and then headed to bed.

Sylvan Heights Bird Park

This past Saturday, we headed to Sylvan Heights Bird Park in Scotland Neck with two other couples. We met at Justine’s house around 9 and then made our way east to the park, arriving a little before 11. All of us had pre-purchased our admission through Groupon or Living Social, so we checked in at the office upon arrival. Before we started on our tour, we saw some recent chicken eggs and hatchlings in the office building.

Two chicks had just hatched from their eggs and another one was working at it. There was a small hole in the egg and we could see him pecking at it, breaking his way out. Outside, we walked around the multinational exhibit, a large pond with many ducks, geese, and other waterfowl. Then we headed into the Landing Zone, the highlight of the tour. We bought some seed sticks and bags of duck food to feed the birds in here.

Flying around the enclosure were a number of budgerigar parakeets. All we had to do was hold up a seed stick and one or two would land on our hands and start eating the seeds. Sometimes, the birds were not in a sharing mood and one would chase the other one off and have the seed stick to herself.

Once the parakeets had cleaned off all the seed from the sticks, we headed to the other side of the exhibit where the American flamingos were standing in a shallow pool of water.

We bought some bags of duck pellets to feed the flamingos.

They seemed to be well fed as most weren’t interested in the food, but rather honking at each other and fighting to determine the pecking order of the flock. However, there were a few hungry flamingos more interested in food than with conflicts within the flock. Feeding these birds was quite an experience. I had seen flamingos plenty of times in the past, but this was the first time for an up-close encounter. Their curved beaks are lined with what looked like tiny little teeth, but I think they were for straining food out of shallow water. The birds also didn’t seem to like to eat dry food - they would either drop the food into the water or spit water into my hand before eating the pellets. Truly fascinating birds!

After we finished feeding the flamingos, we left the Landing Zone exhibit and continued touring the park. We walked past the South America exhibit, but most of these birds had been taken in from the cold. We walked around the far end of the park to the Beaver Pond Blind and Treehouse, but there wasn’t a lot to see here, so we continued back to the North America exhibit.

There were a lot of various ducks and geese here, as well as some beautiful cranes and geese.

One whooping crane was very interested in the GoPro camera and even tried to take a bite! The demoiselle cranes were especially beautiful with light grey-blue feathers and a plume of darker feathers running down their chests.

In the Eurasian birds exhibit, there were many different species of duck. The red-crested pochard were really cool looking, with big orange feathers on their heads, looking like some wild slicked-back hairdo.

Continuing on, we stopped at the flamingo exhibit to see the Chilean and lesser flamingos, and right past this exhibit was the Eurasian eagle-owls.

A pair of these owls were watching us intently, one with an angry look and the other looking more surprised. In the pheasant aviary, a male Indian peacock was in full display with his beautiful covert feathers up.

Unfortunately, behind the fence, it was tough to get a good picture. Next, we stopped to see the emu who got very excited by our presence. He seemed to take quite a liking to John! Continuing on, we stopped for a while at the exotic birds exhibits.

There were many beautiful and strange-looking birds here, including a helmeted curassow, burrowing owls, a red-wattled curassow, and a toco toucan.

Near the end of this exhibit, we stopped to see the laughing kookaburras. They didn’t seem to be in a singing mood, so Justine looked up their call on her phone and played it for them.

Once they heard it, they flew together from opposite sides of the cage and began singing their little hearts out. It was really exciting to watch them sing. And they had to be next to each other when they sang; I guess they didn't want to sing alone. Each time they started singing, they would fly over and perch next to each other, sing for a minute or so, then fly back apart.

Their songs are used to establish territory so perhaps when they heard the song from the phone, they thought some other birds were trying to encroach on their spot. We finished touring the area by checking out the Africa and Eurasia exhibits as we made our way back to the office.

The Abyssinian ground hornbill from Africa was a particularly fascinating looking bird.

It was all black with what looked like a broken horn on top of his beak and long eyelashes. A truly bizarre-looking creature!

We also saw more geese and ducks, including the beautiful Mandarin ducks, before heading back. From the park, we headed into Scotland Neck for lunch at La Casetta. It was right on Main Street and we parked in the middle of the street, between the two opposing lanes of traffic. After lunch, we started heading back. To break up the drive and get a little exercise, we stopped at Medoc Mountain State Park on the way home.

It was getting late and we didn’t have a lot of time, so we parked at the picnic area and hiked about 3 miles on the Bluff Loop Trail with nice views along Little Fishing Creek.

Once we finished, we started making our way back home.