Brandywine Falls on an Autumn Day

The Jewish holidays are finally over and life returns to normal, whatever normal is. Sunday was a day of catching up paying the bills, washing clothes, putting our holiday “things” away for another year. But Richard and I are not so good at “all work and no play!” We are responsible adults, but the child in each of us has to come out and play at times. 🙂  Some weeks ago I read about the Cuyahoga National Forest and the Brandywine Falls. We had hoped to get down during the height of the colorful fall season, but with the holidays and our work schedules, we were unable to take that drive. Tis a pity because Brandywine Falls is only about thirty minutes from where we live. After hours of doing the responsible adult things however, Richard and I decided it was time for a day trip (or in this case, a three-hour trip.) We got a little lost on the way down, but as always, we found ourselves and made it to our destination. We were not disappointed.

At the top of the trail we got our first glimpse of the falls. The sun was shining and the rays sparkled off the water. A person can tell that the falls will be beautiful, but it is not until further on that the hiker see the full beauty of water cascading over jutting rocks into a pool at the base where the Brandywine River continues its course.

The trail leads hikers down the ravine, gradually at first, zig-zagging gently until
reaching the steps that rapidly accelerate the descent to the base of the falls. Many people may miss the beauty of the forest in their haste to reach the bottom which is a real shame. Although the height of the fall colors had passed, there was still quite a bit of colorful foliage. Furthermore, the sun streaming through the stand of trees created a beauty not to be ignored.

As we continued along the trail descending down to the falls, we also passed some interesting rock formations.

Now the full view of Brandywine Falls was coming into view!

There were two landings from which to view the falls, so I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

We lingered there for a while, chatting with other visitors and simply enjoying the view. On our way back out of the ravine, I saw the stream meandering through the forest, a sight I had not seen before because I was focused on the falls. The interesting thing is that I had no hope of getting a good shot because the sun was too far down in the sky and the shadows in the hollow were too deep. But, being the photographer that I am, I shot photos to my heart’s content anyway ~ one of the perks of the digital age in photography when there is no worry about the cost of film and processing! Any way, back to my story, when I uploaded these photos to my laptop, I was pleasantly surprised. What the photos showed but I had failed to see when shooting, is that the yellows still in the trees reflected on the stream giving it a golden look in parts. Lovely.

Coming back up the trail, the sun was low enough in the sky to create some beautiful silhouettes of the trees (sorta…at least a silhouette of Richard). Here is one sample.

We walked along another peaceful, bucolic trail for a little while.

And then returned along the path that led us into the park, and past the Bed & Breakfast, once a farmhouse, that provided more interesting photo opportunities.

There you have it! Our wonderful afternoon of playing hooky. 🙂 If you are ever interested in visiting, you can google Cuyahoga National Forest, or Brandywine Falls, or the Brandywine Bread & Breakfast, all found in northeastern Ohio, USA.  Hope you enjoyed the outing. We sure did 😉

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