Blackwater Falls and other delights

After a heavy rain last night, the Blackwater River was gushing over the falls, drowning out human voices and pretty much everything else around. I was there in March about 10 years ago, when Loie and Momma and Daddy and Zach and I got a cabin and stayed there for a few days, celebrating (as I recall) Zach's release from his long detention and hospitalization at G.W. University Hospital. I never dreamed then that this winding path called life would bring me back this way, close enough to Blackwater Falls State Park to drive about 10 miles for a spring hike on a mostly cloudy last day of March.
The peculiar thing about the Blackwater River, something I've just learned, is that it doesn't end down here in the wetlands of the valley, as it appears to; but it actually begins here, rising on Canaan Mountain at an elevation of over 3,500 feet, going NNE and then turning WSW before it drops 62' over the falls in dramatic fashion and enters an 8-mile long canyon where it creates Class IV-V rapids and whitewater. Eventually, it finds its way to the Mississippi by way of the Ohio River. 

What makes it appear black is tannin in the water, leached from eastern hemlock, red spruce, rhododendron, and mountain laurel, and it's more tea-colored than black, actually.

West Virginia has an amazing array of state parks, and Blackwater is one of its crown jewels. But I discovered a new one last Saturday when driving to Aurora for the fine dinner and music Zach and I enjoyed; and tomorrow morning, on my way to Ohio, I plan to stop and take a short hike in Cathedral State Park, so-named for it's towering stand of hemlock trees.

In fact, it is "an ancient hemlock forest of majestic proportions and one of the last living commemorations of the vast virgin hemlock forest that once flourished in the Appalachian Highlands." Since I had such an excellent church service in the great outdoors last Sunday, I figure that a walk in Cathedral State Park is an appropriate thing to do on Palm Sunday morning. It may not be the giant redwoods, but from looking at this photo, I'd say it's going to be pretty spectacular! The trees are as high as 90' and over 20' in circumference, and they form "cloisters" in the park. Guess I'll pack my Bible and my walking sticks! I'm learning why this beautiful state is often called West "By God" Virginia.