Twice a year in April and now October, Steve and David from the West Virginia Tourism Department host a photography seminar at Twin Falls State Resort Park near Mullens which has a great set of murals covered on the Mullens Murals page. In 2007 it was held in September which was just a little early for the full fall color.
Here is one of the falls which here in late summer and before the fall rains does not have much water. This was a photography seminar so I explored the difference between a slow shutter speed giving the soft silky view Vs a fast shutter speed which makes the individual droplets stand out.
Rather than stay at the resort for the few days of the seminar we setup in the campground for two whole weeks and took a lot of hikes on the park trails. One day we passed this grove of thistles which were covered with a flock of butterflies. I took pictures for twenty three minutes and fifty-five seconds before POOF
all the butterflies were gone. When we came back a few days later the whole field including the thistles had been mowed.
This is a fairly new park opened in 1968 with a couple of large corporate land donations and purchasing the few small farms in between. Mostly the trees are young but provide welcome shade while hiking in the heat. I should also mention that this is West Virginia where the residents have one leg shorter than the other to help walk the steep hills. Reminders of the farms abound like this old car in the trees.
Driving through the park wildlife can be found most anyplace. It was not quite rut season but the bucks were collecting their harems. The birds seemed totally oblivious to anything around them. I drove by, stopped, came back for this picture and they were completely absorbed in each other.
On the way up to the overlook we found this huge fungus growing on an old tree stump. We also scared off the herd of deer temporarily. One of the old farmers had pet deer and although the parks owns the farm he still feeds his deer. Fines, fences, or jail don't make a difference. He feeds his deer.
The park maintains a fully functional operating pioneer farm for a variety of educational programs including having the seminar group tromp all over the area taking pictures. The only major restriction was recognizing that the farmhouse is still someones home and we are intruding.
While having breakfast one morning a sun beam made this spider web glisten. Other places I've mentioned we also like nice bugs. We also learned another camping lesson that without a FULL
rainfly it is difficult to get in and out of a tent in the rain. Open the window to get air and the rain blows in.