January 7, 2011
The forecast for today was for snow showers beginning in the morning and lasting through this evening into tomorrow. Sounded like ideal “walking in the country” weather to me, so we drove to a nearby place called Bash Bish Falls. I know the name sounds silly, but the actual place is quite wonderful. It’s a waterfall in a park on the border of New York and Massachusetts. The river waters form on Mt. Washington in Massachusetts, wind their way into New York State and reach a rocky waterfall that plunges from a height of about 200 feet. The river then flows quickly along the bottom of a winding gorge. I’ve seen Bash Bish Falls a number of times in winter and it’s quite spectacular with frozen spray decorating the sides and lots of icy waters.
Unfortunately, the trail was full of slippery ice and it was too dangerous to try to make it all the way up from the parking lot. So we decided to just drive along the narrow road which winds alongside the river. That’s where I started to take pictures of the icicles that cover the rocks along the road.
Icicles on the rocks form when water seeps through the soil and the cracks in rocks and then freezes as it drips down the rock side. These are just like the icicles that form from dripping roofs in winter. Icicles grow as water trickles down the spear of ice and freeze in successive layers. In other words the icicles don’t freeze all at once, but are built up of layer after layer of frozen water. That makes icicles quite different from snowflakes and much more like hail, which is formed by layer after layer of frozen water.
To me, a rock covered by layers of ice and icicles is the very picture of cold wintertime. What do you think? Do you have a different photo of winter that you like? Send me an email (simon@seymoursimon.com) with your favorite winter photo attached. I’ll put your photo on my blog and we can compare!
Icicles anyone?
Posted by: Seymour Simon
