Chippokes Plantation State Park

This plantation was turned in to a State Park in Virginia and is located down in Surry county. It is along the James River and has cypress trees and tidal areas that have some diversity. Very interesting place to go and nice in the summer months where you can go out in the water and see the animals and crabs about.

Used a X-Pro2 to take these photos…

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Cypress tree along the James River at low tide…

_DSF4591One of the little crabs on the beach…

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Ripples in the sand near a creek snaking through the beach…

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The creek that snaked on the beach had a variety of shells and stones under its clear water…

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One more of the cypress trees that are along the James…

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A Short Time in Zion National Park

Last year I took a west trip in Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California where I did much exploring and hiking. First time I had experienced the “west” of the United States as we see it. A lot different from the North West of America like Oregon and Washington where there were tons of tall trees to this land of rock, dust and short sage brush.

Zion National Park is one of five National Parks in Utah and probably is the one that is most visited. It was extremely packed at that time of year, June, and it was hard to enjoy the nature and scenery in the late afternoon. The traffic congestion was awful, I sat in traffic for 1 hour to go 3 miles to the visitor center. There were many hikes I had in mind to do but there were queues for the trail. I never heard of something like that. The scenery was awesome though and I am glad that I made the stop here. I wanted to hike up the narrows as well but the water level and amount was to much for people to go up the Virgin River.

Images taken with an X-Pro2, The Virgin River below looking up the “trail” into the Narrows and the bottom is the Virgin River flowing through Zion Canyon with The Watchman standing in the back.

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Inside Swannanoa

Last month I had the opportunity to go take a tour of Swannanoa which is located up on Afton Mountain in Virginia right of the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is a wonderful looking marble mansion/palace in an Italian Renaissance Revival style built in 1912. It was built by James Dooley the same family of the Maymont house and park in Richmond Virginia. It eventually was left abandoned and empty for a long time till it was bought by a private party that has done what they can to keep it from falling apart. They hold tours there now on some weekends and anyone can check it out if you are in the area. It is a fabulous property including outside. This is one of the many light fixtures that are inside the mansion with the falling-apart paint and wall paper and the bottom is from the ceiling.

Taken with  Fujifilm X-Pro2 and 35mm f/2 lens

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