The lodge at Salt Fork State Park, OhioFor the last three days, I have been holed up in Salt Fork State Park, down by Cambridge, Ohio, out in the middle of nowhere, at a conference. And by "nowhere", I mean the entrance road to the lodge is seven miles of twists and turns. As I drove that stretch Wednesday night, I saw one car - and five deer - on the road.
I took a couple opportunities to hike around. It is not the loveliest time of year, but the temperature was pretty accommodating and it felt good to not be doing the two things one does at conferences - sittin' and eatin'.
Anyhow, I guess the weirdest object I took a picture of was not really that weird - but it will have to do. I guess rather than filing it under "weird", it would be more like "the wonders and minute details of nature". So this is it:
Then there are the deer. Salt Fork is set on seemingly thousands of acres of land. While bow hunting is going on around the perimeter of the place, nearly all the park itself is a sort of deer sanctuary with "no hunting" signs posted everywhere - which is good for trail hikers like me. So the deer within the park tend to be a bit more human-friendly than they are way out in the wild.
For example, they graze on the grass right next to the lodge.
Farther into the woods, I happened to come upon about 15 deer of varying size, foraging around, with a couple young 'uns horsing (or "deering"?) around. Here are a few shots of the deer from my little hike yesterday.
Seems to me it would be safer to let the tail get a bit dingy - that bright white kinda gives 'em away...
And not far from where I saw the deer, the setting was like this:
8 comments:
Nature provides us with all the weird objects we could ever post, if we only paid attention.
I love the outdoors. It looks like a wonderful hiking area.
Wish I was there!!
Our family took a vacation there one summer. It is really a beautiful place. We loved the lodge there too.
Jessica: The bird watching was not too great, although I did see a pileated woodpecker fly by. It wouldn't stop for a photo op, though.
Very nice post, deer. Er, I mean dear.
I'll give you a 7 for effort on your WOF today. :)
I think I have been to Salt Fork- and I enjoyed your deer pictures.
So here's Question # 21 for you. Do you know where the
Y bridge city is? (That's where I'm from; west of Cambridge.)
Y-bridge - Zainesville, I believe.
We've been to Salt Fork a couple of times, and sometimes it hard to avoid getting run over by the deer - and I wouldn't want to try playing a round of golf, as they really crowd the gold course.
Yeah, I knew the Y was in Z - but I've never crossed the mighty Muskingum on it. Got a college friend from Zanesville named Brent.
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