Hiking at Turkey Run

For my son’s 20th birthday this week he wanted to go hiking at Turkey Run State Park in Indiana. He’s been before so knew all the hikes, but as his 70 year old Gran and I were going with him I expected him to choose the ‘easy’ routes…. Nope. He chose all the most difficult ones – ‘rugged’ is how the trail map described them. In consideration of our advanced years he made us do the harder ones first, which meant that by the end of the day (4 hours of hiking btw!) we only had to consider stairs as the ‘obstacles’. He’s all heart that boy! According to MyFitnessPal I climbed 44 flights of stairs that day!

Anyway I was glad I’d taken my compact camera because it meant when I was climbing up gorges and down canyons, plus walking along streams and very narrow cliff edges I could balance myself better without a big DSLR hanging round my neck. Next time I go back I will definitely take the big camera with me though. The scenery was luscious and the rocks were majestic. I was fighting the bright sunlight though with my compact, which I have to say did quite a decent job in the circumstances with only a few blown highlights and flares. It was a fabulous day and I’m already planning when I can go back.

The start of the hike was looking good and pretty easy so far.

Son climbing up Wedge Rock.

There are many legends about how Turkey Run got its name. One story says that wild turkeys, finding it warmer in the canyon bottoms, or “runs”, would often huddle in these runs to avoid the cold. Pioneer hunters would herd the turkeys through these natural funnels into a central location for an easy harvest. Since historic accounts suggest that large numbers of turkeys lived here, it follows that turkeys in the runs prompted the area’s name, Turkey Run.

Eventually we gave up trying to use stepping stones and logs to get over the water and just walked up the streams. We then had the joy of wet feet for the rest of the day.

Caves and overhangs were everywhere. There was so much to explore and see; it really was photography heaven.

The colours on the rocks were phenomenal.

The Devil’s Punchbowl was amazing and one of the places I’m definitely coming back to with my DSLR and a tripod!

Some of the five million stairs we climbed. I have to say my wee mum was a champ. She has more energy than me and even though some of the stairs were higher up than her knee she managed everything!

Falls Canyon waterfall

The Ice Box

A Five-Lined Skink

Canoeing (or kayaking) down Sugar Creek river

How I would do it if I was canoeing!

What a great way to spend the day with my son and my mum, plus added bonus. I was only very slightly sore the next day. Result!

 

 

Aloha Part 5

Or Hawaii 5-0, except I’ve posted more than 50 photographs of Hawaii, but who’s counting. Not going to say too much about this last lot. They were all taken out of a helicopter’s side-window. Sometimes there’s a bit of reflection in the shot but I knew that my mum and sister would never stand for a ‘doors-off’ ride. They were worried enough about the regular helicopter ride never mind suggesting to them we book one with no doors on. Oh well, next time maybe.

P.S. I actually re-arranged the back of the pilot’s seat by moving all the important information cards and sick-bags (or comfort bags as they’re now called) from the seat pocket so I wouldn’t get as many reflections. Got to get my priorities right you know. Photograph first, safety second. Joking.

Anyway seatbelts fastened, headphones on, sit back and enjoy the ride.

Above the treetops

Sea Cave

Na Pali coastline

Kauai valley

Kauai river

Kauai Waterfalls

Beautiful Kauai

Kauai landscape

Misty mountains (cue a wee Hobbitey song sung by dwarves)

Somewhere under a rainbow

Mountaintop Greenery

Na Pali Valley

View to the Pacific

Na Pali cliffs

Na Pali coastline

Hikers (zoom in to the bottom LHS quarter to see them)

Beautiful Kauai coastline

Well I say that’s all from Kauai, but I still have all the coastal shots of crashing waves, sea birds, pretty flowers to edit…. maybe I’ll throw another post up at some point in the future but at the moment it’s Aloha from Hawaii and Mahalo for looking at my photographs.

 

Aloha, part 2

Just around the corner from Shipwreck Beach

In my family I’m probably the only one with any sort of good sense of direction, therefore I’m nearly always the map reader and directiononteerer (I just made that word up). The kids nowadays nearly always use their phones for (they say) more accurate directions than mine, which usually consist of “just around the next corner” when I really mean just around the next 5 corners. Anyway, on the photo above of the cliffs at Shipwreck Beach, Kauai (which WAS just around the corner) believe it or not they actually cliff dive off the point at the LHS of the photograph. Madness!

Shaka – Hang Ten or Hang Loose

Yeah, I didn’t have a go at surfing. Maybe if I’d been younger and didn’t have a dodgy hip…. But I did embrace the Hang Loose sign (tried to find an emoji that I could cut and paste into my text, but after countless hours searching Google (2 minutes!) I gave up)

Na Pali Coast

Na Pali. Undoubtedly one of the most amazing places on Earth, and definitely one of the most fabulous places I’ve ever seen. I was totally in awe of the beauty of this place. It’s pretty inaccessible except for hikers or from a boat or helicopter. This fifteen-mile stretch of rugged coastline on the northwest shore of Kauai literally means ‘The Cliffs’. Much of Na Pali Coast is inaccessible due to its characteristic sheer cliffs that drop straight down, thousands of feet into the ocean. I could stay there all day and NEVER get tired of the views. Nature at her finest I’m sure you’ll agree.

Lucy the Duck

Lucy decided to join the guided tour around Allerton Gardens in Kauai. She was very friendly and posed nicely for me when I asked her.

Spouting Horn, Poipu

On Kauai’s south shore you’ll find the spectacular Spouting Horn blowhole, one of the most photographed spots on Kauai. The Poipu surf channels into a natural lava tube here and releases a huge spout of water during large swells. You’ll also hear a hiss and a roar that is the basis of a Hawaiian legend.

Ancient Hawaiians believed this coastline was once guarded by a giant moo (lizard) named Kaikapu. Everyone was afraid of the moo because it would eat anyone who tried to fish or swim in the area. One day, a young boy named Liko entered the ocean to outwit the lizard. Kaikapu attacked him, but Liko thrust a sharp stick into her mouth, swam under the lava shelf, and escaped through a small hole to the surface. The moo followed Liko and got stuck in the lava tube. To this day, you can hear the lizard’s roar and see her breath spraying from the blowhole. *copied from ‘GoHawaii.com’*

A curious gecko

A lucky shot for me. Sitting eating lunch one day and this little fellow comes up and goes “Whatchadoing?” so I grabbed my compact camera (Fuji 900exr) and got exactly 2 shots before he ran away. This is a huge crop and zoom so I’m very pleased at how good it turned out considering. Anyone want to buy some car insurance now?

Photography 101: Home

This might be considered as cheating (yep, first assignment for Photography 101 and she’s cheating already!) as it’s not a new photograph, it’s one I took last summer.

But for me THIS is home. Not this particular cottage btw, but home is and always will be Scotland. I might live in a different country and I might never move back (home) but I’ll always be a Scottish girl at heart.