My father and I welcomed in 2024 with a walk along the Neabsco Creek Boardwalk. He volunteers to open the boardwalk several days a week and this happened to be one of those days. We arrived when it was still pitch black outside. For the holidays they decorate and light up parts of the park and some sections of the boardwalk on select days and during certain hours, so it was interesting seeing all the decorations and lights when they were off and dark. Some were a little creepy, hanging from trees over the path leading to the boardwalk. I didn’t get any photos of these as it was completely dark.

You can see at 6:28 how dark it was from the parking lot. You can also see some of the decorations. They had a sleigh and reindeer under the pavilion for the kids. There’s also a small playground just beyond. The lights through the trees on the left are from a sewage treatment plant.

When we arrived at the first gate it was 6:38 and still very dark. I set up the tripod and captured a 30 second exposure of the gate, which I then lightened a bit in post. You can see the sky lighting up where the sun will rise, as well as the lights of the marina and a housing community through the gaps in the gate on the far shore of the wetlands.

This time of year the wetlands is somewhat scraggly with all the vegetation now brown. Some cattails still stand tall but many of the grasses and other plants have died down or been plastered to the ground by the tides and flooding. These photos were created between 6:53 to 7:09.

Just before the sun comes up, if there’s enough of a gap, it can light up the clouds with reds and oranges. I happened to find a cooperative great blue heron fishing just off the boardwalk during this time, and though this was a 1.6 second exposure it stayed fairly still during that time. This occurred at 7:17.

The sewage treatment plant on one shore sometimes releases warmer water into the wetlands which increases the amount of mist floating over that area. This morning the receding tide took it out towards the Potomac River, which at this location is close enough to the ocean that its tidal, meaning these are tidal wetlands. If you come at different times you see the channels of water flowing in either direction. The large houses are further along the shore, down from the sewage treatment plant and slightly closer to the river. These photos are from 7:33 and 7:45.

Sometimes it doesn’t take long for people to begin showing up to either jog or walk the boardwalk. There was one very early, before all the gates had yet been opened. But after all the gates were open more slowly showed up for their first of the year walks. In this case I found a section of boardwalk where you could see it winding back and forth into the distance and thought adding that human presence added something nice. By this time it was 8:16. 

Heading back I thought I’d capture a view of some of the decorations they’d installed around one of the gates to the boardwalk. I think they’ve done a nice job. They limit the decorations and lights to the loop of the boardwalk closest to the shore, as well as the paths on land, and only do them for a limited amount of time so as to limit disturbance to wildlife. And speaking of wildlife, I did see a fox, beaver, muskrat, heron, hawk (which landed on one of the fake trees on the boardwalk!), ducks, gulls and many smaller birds like sparrows. Granted, many were seen when it was still so dark I wasn’t able to capture any clear photos of them.

And this final photo was created at 8:39 just outside the boardwalk gates looking back out towards the marina and the train bridge over the wetlands. Beyond the bridge is the Potomac River, and where the sun rose.

It doesn’t take two hours to open the boardwalk, but when you have someone with a camera tagging along it can cause the overall walk to take that long. :-)

This was a great way to begin the year, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it.

Try the following for more from Neabsco Creek Boardwalk:

• Brooding Over Morning Marshlands

• Overcast Twilight on Neabsco Creek Boardwalk

• Green on Green

• Boardwalk Birding

• Soft Autumn Bliss 

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