Trip Report

Foggy Morning in the Forest /  by Todd Henson

A foggy New Year’s Day hike in 2023 at Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge

A short while back I shared a series of photographs of the trails at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge in heavy fog on December 31st, 2022. Today I’m sharing a series of scenes from Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge in the fog on January 1st, 2023, though it’s not nearly as thick.

The soft light of sunrise through the fog

It had rained recently so the ground was a bit soggy, some areas more than others. There was a light fog that let you see the way ahead but slightly obscured the distant trees in a hazy mist. The sun was rising while we hiked and though we couldn’t directly see the sun it did light up the fog in that direction. A couple photos show this.

Foggy sunrise at Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge

When we finally arrived at the observation platform the fog was far more visible, causing the distant wetlands to disappear. We couldn’t even make out the Potomac River. On a previous trip we’d seen tundra swans in the water beyond the tree, but this day the water level was too low, so the tundra swans were hidden out in the fog where the water was deep enough for them. We couldn’t see them but we could hear them.

Mason Neck wetlands in the fog

When we decided to head back I turned around and loved how the rising sun shone through the fog enough to light up the trees, which really set them off nicely against the darker wet leaves on the ground and the light mist in the distance. You can see a little blue in the sky as the fog slowly dissipated.

Sun-lit misty morning

All in all, it was a very pleasant first hike of the year. And as a side note, we weren’t the only ones wanting to spend the first morning of the year out in the woods. We ran across far more people on the trails than we were used to and when we returned to the parking area it was completely full, something I’d not seen before. I have very mixed emotions about things like that. I think it’s absolutely fantastic to see folks getting out and enjoying hiking in the woods. And yet I’ve never been comfortable in big crowds and I love hiking locations where we rarely run into anyone else, so I miss being able to do that. Thankfully, we returned a week or so later and things were back to normal.

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A Walk Through the Autumnal Woods of Prince William Forest Park /  by Todd Henson

Sometimes it’s fun to take you along with me, virtually, as I hike a trail, showing you many of the various sights I see, giving you a feel for the location and time of year. In this case I decided to hike a trail my father and I had hiked part of in the past. This time I was on my own and wanted to try hiking a little further than we’d been before. Little did I know when I set out that I’d spend about 3 1/2 hours hiking a large loop instead of just heading in and back out on the same path as I’d initially planned. Because of the length of the trip and all I saw this will be a rather long and photograph heavy post, but I’m hoping you’ll enjoy seeing the variety a late fall morning offered.

I began the hike around 7:28 am in Prince William Forest Park in Prince William County, Virginia. It’s become one of my favorite parks. It doesn’t have any iconic grand landscape views but is full of smaller, more intimate scenes that I just love, not to mention all the various plants and critters. It was the first week of November, so late autumn when the leaves are very actively falling from the trees. I parked at the lot along the beginning of Mawavi Road, interestingly named by an early camp user by taking the first two letters of Maryland, Washington, and Virginia and stringing them together.

Below is what Mawavi Road looks like. It’s a gravel road that slowly winds downhill to South Fork Quantico Creek. I’m going to include a number with each photo today to give you an idea of how many photos I sometimes create during a hike. Each time I go out I number the photos from 1 to whatever so I know how many photos I created on each outing.

Photo 10: Mawavi Road in autumn

Alongside the road I found a beech tree whose leaves had mostly already changed color and were quickly turning brown. But this one had a small bit of color left. I loved how individual leaves showed the transition from green to yellow and on to brown.

Photo 24: The colors of autumn beech leaves.

At one point I stopped to create some abstract images of the trees alongside the road. Sometimes I’ll experiment with intentional camera motion to create a more artistic and impressionistic view of a scene. I’ll share some of these photos in a future post, but what I’m sharing here is what I discovered when I lowered the camera to the forest floor. The entire time I was photographing there was a white-tailed deer foraging right in front of me. It was incredibly patient with me. Most will run off as soon as they see, hear or smell me. But this one just kept going about its business. I learned that I could make a noise, moving and crunching on the gravel road and the deer would just look up at me, twisting its ears to hear, and then go right back to eating. I love these sorts of moments!

Photo 62: I caught the attention of a white-tailed deer not far away in the woods.

Sometimes I like to turn around and see what the scene looks like just behind me. In this case I noticed how the sun was lighting up this yellow tree. It’s a simple scene, and certainly not a stunning photograph, but I wanted to remember it and how I felt when I saw it.

Photo 105: Turning around I saw a bit of color on Mawavi Road.

This time of year is a great time to look down at the leaf litter. Sometimes you can find interesting patterns and arrangements. What drew me to the scene below was this lone, pale fern sticking out of the layer of brown leaves.

Photo 129: On old and faded fern pokes out of a layer of fallen leaves.

When I reached South Fork Quantico Creek I turned left and started following South Valley Trail along the creek. In some areas the trail seems cut out from the trees and shrubs that line the edges, and at this time of year it’s completely covered in leaves.

Photo 157: Turning left I began following the leaf covered South Valley Trail.

If you hike the trail far enough you’ll get glimpses of Mawavi Lake, a lake created along the creek and situated just below some cabins folks can camp in. By the time I reached the lake the sun was fully up in the sky and most all the clouds had left, so the light was rather bright and harsh, which can make some sorts of photography more difficult. I chose to create a number of abstracts in this location, but I also wanted to show you a couple small scenes as I saw them. You can see bits of color in the two photos below, especially that one red tree. And the reflections are always nice.

Photo 186: Reflections of red on Mawavi Lake.

Photo 250: Reflections and the far shore of Mawavi Lake.

After I’d spent enough time creating abstracts and watching the very loud group of Canada geese on the lake it was time to get going again, so I continued on the path that weaves around the lake.

Photo 252: Continuing along the leaf-covered trail beside Mawavi Lake.

As some point my eyes were drawn to a patch of green with a single small mushroom growing out of it. I created a number of photos of this mushroom from various angles. I love these small, simple scenes.

Photo 279: A lone mushroom hiding in a carpet of greenery.

Another simple scene was this beautiful arrangement, one I found naturally, of a fallen beech leaf and oak leaf resting together. I love the little bits of red at the edges of the otherwise green oak leaf.

Photo 317: Beech and oak.

Not too much further up the trail I noticed movement below. The day had begun rather cool and I had on a long-sleeved shirt, but now it was getting rather warm so I’d removed the extra shirt. It was apparently warm enough for this wolf spider to be moving about below.

Photo 334: A wolf spider moved in the grass and leaves below.

When I reached the intersection between South Valley Trail, which I was on, and High Meadows Trail, which heads back uphill towards the Scenic Drive, I stopped and rested on a rock alongside the creek, had a small bite to eat and a bit of water to drink. Then I decided to make a loop of the trip by taking High Meadows Trail instead of turning around. When I stood up and began walking I noticed movement below and saw a large number of eastern yellowjackets flying amongst the leaves. I’m very glad I noticed them before stepping on what might have been their nest below the leaves. That might have made for a very different sort of trip as these can sting repeatedly, which is reportedly very painful.

Photo 339: I’m glad I didn’t step on these eastern yellowjackets who likely had a nest below the leaves.

This particular hike uphill is always a tiring one for me, perhaps because I always end up here at the end of a hike when I’m already tired. But I still stopped a couple times to create photographs. In one case I found some very small mushrooms growing on a stump. You might not be able to tell but there are actually two very small spiders hanging on the underside of the cup of the mushroom.

Photo 352: Some very small mushrooms growing from an old stump, with two even smaller spiders hanging below the cup.

Just before I reached the road I noticed a fascinating oak leaf, one that was very colorful on one side but completely brown on the other.

Photo 397: An oak leaf with its color split down the center.

Finally, I reached the top of the trail and the Scenic Drive. Of course, this isn’t where I parked so I needed to turn left and walk along the road to head back to the Mawavi Road parking area. But this turned out to be a very good thing as it gave me time to appreciate and photograph the lovely winding road as it weaved through the trees, a little fall color still left here and there, fallen leaves all over the road. Sometimes the sun was out and brightly illuminating the scene and other times a cloud would cover the sun and create a very soft light. I loved the variety along the road and I hope you enjoy the series of photos below.

Photo 420: Leaves fall from the trees, covering the Scenic Drive.

Photo 430: When a cloud would cover the sun it created nice soft light.

Photo 439: I love all the curves of the Scenic Drive. Very scenic, indeed!

Photo 454: I love trying to capture fallen leaves in a photograph in autumn.

Photo 465: Another lovely section of the winding Scenic Drive.

About 3 1/2 hours later I arrived back at my car after creating 468 photographs. This is on the higher end of what I usually create in this park. Most often it’s less than half that. But there was much to see this time, many different beautiful scenes, a couple of creatures, and several scenes that inspired me to create a number of abstracts (which I’ll share in a future post). It was a fantastic trip. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of visiting this park.

I hope you enjoyed this little virtual walk with me as I hiked the trails of Prince William Forest Park. I’ve certainly enjoyed sharing the experience with you.

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The Glowing Golds of the Ginkgo Grove /  by Todd Henson

A view first of Blandy Experimental Farm’s Ginkgo Grove near peak color in autumn.

My father and I had been to Blandy Experimental Farm, the State Arboretum of Virginia, several times but had never seen their Ginkgo Grove during fall when the leaves turn a beautiful golden yellow. This year, along with my mother, we decided to make the trip and see how our timing worked out. We’d watched their status web page and the weather and knew it’d be better visiting in the morning on a weekday as it can apparently get very busy later in the day and especially on weekends. So I took a day off work in late October when the weather was forecast to be at least slightly overcast and we made the trip. And I’m very glad we did.

Leaves and trees at the Ginkgo Grove.

It’s not all that unusual for me to feel overwhelmed and a bit lost when photographing a location or scene for the first time, especially if there’s a lot to see. And that was very much the case here. I hadn’t spent much time looking at any photos of the location online and I didn’t really know what to expect so I didn’t have many preconceived notions of what I’d like to photograph. The only one, really, was highly dependent on weather. I had this idea that a slightly foggy morning would create a beautifully soft and dreamy view of the lines of trees in the grove as they disappeared into the fog. And on the drive there it looked promising, there was fog in some areas as we approached Blandy. But when we arrived at the grove there wasn’t any fog to be seen. So I simply walked around the grove, trying to stay out of the way of the small number of other folks there with cameras while I noticed them doing the same for me.

Watching for falling leaves at the Ginkgo Grove (I only captured a couple).

It was a beautiful sight, all this yellow painting the trees and small sections of the ground where the leaves had fallen. We must have arrived at just about peak color. There was a little green here and there, and there were some leaves on the ground, but most of the trees were full of leaves of a very interesting shape and color. The ginkgo leaf is very distinctive. I captured a couple closeups to show you the leaves and the fleshy seeds or fruit. Apparently the seeds can have a bad smell, though I didn’t notice, and are poisonous when eaten raw. They can even irritate the skin if touched. Another point of interest is that only the female trees contain the seeds so this time of year you can easily tell a male from a female tree. Apparently city planners try to plant only male trees to avoid any issues with the seeds.

The golden leaves of a ginkgo biloba tree.

Looking up at the fleshy ginkgo seeds clustered amongst the golden leaves.

Showing the bark of a ginkgo biloba tree.

One of the informational signs said Blandy has over 300 trees, making it one of the largest groves in North America, and I think I might have read on their website that it is the largest in the country. Unfortunately, the sign also said their trees showed signs of stress and that many have died, so they may not live the thousand years or more the species is capable of. Not being an expert in these matters, the trees looked magnificent to me.

I thoroughly enjoyed walking amongst them, and I very much hope my parents also enjoyed the visit. It was a cool but comfortable morning and the soft light helped set a mood. I did find a little bit of foggy mist at one point as I noticed a distinct softening as I looked far into the grove, so even though I didn’t get the one photo I’d imagined I still came away with what I hope are some nice ones. As I said, I did feel a bit overwhelmed and I suspect it would take multiple trips before I started really feeling the place and creating better photos, though that time is now past for this year. Perhaps next year we’ll attempt another trip in search of the colorful gingko biloba foliage.

The glowing golds of the Ginkgo Grove.

If you ever make the trip there be aware parking is very limited at the grove site and reserved for people with limited mobility. The main parking is located just off the entrance road near The Quarters and you’ll have to walk a little ways to reach the grove. On the day we visited they had plenty of signs telling you where to park and where to walk.

The informational sign about Blandy’s Ginkgo Grove, one of the arboretum’s special collections.

Have you ever been to Blandy? Have you seen their Ginkgo Grove? Have you seen ginkgo trees elsewhere? Let me know in the comments below.

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