January 6, 2016.

1.7 mi | 200′ ele. gain | 45 min.

Another gloomy day, another quickie dayhike close to home. I headed out to McDowell Creek Falls to see if the falls were raging from all this precipitation.

The same cold, low dampness I’d experienced the day before in the valley had followed me out here. Everything was wet. Everything was covered with rotting fallen leaves and moss. Some vibrant green ferns stood out among all the brown decay. And the waterfalls were, as expected, magnificent. Impossible to photograph for a lazy photographer like myself? Yes.

I hike for the sake of hiking, not for taking photos. For me, photography is a way for me to take a snapshot of a moment so that I can go back and relive it later. It’s not a profession. I don’t go hiking specifically to capture a particular shot or spend an hour trying to frame the perfect something-or-other. It’s an incidental thing that I do, sometimes, while I’m out and about. The act of taking pictures, for me, detracts from experiencing the moment. So I don’t end up with all the killer photos that go viral on social media. That’s okay. What’s more important to me is that I soak up the experience for myself.

If I happen to capture a cool shot, I’ll share it. But the coolest shots are pretty much left up to chance.

Anyways, in less than an hour I breezed through this park, wondering…what’s next?