Dunloup Creek Falls
Dunloup Creek
New River Gorge National River
West Virginia

Highest Position Explore #333

All weekend we fought difficult lighting conditions, but imagine my surprise when on our way to the ghost town of Thurmond that the morning light had yet to hit the falls on Dunloup Creek. I had visited this falls in May of 2009 with friends Jason Haley and Randy Sanger and sadly I walked away with some poor photographic representations. Back then, Jason and I were on our way home from a trip across the entire length of the Blue Ridge Parkway and had contacted Randy prior to the trip knowing we'd be passing by the New River Gorge. Jason and I were only in the area for a few hours as Randy gave us the expedited tour, but I knew by the little bit I saw I wanted to come back. So here I was again, with Jason and Randy, good friend Bryan Janosick and new friends Todd Williams and Sarah Hampton taking in the beauty the New River Gorge has to offer. Everybody and their aunt may have a photograph of this gorgeous falls, but at least now I have a good one.

Tags:   yahoo:yourpictures=autumn

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News Bee
My Arm
Thurmond, West Virginia

Highest Position Explore #30

While we were all mulling around waiting for Jason Haley to re-appear as we were passing through Thurmond, West Virginia on our waterfall trip, one of the local residents decided I might have some tasty treats on my arm. I'm really not sure what the true name of this fly is, but mom always called it a News Bee. Hopefully he got his fill of Bill.

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Douglas Falls
North Fork Blackwater River
Blackwater Canyon Trail
Monongahela National Forest
West Virginia

5 Image HDR

Thought I would visit one of my West Virginia images from earlier this year since I'll be spending some time at the New River Gorge waterfalling over the next few days with good friends Randy Sanger, Jason Haley and Bryan Janosick. Douglass Falls is one of my all time favorite falls, I hope to find some just half this awesome!

The interesting color of the rocks in the riverbed was created by an acid wash when the waste water from a abandoned upstream acid mine drained into the river and the resulting corrective measures to treat it discolored them. The event, which happened approximately 10 years ago, killed all the wildlife that resided in the river. Only recently have wildlife returned, but only to drink the water, for now the river is still dead.

Tags:   Douglas Falls North Fork Blackwater River Blackwater River Blackwater Canyon Blackwater Canyon Trail Monongahela National Forest West Virginia West Virginia Waterfalls Dead River Mine Spill Waterfall

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Unnamed Falls
Laurel Creek
Tributary Of The Gauley River
Gauley River National Recreation Area
West Virginia

On a recent trip to the New River Gorge area of West Virginia we decided to head over to the Gauley River National Recreation Area to hit some of its tributaries since that area had more recent rain than everywhere else. My good friend Randy Sanger described the trek to the bottom of this unnamed falls as “a mad scramble.” Unbeknownst to me, while I was shooting from above everyone went on and made their way down. Another good friend, Jason Haley stayed behind and showed me the way everyone took and boy was it a doosy, about a 100 ft. scramble down loose rock, dirt and around boulders, and although I’m normally pretty skittish about these kinds of things this one looked doable. After one hang up I reached the bottom and hiked upstream to meet everyone. When I arrived there were several leaves swirling in the splash pool and it looked really cool. As I was getting ready to set up Randy walked to the base of the falls and pulled out a 6 x 2 that was hung up in the rocks and what followed next was incredible as the newly unblocked water created an unbelievable amount of bubbles and foam that spread out over the splash pool creating the scene which you see here.

Tags:   Gauley River National Recreation Area Waterfall Laural Creek Swirls Fall Autumn Fultz Fotos

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Sandstone Falls
New River
New River Gorge National River
West Virginia

5 Image HDR

An image of my favorite section of Sandstone Falls, the 1200 ft river wide waterfall.

Tags:   Sandstone Falls New River Gorge New River Gorge National River New River West Virginia

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