Joel Dinda's photos with the keyword: wv

This is below Hawks Nest (Ansted), in West Virginia, from the boat landing at Hawks Nest State Park. July or August of 1998. The river's calm mostly because it's backed up behind the Hawks Nest dam. Photographed with my Nikon N90s and scanned from the negative.

At West Virginia's Babcock State Park. We stayed in this cabin several years back ; I wanted a different view to commemorate this visit. (If you compare the pics, you can see that the steps have aged considerably over the past six years.) Glade Creek is further down the hill; in sight from the porch, but it takes some effort to reach. The cabins were WPA projects, so they're visibly old, albeit well maintained. Generally speaking, the woods grew up around them; there'd been a major logging camp a bit up the hill into the twentieth century. We spent much of the week on the porch. Relaxing. Worthwhile. And gorgeous. =================== Found a nice video of Cabin 13 on YouTube showing what Babcock's cabins are like, beginning on the very skinny road down from the mill .

From our West Virginia trip last month.

This waterfall's on the trail to Kaymoor One mine site in West Virginia's New River Valley. It's a tall thing; the photo shows less than half of the cascade. Just of bit of Joan showing on the bridge.... Photo taken with my Nikon N90s

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Clifftop, West Virginia. Camera: Olympus Camedia C50 Photo by Joel Dinda Commentary on a dabbler's journal

Babcock State Park has 4,000 or so wild acres within the New River Gorge, spectacular views into the gorge (Joan's pic), and a few really interesting historic sites , but this mill is its most famous feature. If you search the web, you'll find thousands of versions of this photo . A few months ago we discovered a picture of the mill on Joan's mom's wall; Thelma didn't realize we'd been there, she just liked the photo. So do I. Very picturesque, but only marginally authentic . Anyway, our cabin was down the crick a half mile or so. The mill's not why we visit the park, but it's certainly worth a photograph or seven.

One of the surviving structures at Kaymoor One mine in West Virginia. This was a thriving operation into the sixties; now part of the New River Gorge National Park. Accessible only by trail (or long stairway), now. Neat stonework.... Camera: Nikon N90s

Camera: Nikon N90s Another photo from our July, 2003, trip to the New River Gorge. Here's a different view of what still stands at the Kaymoor One mine site. The grill at the center of the photo protects a ventilation opening; the mine's entrance is behind the concrete building down the trail. This was a major mine, and during its prime this shelf on the canyon wall must have been a terribly busy place. Four decades after the operation closed, most of the mining structures are still standing but nature is reclaiming them and it certainly looks very different from what the miners must have known. Balancing preservation, safety, and natural decay is a challenge for the Parks Service, particularly in the parks in the National Heritage program areas. This location appears to test those efforts.

The New River Gorge has dozens of ghost towns.... Down below New River Bridge is a reasonably easy trail to the ruin of the Kaymoor mine. Properly speaking, this is not the Kaymoor ghost town; these are the buildings at the entrance to Kaymoor One. This mine closed in 1962, and the buildings have been neglected for four decades. The mine was about two thirds of the way up a thousand-foot hill. Most of the miners lived above the mine at Kaymoor Top, which is still inhabited, or below at Kaymoor Bottom. Besides housing for miners, Kaymoor Bottom had the rail connection to the outside world, and featured a battery of coke ovens for much of the mine's history. This town was abandoned more or less with the mine. There's a stair from the mine to Kaymoor Bottom, but Joan and I weren't up to the 800 steps.... The road below New River Bridge was once the sole roadway which crossed the gorge. It's a skinny, twisty, scenic path down the valley wall, across the bridge at Fayette Station, then back up the other side, crossing back and forth under the bridge in a series of switchbacks. Very scenic, but pretty intimidating.

Glade Creek Mill at West Virginia's Babcock State Park, shortly after a heavy downpour in July of 1997. =================== Had a couple reminders of this place today: * A friend has a photo of the mill on her PC. I told her I visit there regularly, and that Joan and I will be staying in one of Babcock's cabins in a few weeks. Sue was surprised; wanted to know more about the mill, and the park. * And today's mail contained a flyer from Mountain River Adventures, featuring a Special Offer if we book our rafting trip before June 30: Free gas! One gallon of free gas. One gallon. Wow.

Here's the Glade Creek Mill in context. The State Park's attractive headquarters building is to the left of the picture, and the creek is dammed below the HQ building to create what was once a swimming pool. This is the actual view when you come up the Sewell Road from our cabin. To my eyes, a very attractive place. When we first started staying at Babcock, the HQ building housed an excellent restaurant, with a selection of well-prepared dishes. A couple years later the restaurant's quality had significantly deteriorated, and eventually the effort failed. The former restaurant's now been occupied by the park's gift shop. That used to be your corner-of-the-building collection of t-shirts and ashtrays; now it's a fairly serious place with interesting things. Joan picked up a calendar; I bought a book. This photo is best LARGE .

The great bridge across the New River Gorge. This photo dates from 1997, I think; taken from the grounds at the National Park visitor center. Perhaps you've noticed: I like bridges, too. Perhaps as much as daylilies.... Camera: Chinon Genesis III

Explored! #477 on Friday, October 19, 2007, but no longer in the top 500. Thanks! The Narrow Gauge Trail at West Virginia's Babock State Park, in the New River gorge. The tracks were pulled up decades ago, and the trestles have collapsed, but the ties remain.... The Babcock Coal and Lumber Company's Manns Creek Railway carried coal down to the Chessie at the bottom of the Gorge, and lumber to the mill at Landisburg. This track was the coal line from Clifftop; the lumber mainly travelled on the higher track. Photo taken in September, 1998, with my Nikon N90s.

Just across the blue ridge, where the high meadows lay And the galax spreads through the new mown hay, There’s a rusty iron bridge, cross a shady ravine Where the hard road ends and turns to clay. With a suitcase in his hand there the lonesome boy stands, Gazing at the river sliding by beneath his feet, But the dark water springs from the black rocks and flows Out of sight where the twisted laurel grows. – Tommy Thompson , 1976 ============== The Chessie line crosses the New River just above the Hawks Nest dam (and just below Hawks Nest proper); Ansted, West Virginia, September 25, 1998.

The C&O (CSX, now, but this is a location where the C&O context is really important) crosses the New River below Hawks Nest. Ansted, West Virginia; 1997. Camera: Chinon Genesis III. This is an not-particularly-good old scan. I'll post a rescan when I locate the original....