Dream In Color

Saturday started out at 2:30AM. I took a quick nap before waking up to the sound of the alarm at 2 in the morning. Matt and I were on another expedition, this time our destination was Bowers Hollow Falls on cave mountain road near Boxley Valley.

_{Bowers Hollow Falls}

Bowers Hollow is a beautiful location and may just be one of the most beautiful waterfalls in the entire state. I can only imagine what it would look like during spring, as I’ve only visited it once, which was this past Saturday.

The purpose of this outing was to photograph some snowy waterfalls. Matt and I were a bit worried that the snow might have melted off, yet we were determined. I’m glad we didn’t call it off, there may have only been a couple of inches of snow, but the photographs were well worth the effort.

_{Matt Photographing Me Photographing Bowers Hollow Falls}

We arrived at the parking area of the Bowers Hollow hike at around 5:00AM and sat in the car, dreading the blistering wind and freezing temperatures. Stepping out of the car was like stepping into an icebox. Immediately you were chilled to the bone due to the cold wind whipping about in the air. It was COLD! We started towards the waterfall in the pitch black of night, with only our flashlights and the stars providing light for the journey. We hiked for about an hour and a half and arrived at Bowers Hollow just as the sun was beginning to crest the horizon. Matt timed the hike perfectly and the sun provided just enough light to start photographing the falls when we arrived at the base of the hollow.

_{Bowers Hollow Falls}

One of the most interesting shots that I got Saturday was a scene Matt photographed as well. I had noticed the light hitting the water as we were hiking in but didn’t think to photograph it until Matt was doing so. I quickly set up after getting a couple of shots of the falls and photographed this serene landscape, the sun was really glistening off the water and provided a bronze look.

_{Bowers Hollow glistens in the morning sunlight}

After photographing Bowers Hollow Falls, Matt and I hiked down the hollow until we came upon another neat waterfall, which we quickly stopped to photograph.

_{Bowers Hollow Waterfall}

Thereafter, we hiked uphill to the very mouth of Bowers Hollow where it meets the Buffalo River, the scene was beautiful, but it was very hard to photograph. I didn’t take any shots at the river, but the view from the bluff was beautiful, I can assure you.

I did something new on this hike that I haven’t done yet. I recently purchased a new phone which allows me to track my gps signal as I’m hiking, using google my tracks, it’s a cool little GPS utility that keeps track of your path as well as statistics for your hike. I’m going to start including the map and statistics for the hikes that I go on, that way others can see where I was and where I went on my various hikes.

The map below only covers our hike OUT of the hollow, I didn’t get the idea until it was too late! The rest will include both in and out maps =)

View Bowers Hollow in a larger map

Stats:

Total Distance: 3.52m
Average Moving Speed 3.59mph
Elevation Gain 1,073ft
Min Elevation 1,812ft
Max Elevation 2,277ft

I’ve also included a video taken with my phone to give you, the viewer, a sense of scale of this waterfall.

That’s all I’ve got for now, I hope you guys enjoyed the photos, Bowers Hollow with snow was a unique experience not many have had! I’m glad I was a part of it.

Carpe Diem.