Great Falls - Reflections on a Great Day

On Saturday, The Harrisburg Camera Club went on another photo outing, this time to the C&O Canal National Historic Park near Potomac, MD.

But first...If you get a chance to drive through Potomac, MD, do it.  That has to be one of the richest areas in the country!  I wish I had the Mercedes-Benz dealership there.  It seemed like every other vehicle was a Mercedes!

And the houses!  Wow!  They were mansions.  Huge homes!  Massive homes!  Wow!

But anyway, the camera club went to the C&O Canal Park. We had to leave our house at 6:00, in the dark.  That is when I am normally just crawling out of bed on a work day!

It was just a gorgeous day.  The sun came up and the sky was blue.  It was a little chilly at first but warmed up to a manageable temperature.  Just beautiful!

Since it was the nearest thing to the parking lot, we started out by the C&O Canal Tavern with the sun just coming over the hill.  I tried to get some pictures of the Tavern reflected in the canal.

I got the reflection, but the tavern was in the shadow of the hill and was not in the sun light.  Kind of flat to me.

Next we crossed over the canal and found this large viewing platform.  This is the view...

Some times I think I am going to quit trying to take landscape pictures.  They never convey the feeling that you have when you are standing there.  This one gave me such a great tranquil feeling, the still water, the reflections, the beautiful sunlight.  But this picture only hints at the magnitude of the scene.

As we looked up the canal tow path, this is what we saw.  A beautiful scene complete with the trees providing shelter by arching over the path and the canal.  Assuming that these trees, or ones like them, were here by the canal in the days the canal was in use, imagine the cooling shade, the protection from the sun and the wind that these trees supplied!

Just downstream of the Tavern was a barge, which, for only $5, would allow you to climb aboard and enjoy a tow by mules up the canal. 

I wish I had seen the barge move.  It is one thing to know that they hitched the mules to the barge and had them pull the barge along the canal.  But it is another thing to actually see the mules accomplish this.  Without seeing it you have no idea of how much effort the mules had to exert.  You have no idea of how complicated, or not, it was for the mule handler to hitch up and control these animals.  And maybe there are other aspects to it that we cannot imagine, not having seen the barge in operation.

Not to be too obvious, but I am sure by now that you have figured out the "reflections" of the title has two layers.