On Thursday, Jann and I took a drive to Rutland. I wanted to stop at Thundering Brook in Killington, but other than that we had no real plans for the day.
We got to Thundering Brook a bit before 7 AM. We were too late, or too early, for good light. The sun was shining brightly on most of the cascades, and that is certainly not the best light for photographing moving water. But I took a few photos anyway, focusing mostly on smaller scenes rather than the large lower and upper falls.
We headed through Rutland to the West Rutland Marsh. Jann had never seen it, so I wanted to give her a look at this amazing area for birds. We stopped at two places, Jann watched a muskrat swim around, we did the boardwalk, and we heard and saw marsh wrens. We were there barely a half hour, but I got a few photos. What is that blue flower? And what is that bird that looks like a big sparrow?
By now the sunny day had turned overcast. By the way, the small cute bird with the long bill is a marsh wren, the other one is a female red-winged blackbird, and the flower is a roadside “weed” — chicory.
We discussed heading north or south and north won. So it was off to Middlebury, a charming town we had not visited for many years. We were just planning a short walk through some of the streets and maybe visiting a few shops, so I left my tripod in the car. Fortunately there were several places where I could brace my camera and photograph the raging water with a slow shutter speed (mostly around 1/8 sec). Otter Creek was running very full through Middlebury.
After Middlebury we headed back east along Route 125 across the Middlebury Gap. We had not been to Texas Falls for very many years so we decided to stop, even though the clouds of mid-morning were mostly absent. Every 10 minutes or so a thin cloud would partly dim the sunlight for a few seconds. It took me quite a while to complete this 3-shot image of a part of Texas Falls.
You can explore the image below in detail if you double click to zoom way in and use the left mouse to pan around. You can also use the + and – keys to zoom and the arrow keys to scroll. Please wait for the resolution to download.
Upon reaching Route 100 we turned south. I was hoping the clouds would return, and they sure did. In Hancock we saw some amazing patterns in the clouds.
We stopped briefly at Kent Pond. I remembered a nice small waterfall in Kent Brook from a visit three years previous. I made a few more photos of it before we moved on.
It was still overcast when we returned to Thundering Brook. As I did earlier in the day, I headed down the Appalachian Trail to the lower falls which drop 80 feet in a horsetail fashion. I took a number of photos there and then hiked the trail along the brook up to the upper falls. Here is a photo of the lower falls taken from just below a small observation platform.
Please explore the panoramic image below of the lower falls of Thundering Brook taken from the observation platform. You can double click to zoom way in and use the left mouse to pan around. You can also use the + and – keys to zoom and the arrow keys to scroll. Please wait for the resolution to download.
Here are a few more photos I took in the vicinity of the lower falls.
I worked my way up to the upper falls. Here are three photos of this smaller horsetail falls.
I found a few nice sets of rapids above the upper falls.
We had an excellent day visiting new spots and places we hadn’t visited in quite a while.