Summer of 21 - #24 - Maryland Road Trip - Cunningham Falls State Park

May 19th, 2021 - Part 2 of 4   

We left Catoctin Furnace, if you missed the blog here is a LINK to it, and headed to Cunningham Falls State Park.

There is a parking area for handicapped only. This is further up the mountain and eliminates the climb on foot to the waterfall. You still get to walk through the forest on a wooden boardwalk. 

You can not join the other trail from this one. This one just goes to the waterfalls and back. It is a very good option for those not physically fit enough to climb the falls to see them from a distance though.

We saw this sign and yes we had stopped!!!! It didn't make sense to us as we were just about to go on the trail here.

and then we turned and saw the reason why. This was at the bottom of a relatively steep downward curve on the road.  I'm sure at some time there has been an accident here where pedestrians were hit by a car going out of control.  We moved on pretty quickly!!

There was a small stream of water coming from this tree but there wasn't any sign of where it came from.  No water from the back or sides of the tree.

Bryan saw that it was coming from under these rocks. Mystery solved!!

We started our walk on the boardwalk that had been laid. It was wheelchair friendly.

There were seats along the way

A non-native insect, called the Hemlock Woolly, attack the needles of the hemlock trees which eventually kills the trees. They are planting Hemlock seedlings that have been treated against this insect and placing wire protection around the seedlings to further protect them from deer. There are several of these, like the one in the picture below, along the walk.

They also tell you to stay on the boardwalk.

There were several trees that had fallen and these made some good photo opportunities.

It was such a pretty walk.

Eventually we saw the waterfall through the trees. 

There was a viewing platform with benches to sit on. We sat and watched some people climbing the falls from the other trail.  There were some butterflies flying around us and then resting on the trees that had fallen in the stream. I loved watching them but couldn't get a picture.  

It was a lovely place to spend some time but we had others places to go and see. So off we went.......Next stop Antietam National Battlefield.

Here's a reminder of where we are going on our trip today.