river habitat / hardwood forest

This photo was taken at one of our labs at Stone Valley while walking along the trail. The trail is very scenic and runs just alongside the Raquette River. On this particular Wednesday afternoon, the snow was falling heavily and the entire trail was covered with a fresh foot-high layer of white snow. This area connects the Adirondack Mountains with the St. Lawrence Lowlands. The trail deviates in elevation and highlights some of the more aggressive parts of the Raquette River.

Type: Movement

Habitat description: The Stone Valley hiking trail is located in the town of Colton. The trail system covers approximately 9.7 miles.

Natural history information: Waterfalls add oxygen to streams. It is harder to get oxygen underwater than from the air. Even creatures adapted to breath underwater can suffocate if oxygen levels drop. Hanging out near a waterfall is beneficial.

What do you find interesting about this image? What drew your attention to this image? I think waterfalls are awesome and I thought this captured the power of the waterfall.

This spot, where Tupper Lake narrows into the Raquette River, is ideal for river otters. The river here never freezes completely, allowing otters plenty of openings to slip into the icy water and catch fish. Several times during the day I saw them on the ice, only to run outside with my camera and discover that they'd disappeared into the water again. Finally three of them stuck around for a while. I watched them hunt for about ten minutes before they moved down river. Awesome creatures.

This picture is from the reflective writing lab on the banks of the Raquette River. As I was sitting under the fir tree, I was being overrun by these bugs. I'd never seen so many of them before and they seemed to love to crawl on my jacket. As I was writing in my notebook I had at least 8 or 9 on me consistently. The picture is a little blurry because I could not get a good shot. They moved too fast! I like this picture because I will always think of them when I see this picture.

This photo was taken when we went out for our reflective nature writing lab. The habitat was a trail through the forest right alongside the Raquette river. As you can see in this landscape, I was right on the river's edge. What you cant see is the large fir tree that I was underneath when I took this. The area around me was littered with trees wanting spring to come. Across the river is a gazebo that I presume is privately owned by the family that lives in a house to the left of the camera frame.

For this picture we were out on the trails adjacent to the Raquette River in Colton. This is a close up on a bundle of white pine fascicles that I saw laying in the snow. There must have been some type of disturbance in the tree; maybe it was because of the heavy snow that had fallen the night before or because of an animal crawling around. I really like this picture because it came out so clear and the green contrasts nicely off of the white snow. When you look closely you can see water droplets hanging onto the needles and the crystallization of the ice.

The Raquette River cuts through Stone Valley in Colton, NY. 3-mile trails exist on both sides of the river, making it a prime location for cross-country skiing or just a recreational walk. A popular whitewater rafting site, the first mile has a 200-foot elevation drop through 7 rapids. In this photo I tried to capture a lapsed flow of the river as well as I could. A dense hardwood forest surrounds the river, and during our hike we saw a variety of greenery, including hemlock and pine needles and even the small ferns in the bottom of my picture.

The Stone Valley trail in Colton, N.Y. provides excellent views of the waterfalls on the Raquette River. The trial skirts along the the rivers edge, providing great views. The trail is relatively 'easy' with only a few short steep pitches.