This weekend I spent time driving up to Syracuse NY to visit my brother for his first Family Weekend! From Lafayette, it is about a 3 hour drive, mostly along I-80 and I-81. There were two times on the way up that I wanted to stop, get out, and take pictures, and relax while watching nature. The first was traveling through Wind Gap. I left at 7 in the morning, so there was still fog in places, especially through Wind Gap. The clouds were still hanging in the valleys! It looked so pretty – and reminded me of Iceland because there, the clouds are always getting stuck on the mountains. As I continued my drive, I drove through rocks and found myself wondering their geologic history and composition because they looked so neat. Along the way I also passed the exit for the lignite museum – which is coal. This was near Scranton and I couldn’t help but think that would have been interesting to stop at, but I was alone, and on a schedule.

The place I really wanted to stop at the most, was between Tobyhanna State Park and Wayne, PA. Here the trees were changing color already, and many were bright red. There was a field among the forest, and it looked almost as if there had been a wildfire in the somewhat recent past. The underbrush was very dense and the trees had very little branches except at the tops. A little further up, there was a beautiful lake, being advertised as part of a sporting area used for ‘sporting weekends’. On the other side there was a small dock, and a car there. I wanted more than anything to hang out at this pond/lake for a bit and see what else was around there. I remember from Bio 102 that Tobyhanna has a different climate to it, and at this time of the year, just driving through, you could tell it was definitely different from the areas north and south of it. It would have been a great place to hike!

It is odd to see such a natural place on either side of a highway where the speed limit is 70. Everyone bolts past the beauty. The area has been altered for the highway, and not many people would even pay attention to the wilderness that is left, and there wasn’t even a place to pull off to soak it all in. Its sad to think the beauty is being ignored.