Open Skies!

I spent last weekend house sitting for my parents. They decided to go to Charleston, so I was chosen to stay at the house to take care of the animals. My parents don’t live too far away from me, but for some reason I could not think of any parks near them. Then it hit me. There was one park that no one really goes to. It is rather hidden behind a large building. I grabbed my camera and tripod and set out. I couldn’t remember exactly where it was, so I had to turn around after driving right past it. I finally found the entrance and drove down the gravel road to Goddard Park.

I believe this park is mainly used by fishermen since they have easy access to the river. There are several short trails that run through this park. One of the trails is a narrow trail along the river’s edge that runs through the woods. The one further up is a gravel trail, mainly for bicycles, that ends at a dock overlooking the river. The last trail is a small paved trail for walking dogs. I believe all of these trails intersect among certain points, making it easier to jump around.

The one thing I remembered best about this park was the open field. Upon pulling in you can see the giant grassy field. It is a short walk from where the car parking is and is perfect for taking pictures of the sky. I wanted to try to get a good picture of the sky that day, it being a magnificent shade of blue with great contrast from the clouds rolling in. I set my camera and tripod up and snapped probably thirty photos with different shutter speeds. After looking at all of the pictures in order, I realized that it looked awesome to flip through the pictures quickly, watching the clouds role in. I was going to make a time-lapse video of it, but not having the time I decide to post this picture.


After finishing with my sky pictures, I started lurking around the park. I knew there were two Geocaches in the park, one of which I was determined to find. With a name like “Holy Geocache Batman," how could I not want to find it? I took my time on the trails, looking for more photo opportunities. When I found myself down by the dock over the river, I looked down a ways and spotted a little beach. It was very small with a log on it, but the way the shadows were cast upon the sand and the water made it look amazing.


I wandered around some more, making my way closer to the area for the cache. I found myself with 50 feet of it and decided it was a good time to duck off the trail and into the trees. Before doing so, I thought these two trees looked majestic in the sunlight. I liked the pattern of the bark with the angle of the sun behind them.


I got my shot and was finally ready to search for the cache. After stumbling around the woods for twenty minutes looking on the ground, I was about to give up. I kept searching, when finally I decided to look up. There it was. A giant black box with bats on it nailed to a side of a tree. I retrieved my prize (my first trackable cache to replace somewhere else) and started to head out. I looked down before leaving and saw something amazing. There was of course more fungus growing on the bottoms of the trees. I loved the colors in this, so I took my last shots of the day and headed home.


I actually really love this park. With barely any people there, it is relaxing just to walk around by yourself.