Catoctin Spring

Our small party hiked around the perimeter of Catoctin Mountain and Cunningham Falls Parks where the elevation rarely dipped much below 1,400 feet above sea level. Despite the warm temperatures, on top of the mountain, there were very few green leaves to be found.  While the landscape wasn't colorful, without the leaves you could easily see the boulder-strewn terrain of the mountain.  Looking south towards Cunningham Falls State Park (above) Chimney Rock still bares the markings of CCC construction crews who carved the date into the rocks (lower left corner).  

Wolf Rock (below) is my favorite outcropping  in the area. As a kid I remember spending  hours crawling and climbing through the deep maze-like crevices through the stone mountain.  Of course, there were bear and mountain lion dens nestled among the rocks between the trolls and the bandits that made their homes in the caves that could, quite possibly, descend to the Halls of Mordor.