Fall foliage fever (Oct. 10: Nescopeck State Park)

Lake Frances at Nescopeck State Park.

I'm back at my parents' house in Mountain Top for vacation this week. It's mostly going to be a staycation, so I figured I would take advantage of it by looking around for the fall foliage that Pennsylvania has to offer.

From what I've seen in the Altoona area and now Mountain Top, the leaves are just beginning to change color. There are some parts that are still seas of green, and there are others where they are vibrant with orange, red and yellow.

On Saturday (Oct. 10), I decided to visit Nescopeck State Park since it's close by. I started out my vacation battling a cold, so I didn't want to strain myself.

The park's leaves are just starting to transition from green to fall colors. As seen in the picture above, the trees along the shore of Lake Frances are vibrant with red and orange in some spots, but green still dominates the scene. Below is another picture that shows a better perspective of the foliage surrounding the lake.

The shoreline of Lake Frances

I was actually more impressed by the deep blue hue of the water. Lake Frances is quite shallow, so it usually gives off more of a blackish or brownish color. But on Saturday, the sun made it look more like an ocean than a lake.

In the middle of Lake Frances is its little island. It has fewer than a dozen trees and saplings, but at least three or four of them shined with an orange glow on Saturday.

It doesn't have a name, so I just call it "Nescopeck Island."

After going around the Lake Trail, I decided to go further into the woods to see if there might be more color. I took the Nescopeck Trail from Lake Frances down to Nescopeck Creek and then walked along it via the Creekside Trail. I saw some orange and red trees along the way, though they were on the opposite bank of the creek. Most of these trees were set far back into the forest behind rows of other trees, so I didn't have many great photo opportunities.

There was one spot where there wasn't really any foliage, but the leaves on the ground and the sunlight above gave the area a golden hue. In this grove was a creek so small that the water in it was barely moving. It was more of a trickle of water than a creek. Based off the banks surrounding it, the creek looks as though it could be much larger at times.

A small creek runs through the forest near the Nescopeck Creek.

After awhile, I turned around and hiked in the opposite direction on the Creekside Trail to see if there was any better foliage elsewhere. For the most part, the trees along the trail were slightly yellow, but didn't deviate much from that. I eventually reached an unnamed pond in the park not far from Lake Frances. Just like the latter, this pond had some red and orange around it, but green still remains the main color.

An unnamed pond in Nescopeck State Park.

Overall, there was some color that made the park beautiful, but it's going to take a few more weeks before the woods are ablaze with red, orange and yellow. The weather was gorgeous, however, and it beat being stuck in my house with a cold and doing nothing all day. It was worth the trip and the one and a half hour hike.

My hunt for fall foliage will continue through most of the week while I'm home on vacation. In the plans are possible trips to Ricketts Glen State Park, Big Pocono State Park and Lehigh Gorge State Park. Since this will be my last time in northeast Pa. until November or December, I want to enjoy the outdoors and foliage as much as possible. I encourage you try to, as well. Before you know it, the leaves will be gone, the cold will drift in, and we'll be complaining about how the snow never seems to go away.