Spring at Ohiopyle, Part 1: Cucumber Falls and Meadow Run.
Some of my favorite memories of growing up in the densely-packed suburbs of Pittsburgh are from family trips to the Laurel Highlands, about an hour to the east of the city. These gentle, ancient summits, the first line of ridges along the Allegheny mountains, are potent magic for a kid, riddled with moss-encrusted rock formations, water chutes and cascading falls, mysterious, deep alcoves and rock maizes begging to be explored, and so on. Today, many years later, I am fortunate to live even closer to these mountains and their precious wild places, including the Youghiogheny River Gorge and Ohiopyle State Park, and return to them often to find both solace and joy and to re-connect to the rejuvenating magic I felt as boy exploring their many treasures, some obvious, many less easily discovered.
