Conowingo Fisherman's Park

Well dam… this month’s location is sorta fishy. Get it? Cause we’re going to the Conowingo Dam. This Exelon owned power generating dam is on the Susquehanna River about 5 miles south of the MD/PA border. At the base of the dam is Fisherman’s Park, one of the best places in Maryland to see Great Blue Herons and Bald Eagles. It is also a dam good place to fish, hence the name Fisherman’s Park.

I promise that’s the last pun in here.

Fisherman’s Park is on the southwest side of the Susquehanna. This area is home to approximately 200+ different species of birds and a whole bunch of different types of fish. Anglers wade into the water off the gravel at the end of the wharf to fish for bass, shad, walleye, catfish and more. Fish tend to gather at the base to take the fish lift, which allows them to get upstream past the dam, this makes casting lines here very productive.

 

Keep in mind you do need a fishing license to fish here. The Game Wardens come by quite often to check that everyone has a license. You know what you don’t need a license for here? Photography and bird watching.

I love coming here to take pictures of Eagles. Yeah, there are other plenty of other species here, but this is THE BEST PLACE to get Bald Eagle photos. The best time for seeing them is October to March with a peak in November. So, make a plan this month to go take a look and see them for yourself. It is pretty much the same schedule with the Great Blue Herons that visit here. They like to show up during the cold winter months.

The entire area is mostly a paved parking lot with a 160-foot wharf at the dam end. At the other end is the Wildflower Trail which will connect you to Susquehanna State Park after a couple of miles. This trail is an old rail trail so it is flat and mostly gravel with just the right amount of water views. It is an easy and fun hike, provided you bring some bug spray.

Since the Susquehanna River is about 2,700 feet wide here, combining it with the dam on the north, makes this a bit of a wind tunnel. Make sure to wear a nice windbreaker if you’re down here in the late fall or winter. No need to bring boots, sneakers will be fine.

Henry Avenue Bridge

Wissahickon Valley Park. Beautiful, spacious, exciting. This park is by far the best place to go hiking in Philly. In particular, the area of Wissahickon to the south just off Lincoln Drive. This is where you’ll find places like Hermit’s cave, Lover’s Leap, and the most important (at least, to this article) The Henry Avenue Bridge.

 

Its not the view from the bridge or the design of the bridge, even though it is so absolutely beautiful, it is the supports of the bridge and the graffiti that consumes them. The bridge is made of concrete and every single reachable inch of the supports is covered in a form of paint or ink. The artists that put their work up here make all sorts of designs ranging from inspired social or political murals to complex patterns to people’s initials. I can’t guarantee that all the graffiti will be family friendly, but I have yet to see anything that would be wildly inappropriate.

If you’re a photographer, painter, or poet, the Henry Avenue Bridge should be in your top 5 places to visit before the end of 2021, the amount of potential this place has for inspiration and creativity is insane. If you’re not one of those artsy people, there’s a good chance visiting here will turn you into one.

Getting here isn’t too hard, the best parking is on Forbidden Drive at the Ten Box. Then take the Wissahickon Bike Trail, the closest paved trail to the highway going south, just past the Henry Avenue Bridge and then turn right onto the Yellow Trail and stay on that. This way you stay on a paved path for 75% of the trip and then you have a nice easy dirt trail the rest of the way.

Alternatively, you can also go down Forbidden Drive, cross a small bridge, and turn left immediately onto the Yellow Trail. Going this way means climbing a steep hill on narrow dirt trail with rocks. Much more difficult than Option A.

Rittenhouse Park

This is a pretty well-known location for all of us Newark locals. Rittenhouse Park is a small park in Newark just south of the University of Delaware’s Bob Carpenter Center. It is a great place to take kids and if you don’t have kids, don’t worry! It’s still a fantastic place to explore and hang out with friends where you can see a variety of wildlife.

 

Sitting at only 45.9 acres, Rittenhouse Park, surprisingly, has something for everyone. Hiking trails, playground equipment and picnic tables welcome visitors. The most unique feature of this park is its direct access to the Christina River. With both slow-moving sections for swimming and fast-moving rapids with boulders to climb on, the adventurous and the relaxed each have a fun place to hang out.

Personally, I have spent a lot of time here at the rocks and on the hiking trails. Whenever I come here, I always manage to find some animals that are willing to have their photos taken (Look above to see some examples). Beyond that, sitting on the rocks and hanging out with friends is extremely special here. The entire atmosphere of this area feels like it should be in the mountains.

I apologize for the short write-up today. I was planning on doing a post about Henry Avenue Bridge in Wissahickon Valley Park but I have been in quarantine for the last week so I couldn’t finish shooting the area.  This will now be August’s subject.