Vacation 2015 - Kentucky to West Virginia

This was another long day with a lot of time spent in the car. We started off with maybe a couple hours at Natural Bridge. We took the Sky Lift up and visited the Natural Bridge. I did my Dr. Zoidberg impression through Fat Man's Squeeze. Carrying a camera holster through that narrow pathway didn't exactly help. After that, it was down to the Balancing Rock. Only two of us finished heading down, and it turned out that it would have been better to start that trail from the bottom. On the way back up, I counted stairs. Keep in mind that different people will provide different counts thanks to some indistinct stairs. We headed up 372 stairs, with an additional 35 back down to reach the top of that particular trail. We walked up an additional 8 and down an additional 10 to get back to the Sky Lift for our trip back to the parking area.

Our next stop took some time to reach. This was Grayson Lake. Thunderstorms were in the area, helping to slightly cool us off momentarily. After the rain died down, the weather really started to heat up.

Then it was more time in the car. After that, it was Green Bottom. We made a couple stops. The first was cut short due to a nearby thunderstorm. We backtracked a little to Hoeft Marsh. We could have stuck around longer on this one, but time was starting to become a concern. Both of these stops were primarily focused on wildlife.

We made one final stop before beading to our hotel. This was Robert C. Byrd Dam and Locks. This one was not for wildlife. We saw the locks but not the actual dam.

I recorded the following wildlife today: Gray Squirrel, Turkey Vulture, Barn Swallow, Tree Swallow, American Crow, Brown-headed Cowbird, American Robin, Red-winged Blackbird, Willow Goldfinch, Rabbit, Frog, Northern Cardinal, Canada Goose, Wood Duck, Great Blue Heron, Mourning Dove, and European Starling. Like always, I need to check pictures for identification of additional species.

UPDATE 1: I have added eBird checklists for Grayson Lake, the Green Bottom boardwalk, and Green Bottom's Hoeft Marsh.

UPDATE 2:  I have added pictures from Natural Bridge State Resort Park to Flickr and my photo blog.

UPDATE 3: I have added pictures from Grayson Lake State Park to Flickr and my photo blog.

UPDATE 4: I have added pictures from Green Bottom to Flickr and my photo blog.

UPDATE 5: I have added pictures from Robert C. Byrd Dam and Locks to Flickr and my photo blog.