Tainted Snow (SWF)

Limestone cliffs of Clifty Falls State Park,
in snow and icicles

Perhaps even more than in other seasons, winter brings wanderlust upon us.
Long days of work, and fleeting hours of daylight wrapped around them, leave little time to get out and about. We use our weekend days to explore beyond our boundaries and burn the pent up energy that becomes the worst symptom of cabin fever.
And, as always, find we gain much more, than physical exercise alone.


Clifty Falls State Park in Madison, Indiana is perched on the bank of the Ohio River, just over the border from Ohio, and a short drive from Cincinnati. The steep shale and limestone cliffs lining this small canyon are seen easily through the bare trees of winter, and are woven with miles of rugged stone trails traversing the plunging slopes. Frozen waterfalls and the icy formations that grow beneath them, as the small feeder creeks make their way to the Ohio River, add to the winter experience here, not found at any other time of year.

Ice Balls beneath the Falls

We arrived later than hoped, driving headlong into an unexpected snowstorm moving up the Ohio River Valley and seriously slowing our drive along the windy, rural roads. So, with limited time to explore, we drove straight to the Inn for that hiking essential, the trail map.
I happily caught lacy snowflakes on the back of my black mitten, stretching my legs from the 2-hour ride.
Towering behind the charming brick façade of the Inn, three monstrous stacks from below, billowing smoke into a cold, snowy winter sky.

Clifty Inn,
Power plant stacks behind

Setting each foot deliberately between the whitened, slippery surfaces, we slowly descended into the gorge, finally reaching the small Hoffman’s Branch in the base, where it meets Clifty Creek.

Ice on Hoffman Branch

Snow at water's edge

Swallowed by steep walls all around, it would be easy to forget yourself here,
hopping stone to stone,
wandering the creek bed as it winds its way deeper, toward the Clifty Falls.


The trail, now almost completely covered with these lovely little flakes, took us up again, along a hillside where the fallen logs accented in white stood out plainly against the brown leaves covering the slopes.


And stacks of limestone, barely releasing a trickle, were held fast by slender trees, roots reaching around them.
Frozen rivulets covering their sides.

Snow-dusted Icicles on face of limestone

Catching our breath, we turned and found it, there, again, in the distance.
Smoke stacks spilling into the air.
And the snow fell all around.

Power plant stacks beyond hillside

Perhaps, easier to recognize at this time of year, more than others, in the lovely white covering that blankets these woods and hangs on crystal drips from its faces, what is other times invisible here.
From the stacks of the coal-fired power plants, its smoke and everything in it, caught by each little lacy flake, and brought to rest on the earth.

Snow-covered Trail #4,
Clifty Falls State Park, Madison Indiana

Power plant at Ghent, KY

Some of the highest concentrations of atmospheric mercury in the nation are found in the rain and snow that fall over Clifty Falls State Park from the towers of coal-fired power plants along the Ohio River in Kentucky and Indiana.

The combustion of fossil fuels, especially coal, releases elemental mercury to the atmosphere. Once released into the environment, the most toxic form of mercury, methylmercury, is formed and can be passed up the food chain to humans.
For more information, please look here.

Tainted Snow

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