An Autumn Jaunt at Redding's Huntington State Park

I'd been longing to hike in the woods to enjoy the autumn foliage for the past two weeks, but work kept getting in the way. Finally, I got out there today, on what was forecast to be a sunny day, but Hurricane Sandy turned it into a wholly cloudy, overcast day.

If you're unfamiliar with Huntington, it became a state park in 1973 after it was willed to the state by Archer M. Huntington. Used mostly as agricultural land into the late 1800s, its 1,017 acres today feature eight miles of carriage roads, trails, vernal pools and interesting geologic formations.

A familiar sight to any visitor who pulls in the gravel parking lot off Sunset Hill Road are the twin statues of bears and wolves.

This is a view of a footbridge traversing one of five ponds at the park.

The trail beckons

I'm sorry I didn't take a closer look at the foliage on this tree with handsome furrowed bark.

There were some interesting glacial rocks off the Red Trail. The explorer in me wanted to go scampering up them.

Gnarled mountain laurel branches

This tree trunk is wearing slippers!

Oak leaves on the water's surface

Seasonal colors

A restful place

Pond view

Water, water everywhere...

Sugar maple leaves on the forest floor

Dance of the Falling Leaves

They danced to the
wind's loud song.

They whirled, and they floated,

and scampered.

They circled and flew along.

The moon saw
the little leaves dancing.

Each looked like
a small brown bird.

The man in the moon
smiled and listened,

And this is the song he heard.

The North Wind is calling, is calling,

And we must whirl round and round,

And then, when our dancing is ended,

We'll make a warm quilt for the ground.

- Author Unknown

Red Maple, an Autumn Show-Off

Red maple (Acer rubrum Linnaeus) is exceptionally beautiful this time of year.

Also known as swamp maple, this magnificent tree really ups the ante of fall color with its vivid scarlet show.

According to Cornell University, the tree is commonly found in swamps but also does well on dry slopes, which is where my red maple grows.

I must admit to mostly forgetting about this tree for the better part of the year due to its less-than-prominent location on the edge of the property, on a slope I seldom explore except when picking the Japanese wineberries that grow in abundance there during summer's peak.

But one of the treats of autumn is to pause in my yardwork and look up from the raking or other outdoor chores, and this is the tree that captures the eye. (Those are the wineberries in the foreground.) There's still quite a bit of color in the New England woods, although the brilliant reds of sugar maples, burning bush and Japanese maples are sharing more of the spotlight with creamy orangey yellows, darker shades of burgundy and rust and everything in between.