Day 4.301: Poets' Walk

The trip that led to my wearing Exile #3's sunglasses which in turn led to great hilarity was to Poets' Walk - a park at the eastern end of the Kingston-Rhinecliff bridge about an hour down the Thruway south of Albany.

It's certainly not like most of the upstate parks we visit. Somehow it's more civilised (and more highly occupied) than most - we saw maybe four or five other groups of visitors. It feels more like an English country park than an upstate State Park - less trails-in-the-woods and more paths-to-meander-along.

There are some marvellous open vistas:

as well as gazebos, bridges and elegant woodland:

It's said that the views from here may have inspired Washington Irving to write about Rip Van Winkle falling asleep for 20 years in the Catskill mountains. Whether that really adds up since he wrote the story in Birmingham (the one in the UK), I'm not sure - but who am I to stand in the way of a good story?

The kids were not inspired to write poetry there - although it did spark a discussion about what we might find if we woke up having slept for several decades. I didn't feel the need to write verse either, but I did wonder at how the green leaves which in the spring and summer provide a backdrop for the interesting colours of nature, at this time of year seem to pop and stand-out against a backdrop of orange and brown.

Photos are here