Mark's Photo Travels

With 2019's endless summer finally gone for the year and cooler less humid weather firmly established, I finally felt able to venture outdoors. I have some long hikes planned for this weekend, so I wanted something that wouldn't tax me too much. Glassy Mountain Heritage Preserve fit my needs perfectly. Glassy Mountain Heritage Preserve is a 65 acre nature preserve located on Glassy Mountain in Pickens County, SC , not to be confused with a mountain of the same name one county west in Greenville County. The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources acquired the property in 1990. One official trail winds around the mountain up to the summit, but I also found a few unofficial trails leading to several overlooks. Glassy Mountain is an example of a monadnock , an isolated mountain rising above the foothills of the Upstate of South Carolina. Paris Mountain in Greenville County is another example of a monadnock. Paris Mountain also has hiking trails (courtesy of the state...

Last Sunday a few local musicians came together with their instruments to the Glendale Shoals Bridge over Lawson's Fork Creek in Glendale, SC to play at the musical get-together named "Dam Jam". This was a perfect chance for me to listen to some acoustic music and also explore more of Glendale. The jam started at 4pm, but I arrived about an hour early to explore the area where Glendale Park once beckoned mill village residents and visitors. I headed down a path, which very well may have been the same path mill residents used to get to the park. This path provides a good view of the mill pond, the bridge, and even the people setting up for the jam. Glendale Park was built at the same time as the trolley line from Spartanburg to Clifton being built through the area in 1900. The first mentions of the park I can find in newspaper archives are from 1901. Postcards from the era depict the park quite differently than it looks today: from the Spartanburg County Pub...