You’ve got to walk, before you can crawl

    and get shots of those spring wildflowers!

It’s a Wednesday, the last gasp of March.  I had wildflowers in mind, but where to go?

Last week I went to Indian Creek in the Red River Gorge scouting to see if the wildflowers were blooming yet.   I there met a fellow who revealed a spot closer to home that was even more prolific when it came to wildflowers.   It was a place I’ve been to a number of times, but never in the early spring.  Who knew?

Just yesterday a photog friend, Jeff Gitland, emailed me asking how the wildflowers were in the Gorge and I shared the story I had gotten last week.   So, being the die hard photographers we are, we agreed to meet at Lower Howards Creek Nature Preserve, a 338 acre preserve (more added recently) in Clark County.

Lower Howards Creek empties into the Kentucky River at a well known restaurant, Halls on the River.   The restaurant even offers outdoor seating overlooking the creek (get the fried banana peppers, yum!)  Parking for the trail going into the preserve, the John Holder Trail, is in front of and to the right of the restaurant.

This area was once a bustling center of river commerce, founded by, of course, John Holder, in 1782.  John Holder was married to Fanny Calloway, one of the Calloway girls kidnapped by the Shawnees and rescued by Daniel Boone.   The community boasted a store, tavern, boatyard, ferry, warehouse and a mill.  The area was one of the first centers of commerce on the Kentucky River.

On the preserve are the stone foundation remains of a house, the Martin house, built in 1856.  Interestingly, this house was owned by a stonemason, Robert  Martin, a direct ancestor of my Brother-In-Law, Danny Martin.   Danny’s father, Homer, grew up in the house.

When you get to Lower Howards Creek, on the John Holder Trail, you are faced with a quick and only some what steep walk up a hill.  The trail meanders up high with a view of the creek, then drops down to a stream crossing.  Your feet will get wet!  The trail picks up on the other side of the creek, meandering a total of 1.4 easy miles. It is an out and back, so you will total 2.8 miles.   There are some “Creek Palisades” along the way that are quite spectacular.

Shoot the flowers we did, and these are a few of the fruits of this spring Wednesday.

So if you want to get to where the flowers are, you gotta walk it.  As soon as you get up the first and only hill, there they are, on either side of the path.  Copious amounts of purples, whites, pinks.. an array of shapes and sizes.   Time to shoot, to get down on all fours and crawl…

Because

 

You’ve got to walk, before you can crawl…

and get shots of those spring wildflowers!