SUSQUEHANNA BLOOMIN’: MARYLAND’S WEST BANK

THE RIVERBANK IN MARYLAND’S SUSQUEHANNA STATE PARK IS  A FANTASTIC WATERSCAPE OF LOBELIA CARDINALIS AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE, FRAMED BY A FLUFFY BACKDROP OF JOE-PYE WEED; SANGUINE ROOT STAFF WRITER SEAN SOLOMON REJECTS PREVIOUSLY PLANNED TRAVEL ON INTERSTATE 95 AND INSTEAD SPENDS THE AFTERNOON WITH THESE FLOWERS IN THIS ASTOUNDING DISCOVERY.  

Lobelia cardinalis, cardinal flower, Red lobelia, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland
Lobelia cardinalis, cardinal flower, Red lobelia, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland

Labor day weekend on I-95 between Washington D.C. and  Philadelphia is not a walk in the park. The traffic is very heavy and volatile.  An escape plan was hatched:  Ditch I-95 in favor of an enchanting and peaceful afternoon along the Susquehanna River.

Many years have passed with numerous trips over the Susquehanna River in Maryland.  What a beautiful place, with the grand river opening into the Chesapeake bay.

Pay attention to the road! Gotta pay that toll now.  Mind the aggressive amateur driver with New Jersey plates tailgating!  Don’t want to speed or go to slow either. Thats a big truck!

The Beautiful scenery of the Susquehanna River is lost in a flash in the East Coast rush to get somewhere else now, for whatever reason.

Not this time.  Google earth was looked at.  AAA maps collected over the years were also consulted.  The Susquehanna River is too beautiful to overlook. The Lower Susquehanna is noted for its rich ravines.  One of the most beautiful places in the world, Shenks Ferry Wildflower Preserve, is about 30 miles north of I-95 right on the Susquehanna River.  The Lower Susquehanna cannot be overlooked.

Traffic or flowers? That is what it boils down to.  Exit 89 will take you to Susquehanna State Park. Exit 89 in Maryland off of interstate 95 will liberate you from the stresses of society and will enlighten you to the beauty of nature. Exit 89 is the happy exit, where happy flowers bloom and where  joy can be found.

Lobelia cardinalis, cardinal flower, Red lobelia, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland
Lobelia cardinalis, cardinal flower, Red lobelia, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland

A river passed over for so many years has been discovered.  Below the bridge is a beautiful world of ecosystems that have the potential to captivate our imaginations, and to lure us into a life of observation and science and give us meaning to our lives.

The Susquehanna River is that enchanting.

The flow and the color of the water. Its width and its sound. The flowers it produces, and the sunlight.  This is the place to be mesmerized by the beauty of nature.  We hear about the great rivers in our education and in the literature, the Nile, The Mississippi, the Yellow River, The Seine, the Amazon, Canisteo, The Liffey, The Hudson.   The Susquehanna is our river.  All of the literature and poetry inspired by all of the other rivers applies to this one as well.  The Susquehanna River belongs to all that makes a great river.

We not only admire the Susquehanna river, it has captured our hearts. It has a beauty we call home.  To live in Pennsylvania is to love the Susquehanna River.  It is the heartland of the  Mid-Atlantic east, flowing into the Chesapeake Bay, The Susquehanna River and its watershed is the life of the Mid-Atlantic region. A river is a river and a river.

Is there a river you love? Please comment about it and make the point clear!  The Columbia, The Rhine, The James, The Chemung, The Potomac, the Delaware, The Ohio, Connecticut, Savannah, St Johns… chime in please about your river!

Lobelia cardinalis, cardinal flower, Red lobelia, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland
Lobelia cardinalis, cardinal flower, Red lobelia, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland

It has been a few years now that we have become interested in native plants, and this is a special occasion, to see Lobelia cardinalis, the red lobelia, just growing in its natural habitat!

Lobelia cardinalis, cardinal flower, Red lobelia, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland
Lobelia cardinalis, cardinal flower, Red lobelia, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland

To be in this spot is special. Right in the water, with the flowers, along the river. This day has finally come, To see Lobelia cardinalis  just growing.

Lobelia cardinalis, cardinal flower, Red lobelia, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland
Lobelia cardinalis, cardinal flower, Red lobelia, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland
Vernonia noveboracensis, New York ironweed, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland
Vernonia noveboracensis, New York ironweed, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland

The beauty of a river has no beginning or and end.  The writer that can capture that beauty is…(Comment please)

 Phlox, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland
Phlox, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland

 

Tick trefoil, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland
Tick trefoil, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland

 

Sunflower, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland
Sunflower, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland

 

Sunflower, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland
Sunflower, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland

 

Sunflower, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland
Sunflower, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland

 

Joe-pye weed and Red lobelia, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland
Joe-pye weed and Red lobelia, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland

 

Elephant's foot, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland
Elephant’s foot, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland

Isabelle , I wish you were here to see the beauty of these flowers.

Impatiens pallida, Jewelweed, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland
Impatiens pallida, Jewelweed, Susquehanna State Park, Maryland

 

6 Replies to “SUSQUEHANNA BLOOMIN’: MARYLAND’S WEST BANK”

  1. Dear Sean,

    I now know where you and I will go for Labor Day from now on! What a symphony of color and beauty. A late summer display of all of our most favorite native wildflowers!

    The Sushquehanna is so enchanting and beautiful, so vital to the land, Pennsylvania, our future, and yet, the American Rivers organization now considers it the most endangered river in the nation: http://www.americanrivers.org/newsroom/press-releases/2011/susquehanna-named-most-endangered-river-5-17-2011.html

    Here is another article about the Susquehanna: http://www.americanrivers.org/our-work/protecting-rivers/endangered-rivers/endangered-susquehanna.html

    1. Isabelle, Thank-you for those articles. The millions of people who drink the water of the Susquehanna need to be aware of this fracking and natural gas drilling taking place.
      It would be nice to be able to look at a flower along a riverbank without having to worry about its future. Sean

  2. Susquehanna at 41 ft above flood in Wilkes-Barre now… why we need to respect flood plains, give the rivers space to expand and nurture the soil… if only the deposits they leave weren’t filled with heavy metals agricultural chemicals… are any of the several nuclear reactors along the Susquehanna at risk in this high water? Let’s be aware of how dependent we are are well managed eco-systems…. from protecting wild-flowers from invasives to organizing opposition to industries bent on destroying our lands for profit.

    Do you have any plans to take a photo trip to some of the fracking sights to make record of the botanical beauty they are threatening?

    1. Jacob, Exactly on the point you are and thank-you for your comment. Building on floodplains is a chronic problem and we must consider the price of floodplain lands and who in society really gets the most effected by flooding.
      Industrial pollutants such as heavy metals and agricultural chemicals have been polluting our rivers for over a century and we wonder why there is so much cancer. The most severe uncontrolled nuclear disaster in the history of this country occurred right on the Susquehanna River, at Three Mile Island in 1979.
      It is a horror show, our modern society and how we manage our lands and waterways. The fracking sights would be photographed by the Sanguine Root if we get to these locations.

      The Susquehanna River is one of the most endangered rivers in the world. Thank-you for your most timely and important comments.

      The Susquehanna River is also the most beautiful and elegant rivers, one of whose beauty needs to be accentuated and promulgated. Susquehanna State Park and Shenks Ferry Wildflower Preserve are accentuated by the Sanguine Root because these are truly beautiful places in the world. These spots are so beautiful they need to be exalted and magnified. Such beauty can still exist under such difficult circumstances such as the Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown and the decades long assault of industrial and agricultural pollutants. But for how long ?

      We need you to speak up and we appreciate your comments. keep it up Jacob, always looking after the overlooked and the environment, people and plants in need. You are an environmentalist and a humanitarian. There is no one from the other.

      Your care is not overlooked, and please continue the dialogue!

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