Cunningham Falls State Park--The Falls

Part of our visit to Cunningham Falls State Park was an easy hike out to the falls. Cunningham Falls, where the park got its name, is known locally as McAfee Falls. It's a 78-foot drop, the largest in the state of Maryland. We started our trek on the easiest trail since we had J and L with us.

Falls Trail head

The cliffside trail takes four fifths of a mile, the easy trail is half a mile and much flatter. The easy trail does have several interesting features. A sign told us about the various wildlife in the woods: deer, squirrels, birds, bears. They didn't mention wolves though we thought we saw one.

Wolf or tree stump or rock?

It never moved, so it probably was a rock or a root. Further on we saw various outcroppings and rocky fields.

Rocky outcropping, good for hiding from Black Riders

Trees and rocks living in harmony

Uncle Ed enjoyed one tree so much, he had me take his picture with it!

Uncle Ed

After a few more bends in the path, we found the falls. J and L were fascinated but not for a long time. The falls are a bit overgrown and not as easy to see. And they are not as dramatic as other falls we have seen. We took a few pictures and then headed back.

The falls!

Rocky bottom of the falls

On the way back, we enjoyed some more misty rocks and trees. At one point, L asked if we were in the jungle. Mommy and Daddy agreed that it did look like a jungle but jungles aren't found in America.

Misty forest, not jungle!

On the way out, we spontaneous formed into a train with Granny as our engine.

Forest train departing for the lake

The train didn't make it all the way back to the trail head. We broke up and Grandpa started racing J and Cousin A. He didn't let them lose, which was nice of him.

After the hike, we had some lunch and headed off to the lake, which we talked about in the last post.

Next post is the nearby Cotoctin Furnace!