I hesitate to title this as I love ice....

 You all know why. 

However, real true ice made out of water dripping through porous rocks and freezing in ice curtains over rock shelters or rock faces are uniquely beautiful.

Nature creates this with her weather in the winter. The water is almost always seeping through these formations and in the winter the hillsides that don't get sunlight stay colder allowing the ice to begin to form.

I feel that December through March, it is 'my' weird obsession to hunt out ice formations and see them. I enjoy figuring out where is the most likely place they will be and then photographing them. Often, I get to the same place over and over to watch it change.

This is what the ice cave area looks like as the end of winter comes around and the ice formations melt. With the ice is gone, it looks rather bland and uninteresting. In late March, the temps warm and the sun changes its angle and shines through the leafless trees to melt the ice.

What it looked like on Monday with its winter beauty. The top right 'cave' is the one I usually go into and photograph. It isn't easy to get there and it takes a bit of caution and of course good ice cleats.

Charlie explored it, took a drink of chilled ice water and then watched the valley below. He doesn't wander off. If I take too long exploring, he'll come and look at me and then whine.

I swear he is saying "Enough, let's get on with it!"

Mostly the water is always seeping or dripping and the temperatures cause the water to make these formations. Wouldn't it be cool to have a time lapse camera on these?

We made it down to where Weister creek has ice formations on its sandstone walls. I rerouted up and over the hogback and then down into the valley to avoid the fallen trees from last year's storms.

I only used my Infrared camera here because the colors where so fun. The red is the green mosses and a dying pine branch which cover the very small ice formations on the rock. To me, it looked like it could be a fairy cave. 

Why not?

This is as far as I go in the wintertime to this last wall of rocks and ice. You can see where the rains from last week raised the water level and evened out the icicles.

I always stop at this spot and enjoy a few moments photographing the ice formation on this bank of Weister Creek. This was the view on Monday.

I love this spot in all seasons. 

2022:

Springtime:

With each flash flood or heavy rain, the form of the creek changes slightly with fallen trees, roots, and shapes of the shores.

You can probably tell that this is my favorite place to visit in the winter time.

I have many other places I like to see out. I do this mostly solo because I don't have to rush and I can explore as I wish.

Sometimes I just think about blending into these places and never leaving. When my life ends, I'd love my ashes to be part of these places.