Photo Essays

Tannehill State Park Flash Flood of December 2014

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TANNEHILL, Ala. – This video was shot to show the flash flooding at Tannehill State Park in Alabama on Dec. 28, 2014. Video created for the New American Journal @ NewAmericanJournal.Net, an alternative, independent news publication registered legally as Locust Fork Publishing LLC.

Ducks on the Pond at Tannehill State Park

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A Photo Essay in Progress – Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – We pulled into Tannehill State Park on a cloudy, drizzly Friday the week before Christmas and stumbled onto perhaps the best deal on a campsite we’ve seen after three months of camping all over Maryland, Virginia and the Gulf Coast. There’s a…

Controversy Surrounds Mobile Alabama’s Art Walk

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MOBILE, Ala. — A video tells the stories from December’s Art Walk, where controversy spurred a movement to set the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest gathering of Santa’s Elves. The count fell short. But according to observers, it would was great to see such a large and diverse number of people having…

The Jefferson Memorial and Legacy at Monticello in Autumn

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Thomas Jefferson As A Tactful Tactician – The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – MONTICELLO, Va. – In the introduction to one of the versions of The Writings of Thomas Jefferson available online at Project Gutenberg, former West Virginia Governor George W. Atkinson describes Jefferson as the quintessential tactful political tactician and statesman. “Thomas…

Camping Along the Appalachian Trail at Big Meadows

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SECRET VISTAS – By Glynn Wilson – BIG MEADOWS CAMPGROUND, Va. — We pulled into this largest campground in the Shenandoah National Park on Sunday afternoon late, and without knowing it, picked a campsite right on the Appalachian Trail. The view Monday morning at dawn was stunning, and we found out from hikers it was…

Early Autumn Color in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia

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Secret Vistas – A Photo Essay – By Glynn Wilson – SHENANDOAH VALLEY, Va. — The autumn color is not quite at its peak in these famous mountains with the legendary Shenandoah River running through them. But the scene should come to fruition in the next three weeks. This is the result of day one…

Autumn Arrives in Style in a Maryland Park

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Secret Vistas – A Photo Essay – By Glynn Wilson – GREENBELT, Md. — After a couple of days of drizzling rain and clouds — and a month in the Washington, D.C. area waiting for fall color to hit the trees — autumn arrived in style on Friday in Greenbelt Park, National Park Service land…

Hiking and Camping at Patapsco Valley State Park, Maryland

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Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – SOMEWHERE IN THE WOODS NORTH OF D.C., Md. — We made it back to the Patapsco Valley State Park this afternoon in time to explore further along the Campground Loop Trail to the River Ridge Trail. Brought the Nikon along and snapped a few pics. May post more…

Experiencing the Blue Ridge Parkway in Summer

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Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY, Va. — The National Park Service calls this “America’s Favorite Drive,” but if you go by the traffic, U.S. Highways 81 and 66 to Washington, D.C. might better fit the bill. After camping in the mountains of Virginia for a couple of nights in an…

Independence Day Fireworks From Washington, D.C.

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Watch the video – WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 4) — We made our way from the Hungry Mother State Park — after a cool summer night July 3 in the mountains by the creek — through the crowds in the nation’s capital on Friday to a Pentagon parking lot by the Lady Bird memorial, where we…

Virginia Youth Conservation Corps Works and Learns at Hungry Mother State Park

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By Glynn Wilson – MARION, Va. — Who says government is so bad? The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation employs young people every summer to engage Virginia’s youth in a structured program of important conservation and park projects on public lands while providing learning that fosters teamwork, self-esteem, social responsibility and respect for the…

Bald Eagles Nesting in Gulf State Park

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By Glynn Wilson – GULF SHORES, Ala. — What appears to be a juvenile bald Eagle now watches over a nest in a tall pine tree in Gulf State Park. The bald eagle is America’s national bird. It grew close to becoming extinct in the 20th century due to DDT chemical poisoning of their egg…

Images From Mobile Bay in Fairhope on Earth Day 2014

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FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Images from Earth Day 2014 along Mobile Bay showoff a beautiful spring day and a carefree attitude this area needs as a break from the disasters in the news from the BP Oil Spill to the tar sands and crude pipelines through their sole source of fresh drinking water and a historic…

Comic Cowboys Satirize Mobile Establishment on Fat Tuesday

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MOBILE, Ala. – The Comic Cowboys poked jabbing fun at the establishment in the rain on Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras Day. Big Oil pipelines came under fire, as well as the new Chamber of Commerce Republican Mayor and the cops. Alabama’s Nick Saban and Auburn’s Toomer Oaks were also the subject of the cowboy’s wit,…

Mobile Mardi Gras 2014: Joe Cain Day Parade

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MOBILE, Ala. — The Order Of Pi Krewe, led by Queen Stephanie VanArsdale, went off on Joe Cain Day in Mobile, Alabama on Saturday. Joseph Stillwell Cain, Jr. “Joe Cain” (October 10, 1832 – April 17, 1904) is largely credited with the rebirth of Mardi Gras celebrations in Mobile, Alabama, stopped due to the Civil…

Mobile Mardi Gras 2014 Mystics of Time

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MOBILE, Ala. — One of Mobile’s most popular parades, the Mystics of Time, comes out on the Saturday before Mardi Gras and unleashes smoke-breathing dragons on the streets of the city. The krewe was formed in 1948 and first paraded the next year. As the story goes, a group of friends, while playing their regular…

Contemplating Hunger and Nature in the Jefferson National Forest

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Secret Vistas By Glynn Wilson MARION, Va. – Listening to a babbling brook and watching the snow flakes gently fall in one of Mother Nature’s most beautiful acts, I am pondering the legend of the hungry mother who inspired the name of this place along the Hungry Mother Creek. As the story goes, back during…