One of the nicest places in all of our county is Whatcom Falls City Park. Bellingham has great green spaces and for every acre of land devoted to new construction, the same amount must be designated for parks and green spaces. It keeps our city of nearly 100,000 from being over run with only housing and businesses and provides refreshing places for everyone to enjoy.
We spent a day here with our oldest daughter, our son and their families. I had been wanting to get photographs of the falls this summer, since we are in a drought and the flow is very low compared to years with normal or above average rainfall. The beauty and sound is astonishing.
The falls are on Whatcom Creek,which flows from Lake Whatcom. The park includes most of the creek, a developed pond that is a fish nursery for the fish hatchery in the park and all of the falls area and miles of hiking trails. The creek continues on down through town and into Bellingham Bay.
The park is 241 acres, with four falls. We only visited the main falls
The top of the falls
Plunging to the rocks below
All the area - over to the people on the left top of the photo, is usually flowing with water - you can see how reduced the flow is this summer
The small pond at the bottom of the falls - the boulders have been made smooth by the pounding of the water
This area is completely dry. Not sure how those holes got in the boulders
Ben and Donnie posed nicely for me on the bridge over the falls.
No matter how you view it - the falls are magnificent.
During the depression the New Deal Works Progress Administration paid workers to move the Chuckanut sandstone arches from a downtown burned-out building to the park. In 1939 the sandstone was used to construct the stone bridge, which is usually covered in mosses and lichens, but not this dry summer.
Collages were made at ipiccy.com and fotor.com, both free sites for making collages and editing photos.
9 comments:
Hello, it is great that the green spaces are being saved for everyone to enjoy. The park is so pretty, I love the waterfalls. The image with your cute Ben and Donnie is awesome. Wonderful series of photos. Happy Monday, have a great new week ahead!
I love that they are saving green spaces. Seattle should take a lesson.
I so enjoyed this post of water and green. Your photos are wonderful. I am so worried about the weather. The Snoqualmie river is showing rocks that should be well under rushing water. So sad.
It's gorgeous and a perfect place to spend the day. I know you had to caution the kids though. It makes me nervous...nervous nellie! heehee! How wonderful to have all these nice photos to remember your special times with family. Sweet hugs, Diane
It's sad to see the resulting decreased water flow at the falls from the drought. On the other end of the scale, Lake Huron where I vacationed last week is up so much from winter's ice and spring rains that they had to cut back the grasses to allow for a beach this year.
We have been so fortunate to have rain once a week at least all summer.
Thanks for linking to Mosaic Monday JoAnn.
It is so refreshing to see those green spaces. We have one small park in our neighborhood that was built because of a petition put forth by my father-in-law. The police barracks had been torn down and built into apartment buildings and he pushed for the excess space to be turned into a park. (That is the place I hang quilts for photos) I get yelled at each time I take Nikko with me because "no dogs allowed" signs everywhere.
Look guys ... #1 you wouldn't even have had this park had it not been for the efforts of the Fukuda family ... and #2 Nikko does not climb trees and break branches or kick balls over the fence or poop in the fenced-in sand box... and #3 statistics show that having a dog improves the health and lives of us elderly folks. The rules need changed to "don't dump your unwanted cats here".
Beautiful waterfalls!
What beautiful photos of the waterfalls!!! I love waterfalls of any kind and these look lovely. xx
JoAnn, I recall driving through that area - sadly didn't have time to visit the falls and spend some relaxing time on my visits (3) to beautiful Bellingham. But seeing friends and spending time with them on the last two visits was enjoyable. Next time, hopefully you and I can meet up - I'd enjoy that too!
Lovely views and your pix are great - the boys are so lucky you took them there. I love that they recycled the sandstone arches. Just heard from my Bellingham friends that this has been the most beautiful Summer they can recall since moving there - and that was many years back.
Hope your week is going well.
Hugs - Mary
I can see that the falls are really beautiful, despite the low flows. Even when Washington is dry it so far seems positively dripping with water compared to California. Lovely shots!
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