Silence at Dragon Fly Pond

Somehow I always forget about Yellow Creek State Park. It’s been some time since I’ve been there, 2019 might have been the last time? Fall is approaching (going by weather, not date) and I’m looking forward to the leaves changing. The weekend was the perfect time to start to check things out. Since I’ve only gone to Yellow Creek for sunrise, I decided to plan a hike.

I really wanted to check out Dragon Fly Pond. When I arrived there were tons of birders and I really didn’t want to deal with them. Not knowing the lay of the land (I wouldn’t have been in their way) I decided to keep looking for a parking area. A short ways up the road from the Dragon Fly Pond parking area, I found another little parking area. There was an informational sign there with maps, so I grabbed an updated map and realized that there was a trailhead right where I was at and it’s a loop that takes me right to Dragon Fly Pond,”this is great”, I thought!

The trail started across the street from the parking area. It wasn’t well marked and is part of the 18 miles of single-track mountain bike trails, this one being multi-use. The trail starts out accending the hillside into the woods far above route 259. The trail was very rocky to start, and soon leveled out through a pine forest patch. Continuing on through multiple different a few different habitats, including meadow land. Eventually I made it to the pond. The birders were gone by then and I had the place to myself. It was so silent and beautiful. The clouds were threatening rain, but that never happened. The leaves were just starting to turn and I have a feeling if cooler weather start to set in, the leaves will be colorful pops of red and yellow.