May 2, 2021
As fall is to leaf-peeping, spring is to waterfall-watching, a seasonal pursuit now underway in the northern and higher regions of the United States.
Waterfalls can range from thunderous plunges to delicate mossy trickles. They can be backcountry pop-ups or the centerpieces of parks, like Great Falls Park in McLean, Virginia, and Silver Falls State Park, near Salem, Oregon.
There’s no agreed-upon definition of a waterfall, according to Joel Scheingross, an assistant professor of geology at the University of Nevada, Reno, who studies those that detach from the bed of a river, creating an air pocket between the face and the water jet. Waterfalls, he explained, can be the result of glacial carving (as at Niagara Falls), or through faults in tectonic plates. Places where hard and soft rock mix often produce waterfalls pouring over a harder rock cap that carve away soft rock below.
Ron Chase: Climbing Mount Charles Thomas Jackson
By Ron ChaseSeniors Not Acting Their Age
Contributed photo
Distinctive Mount Jackson is located on the southwestern end of the Presidential Range in the New Hampshire White Mountains, New England’s most consequential mountaineering environment. Situated between less illustrious Mounts Pierce and Webster, I suspect most people assume Mount Jackson is named for the seventh president, Andrew Jackson. To quote one of the most intelligent people I’ve met, “Never assume anything.” Unlike the more prestigious Mounts Washington, Adams and Jefferson, Mount Jackson is not named for a president, but rather controversial 19
th century geologist Charles Thomas Jackson.