On Sunday I made a side trip to Mill Creek Park in Youngstown. Mill Creek Park is Youngstown’s treasure, a huge park that has everything from lakes and rocky trails to a rose garden and Lanterman’s Mill. It was the best place in the world for a kid to bicycle and hike and hang around in when I was young.
The leaves have just started changing color at Lake Newport.
I also took a brief walk over the bridge towards the hike/bike trail. I think this area is at its best in the autumn.
Over the creek is an improved trail for hiking and bicycling. There are a lot of black squirrels in this area — an animal we never see at home. These woods remind me of a Robert Frost poem.
Makes you want to get lost in the woods, doesn’t it? It was even nicer that there was almost no one else there — I suppose they were frightened away by the early cold temperatures.
Inspired by two cold nights in a row — in the 30s — I decided to get some more fall pictures at Battelle-Darby Creek Metro Park, near Columbus. The leaves aren’t quite as far along here — most everything is still green and yellow — but there are exceptions:
Author Anne Marie Lutz 
Way to make me homesick, Anne!
great photos – it’s almost like I was there!