Jakes Rocks, NWPA | Winged Beauty Butterflies

Pink Lady's Slipper Orchid, photographed by Jeff Zablow in Chapman State Park, PA

The objective? Find Pink Lady’s Slipper ( Cypripedium Acaule). Well here are 2 blooms at Jake’s Rocks Reserve, in northwestern Pennsylvania. June 2015.

I love these extraordinary flowers. Despite a nice library of their images, every few years I’m out, searching for more.

When these came into view, thoughts raced: Can these be real? How stately (a word little used nowadays). How do these delicate blossoms go unscathed, in this wild habitat? Cartier, are you and Tiffany’s and Van Clef & Arpels capable of such finery? and How delicate and beautiful are Your creations.

Jeff

Jake’s Rocks in Northwestern Pennsylvania was another treasure trove of Pink Lady’s Slipper Orchids, and a teaser with orchids that were no longer in bloom (Oh, if I’d only been there a few weeks before).

Here you savor the riches of a northeastern state that cherishes its land, and works hard to conserve critical habitat, including almost bewildering fields of godzilla-sized rocks here at Jake’s Rocks.

Hiking through the moderately wooded Reserve, I met this rock. Now Jake’s Rocks has lots of huge boulders, left when the glaciers carried them there. Then there was this whimsical boulder, tinier than the other monster ones, and, some out of character, I set my field hat on it, and am now sharing it with y’all. Whimsy in the field. Yes?

Jeff