March at Cedar Falls Black and White Landscape Photography by Jim Crotty on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Late winter at Cedar Falls in Hocking Hills State Park. A mid-winter thaw in late February provides a welcome preview of the warmth to come. The song of a thousand drips amongst the sandstone recesses welcomes you as you descends into the cool depths. The ice monoliths of January are reduced to size before winter makes a final appearance and a new layer of ice and snow takes hold, but only briefly. A heavy mist rises from the melting ice. On the trail are layers of ice, mud and sand, pounded into a solid, slippery covering by the passing of a thousand hiking boots.

In the twilight of a winter evening the twisting roads through Hocking Hills go quiet with only the occasional traveler or local resident making their way home. Darkness falls just a few minutes later than the night before as the slow and steady progress toward spring begins. But winter doesn’t give up easily. Inevitably there is one more snowstorm that blankets the trees in a coat of white, just when hopes are rising for an end to the long season of dormant slumber in the hills.

Driftwood and Shell in Black and White by Jim Crotty on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Fine art black and white nature photography shell and driftwood on beach at Botany Bay Heritage Preserve South Carolina