Chewacla State Park

It’s a cloudy humid day; by looking around I can tell it has not rained in a few days at the Chewacla State Park in Auburn, Alabama. The trail to get here is ragged and has been walked on by many people for a long period of time. There is a nice breeze coming down of the top of the waterfall. The area is filled with evergreen trees. There is not much room for trees to grow. Its seems as if the trees just grew right threw the rocks. The sound of the waterfall is faint, as the downstream flow near me is much stronger. Every now and then the breeze will push a scent of fresh water and soil up my nose. The sun light is getting dim as it sets behind the towering trees to my left. All of the trees are riddled with moss. The river has cut a path through the massive jagged boulders. The path of the stream has cut through varies in size but for the most part it winds back and forth no wider than a foot between the converging boulders. The river flows right between two large hills that seem to be colluding. The rock formation is very old as its edges are smooth, glossy and have a black and dark red tint in color. Once sun begins to tuck behind the moss covered trees the mugginess begins to lift away and the air cools. The breeze is becoming must stronger as I can hear the leaves rustle over the strong current of the river. The strong river currents pretty loud as if I were to try to talk to someone next to me I would have to almost yell. The River is regrouping near me from the plunge down the waterfall. It becomes narrow and twisty. The flow of the river picks up pace as it heads down the steep decline. The rock that I am sitting on is obviously usually underwater as it sits just a couple inches from the water. The rock is extremely flat, smooth, and sandy. A layer of a green fluffy muck covers the rock on the lower half; it also coats the other low lying boulders. There is no vegetation as most of the taller rocks are covered in little vines and weeds. The breeze slowly shifts in the opposite direction; the wind is now coming from behind me. I notice the wind change as soon as it occurs, because an aroma from a group of dead minnows that got caught in a small puddle before the water level went down. The only hints of wildlife I have seen are the little pile of dead minnows, but the occasional recreational hiker passes by me. Out of the five people I have seen only one has not had to stop and catch their breath for the hike down the rugged trail. All five are very sweaty from the humidity and the hike.There is a lot of trash in the area and floating down the stream. Beer cans just seem to cruise down the violent streams as if they were a dinghy rafting down the river. Farther down the river a trash bag makes an artificial dam were a small collection of garbage is stopped. There is a shirt, sock, and beer cans caught up at the dam. Behind me the river seems to almost become a delta splitting fifty different ways. Each stream seems to have the quickest way to the lake down the hill. I hop around between the rocks that are separated by the little watercourses. Once I stand on top if the huge boulder in the middle of the rivers that split around it in so many paths. I see about sixty beer cans at the beginning of the lake. It looks like a collection place for a recycling facility. Half of the cans are faded by the sun and look very old. The other cans look brand new like they had just been drank out of twenty minutes before I got there. The boulder I’m moved to is larger than a normal size home. The rock is just sitting on top of a smaller rock. Although it is on top of such a small rock it is perfectly balanced. Just below the rock all the streams converge back into one stream. The flow of this one stream is dead and becomes a lake. The lake has an odd dark green look to it due to a thick film that sits on top of it. The film is on top of the water because of the motionlessness of the water.