the smedley log - suburban scrawl

Saturday sightseeing

Yesterday I saddled up with my f³ and did a little sight-seeing. The weather was poorly predicted, so I actually thought it was going to rain a bit, which altered my plans. Hence we started out indoors, paying a visit to the Bryn Athyn Cathedral, in Bryn Athyn, PA. The Cathedral is a facility of The New Church. I’m not considering becoming a member there, but they offer excellent, informative and, best of all, free tours of the beautiful cathedral building, which was first dedicated in 1919.

The Bryn Athyn Cathedral from the rear garden area
The one thought I couldn’t help thinking as we walked through the building and listened to our guide was, “I wonder what it would cost to build a cathedral of this quality today?” The answer, no doubt, would be in the billions easily. For anyone out there, especially in the Philadelphia region, interested in the seemingly long-lost ideals of great architecture and meticulous craftsmanship, I recommend taking the tour sometime. Details at their website.

As we finished up the cathedral tour and it started occurring to us that it wasn’t about to rain any time soon, we decided to make the surprisingly quick jaunt from Bryn Athyn to Ralph Stover State Park, just outside of Point Pleasant, PA. Once there, we took a protracted walk to the nearby High Rocks Vista. High Rocks is about a 200 foot sheer rock face overlooking the Tohickon Valley Creek.

High Rocks is a favorite destination for rock-climbing enthusiasts, and there were many of them still there when we arrived at the vista. I took pictures of it, but I’m afraid they’ll never do justice to the majestic view.

The welcome sign for High Rocks Vista

The Tohickon Valley Creek from atop High Rocks

I wanted to see the views from atop High Rocks. How long was the “protracted walk”?
Thanks

it took us about an hour, but we meandered quite a bit, which is why I referred to it as protracted. We actually parked at the other end of the Stover Park entrance, but we could have parked right next to the rocks if we’d wanted to. It’s a really neat view.