Yellow Creek State Park, Penn Run, PA

I learned, thanks to the Internet, that the reason Yellow Creek is called such is because there is a lot of yellow clay in the banks and on the bottom of the creek.

OK then.

I also learned during the time we visited Penn Run, PA (which I just love to say because it rolls off the tongue quite nicely ... Penn Run, PA, Penn Run, PA ...), and its pretty little state park that everyone in my family has been spoiled by growing up in Western Michigan, close enough to Lake Michigan and its beautiful sandy beaches to spend every summer day there if we so choose.

I'm sorry, Penn Run, PA, but Ludington, MI, has a nicer state park. Neener neener neener.

Just kidding. I mean about the neener neener thing. We really do have a nicer state park, but yours is quite beautiful and serves its purpose just fine and dandy. Swimming, fishing, hunting, hiking, biking, picnicking. All that good stuff can be done in Penn Run just as well as in Ludington. But - and this is a huge BUT - there are no sand dunes. Rocky cliffs, maybe. Beautiful hillsides, yes. But no sand dunes.

There is this, though:

Gorgeous scenery, no?

What's that stuff at the edge of the water, you say? I wondered that myself when we first arrived. And then a little way down from where we sat, I saw this:

Just posting this photo makes me chuckle all over again. There were no geese anywhere to be seen in the beach area that day, but there was plenty of goose poo on the beach and in the grass. So my question is this: are they trying to keep the geese off the beach? Or out of the water? If anybody knows, feel free to enlighten me. Even the kids said, "Don't they know the geese can just fly over the fence?" Heh.

It's not the sandy beach we're used to, but I actually like the expanse of green grass leading to the water. Less sand in my vehicle that way.

It was rather breezy and cool the day we visited the state park, so the kids just waded in the water. This is one of those "caption this" photos. Can't you just hear Sam saying, "Come on, Rachel! It's not that cold!" and her stomping her foot and responding, "then you get wet!" 

This is as far as I went in. 

And I think that satisfies my quota for bare feet photos for the summer.