Peace Valley Park - Bucks County

On Sunday I decided I needed a change of scenery and a little challenge. So I headed to Peace Valley Park - managed by the Bucks County Department of Parks and Recreation.

The park offers a fabulous Nature Center/Environmental Area, some playgrounds, lots of shaded tables for picnicking, trails for hiking, boating, fishing, turtle spotting, bird watching, ice skating in the winter, swimming, bikeways, walkways and most important to someone like me, nice clean restrooms to go along with the great views.

I've not been there since I wrote about the park on August 23, 2008. I figured it was time for an encore visit. So I packed my camera and a little lunch and away I went.

The nature center claims that more than 250 species of birds have been spotted in the park. While I was walking, I did an informal count of different species that I could recognize and came up with 23 of them in just that one afternoon.


First, I found a shaded picnic table and enjoyed my lunch - the breeze on my face - and the sounds of laughter of the children playing in the nearby playground were delightful.

After lunch, I was set for the challenge. The man-made lake at Peace Valley is about 3 miles long and has a walking path the whole way around it. Now, I've been walking more and more lately, but haven't tried a longer non-stop walk since I injured my shoulder. It has been a few months since I felt up to trying 6 or 7 miles.


At the upper reach of the lake, near the nature center I saw a Cormorant (also known as a Shag) sitting on a pole. Normally a sea bird, there were a number of them diving for fish in the lake. I don't know which of the 40 different species of Cormorant this one is - with all the reflections from the green trees and the algae, it was hard to determine exactly what color it was.


Feeling good about myself, I made it to the opposite end of the lake about an hour later. Here I had a nice view of the lake, the breeze in my face, and cool refreshing drink. I decide the view alone was ample reward for undertaking the challenging (to me) walk.

A half hour later, I made it back to my car thinking, "I did it! I did it! I made it all the way around the lake! And I feel pretty good too!" The path I took, according to my pedometer, was a little more than 7 miles. :)


In fact, I felt so good I decided to treat myself by hugging a sexy little redhead I met near the parking lot.

:)