Black Hill Regional Park

Author's Comments

Little Seneca Lake does something most suburban lakes do not. It stays quiet. I have driven out to Germantown at five in the morning in October, expecting the usual trade-offs of a park this close to the beltway, and found instead a shoreline so still that the reflection held whole trees upside down without a ripple to interrupt them. The coves are the thing here. The main body of the lake is pleasant enough, but the coves are where the herons stand and where the water goes to glass before the wind comes up around eight. Sunrise is not negotiable. By mid-morning a breeze will usually arrive and the mirror breaks, and the park becomes an ordinary pleasant place to walk. In the first hour of light it is something else. Mist lifts off the surface in ribbons, the far shore goes pink before the sun clears the trees, and if you are lucky a heron will lift from the shallows slowly enough that you can watch the whole gesture. Fall is when I recommend it. The wooded shoreline turns and the reflections double the color, and the lake is warm enough relative to the air that the mist behaves. Spring works too, especially when the new green is coming in and the water is still high from the rains. Rent a kayak if the light holds past breakfast. Otherwise stay near the boat launch and work the edges. This is not a dramatic park. It is a patient one, and it rewards the same.

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