Sunrise 8: Ault Park (Atop the Pavilion)

Amanda and I had to run some errands at 8:00am this morning, so this trip up to the park was nice and quick. 8:00am was no problem – one of the many positive side effects of my involvement with this project. The ride up to the park was beautiful, and I’ve noticed that I’ve started to break into the time period (around 6:45am) where kids are getting ready for school. I passed several high school students waiting on the bus, and said my morning greetings to a handful of parents walking to the local elementary school. By the time I got to the park, I was left with a whole 15 minutes before the sunrise to stake out my spot. I decided to switch it up a bit and see what the view looked like from the top of the pavilion. I’ve noticed that the pavilion sits squarely aligned with the eastern sunrise, something that I will devote an entire post to later on (regarding how the entire park seems to be designed with the sunrise in mind.  Think a along the lines of StoneHendge 🙂 ). I parked my bike at the base of the pavilion and climbed up the four or five sets of stairs.

View from atop the pavilion. The dawn morning looked beautiful, lots of pink and orange. There was a slight haze from the clouds that scattered the morning light nicely. (More pictures after the jump)

As I approached the final stairs, I realized that I had stumbled upon a secret rooftop chalk gallery. It appears that a group of high school seniors commandeered the pavilion rooftop at some point in the last 3 days and made canvas out of the stone tiles.

Here was one of my favorite tiles. I bet they have no idea that their temporary artwork would be archived on the Internet!

The top of the pavilion provided a beautiful view across the valley. I was worried about the trees being in the way, but as it turns out there is a conveniently located void in the canopy that allows the sun to shine right through. This will be interesting in the summer when the trees have their full leaves going. The effect I noticed yesterday is apparent in the picture above. About 30 seconds before sun rise the clouds on the horizon light up in this brilliant pink/orange streak.

The seconds before sunrise. Is it obvious yet where the sun is going to pop up? 🙂

The sun cresting through the hole in the trees.

These vertical shots are kind of inpractical to display on this page, but I like to include as much of the higher atmosphere as possible.

Final shot of the sunrise, exactly half of sol showing. Kind of feels like the sahara after looking back on this picture.

There was actually quite a bit of activity in the park this morning. I’m not sure if this is because today is a friday (haha sorry, i can’t help myself) and more people have the day off, or because I wasn’t tucked away at the overlook away from the main road. Several cars that were not park crew drove by, including another sunrise photographer! Hello mysterious fellow Ault park sunrise patron. I hope you don’t mind me taking a picture of you taking a picture. That apartment up on the hill is a new building that you can see, if you look for it, everywhere in eastern Cincy. Its up in Madeira on Kenwood road to give some perspective. I wonder if they’ll let me up on their roof?

There were several “groups” that were represented in the chalk art. Geek Squad was one, Team Squad was another, and there was a third that I don’t remember. I took advantage of some more of the park symmetry, one of my things about the lawn of the park.

After looking cross the eastern hills, form my new vantage point top the pavilion, I realized that I could see the annex of the Cincinnati Observatory’s dome (featured in yesterday’s post) peeking out from the trees. Awesome! You can see the silver dome on the left of the picture, just to the right of the green conifer (pine tree) that pops above the horizon.

After climbing down from the pavilion (It was already 7:20am! Where has the time gone?) I saw a beautiful flowering tree that seemed to be exploding in the morning light. This picture is a bit dark, but what do you expect 15 minutes after daybreak with a point-and-shoot camera? 🙂

The pavilion. I was sitting up on top, right in the center between the “T” and “P”.

I was feeling a bit guilty about not sharing the morning with the Heekin Overlook.  Here’s a shot from the familiar spot behind the benches. Armleder is still not doing so hot, but I think the water is going down. Look at all that green!

By now I’ve come to face the realization that I love taking pictures that include my bike. Here we are on the dark side of the hill that approaches Heekin Overlook, looking South/East towards the sunrise.

Have a great weekend! If the weather is nice, perhaps I’ll have a weekend update (or two) as I explore the hills of eastern cincy.

Stats from this morning:
Sunrise: 7:01am EST
Visibility: 10mi
Temperature: 47F / 8C, not much wind at all
Sky: Clear in the upper atmosphere, hazy around the horizon. What a beautiful spring day. A few gusts of wind, but nothing to chilling.
Sunrise: Orange and Pink, burning through the cloudy haze in a blaze of glory.
Bird Chatter: All over the place. I heard several woodpeckers (saw a red-headed yesterday).
People: I wasn’t alone! I saw the other sunrise viewer, several cars that drove through, and one of cincinnati’s finest on a friday morning cruise.