Usually a gentle and romantic trickle for most of the year Akron Falls offered a rather different atmosphere this early May. After all, the record rains of April had to send the water somewhere. And you could tell by the swelling Murder Creek as well as the falls themselves. Water forcefully shot out of the upper ledge almost totally obstructing the usually main flow from the lower ledge. All of this generated a lot of mist too, enveloping everything in tiny droplets of water, including my camera. Presented here in black and white for simplicity and to place focus on the form.

Akron Falls is part of the Erie County Park System located along Murder Creek in the town of Akron, not far from Buffalo, NY. It actually offers two natural waterfalls, Upper & Lower Akron Falls. Upper Akron Falls is generally inaccessible. The Lower Akron Falls, about 40 feet in height at the upper shelf, can be viewed either by following the dirt trail along the creek and later up into the woods and a viewing area, or by branching off the trail where it starts heading up and following the creek to the Falls. Here, conditions vary significantly with season and weather. In Spring after snow melts the waterfall is rather strong at both its lower portion and also the top. In summer, it can be reduced to trickles and the whole upper portion dries up entirely.