New photo album up: Theodore Roosevelt Island in Winter. (Or “Teddy Island,” as I like to call it.)

I went over to the island last Saturday for a midday hike, not having been there since last summer, and wanting to see what the island is like with fresh snow on the ground. I think I like it better this time of year: tourist/jogger traffic is a bit thinner, the leafless canopy makes for farther and wider vistas, and there are no spider webs strung across the trails at face-level. On the down side, it’s cold, the toilet facility is closed till April, and the Swamp Trail boardwalk is perilously coated in slush. Some imaginative island visitors did gather up enough snow to build a new tour guide for the Swamp Trail, though:

I took a few adventurous detours this time around, clambering over the rocks jutting out of the Potomac on the northeast side of the island to get a shot of this unfortunate, nondescript appliance wedged in the rocks:

Later on, I hopped off the Swamp Trail boardwalk to try out an “informal” trail leading to the low-tide sandbar passing under the Roosevelt Bridge, connecting the Big Island to the undomesticated Little Island. I didn’t get too far along that, since my sneakers were defenseless against a large patch of very deep, soft, suckish marsh mud, but I did get a nice closeup of clamshells in the sand, and a panorama of the view from under Roosevelt Bridge. (Next time I go there, I’ll have boots, and maybe we’ll see what the Little Island is like.)

Very much worth a visit to see this easily accessible natural haven in winter; just remember to wear warm layers, thick socks and shoes you don’t mind getting wet and dirty, and a hat that covers your ears.