こおりがたくさんあります。 - There is a lot of ice.

What is the difference

between 「たくさんの」 and 「かずおおくの」? They both translate as "a lot of". Can they be used interchangeably? And when can you drop the の as in the above sentence? It's kind of confusing to me.

📷🖼📷🖼📷🖼📷🖼📷

Yesterday, I promised you a waterfall. Well, it's there, but you really cannot see it. 😂 It is still hidden beneath the ice (photo #6). I took some shots from spots along the creek. I thought the thick ice and remaining snow and the water carving its way through it was interesting. 

There were some people crossing the creek by walking on the ice. I thought they were taking quite a big risk. You really cannot tell how thick the ice is in spots and the creek was running high with meltwater.

I managed to take a shot of a chipmunk on the rocks. I observed it nibbling at the fresh grass. There were a few hummingbirds, too, but it's near impossible to catch them on camera in flight.

This trail is very popular with people who come up here from the city on weekends, but the rainy weather had deterred many from making the trip and I encountered only a few visitors. Otherwise, it would have been hard to take an undisturbed photo of the falls, there are people climbing everywhere on nice days. I like it quiet like that...