It was a drizzly day in the park today but that didn’t deter me from getting out to explore the park.
Wet mushroom
From my campground its a short hike over to the Grotto trail and on the way I took a short break to enjoy the view – overcast as it was, it was still a pretty nice view.
Quiet Rest
Once you reach the Grotto trail it’s only 1 kilometre before you reach an overlook onto Georgian Bay and the Grotto.
Grotto
Things started to get a little wetter as I hiked back to the campsite. That meant I could get in the tent and do some reading. It was a vacation after all.
It’s been a week since the heat wave and the camping trip to Tobermory, Ontario and this time I’m camping with my friend Nigel in Killbear Provincial Park. The weather this time around is not as friendly as last week. Temps are back to the regular cool temps of late September here in the middle of Ontario.
White Tailed Deer
When we arrived it was raining so we timed getting our tent up in-between spurts of rain. Once the tent was up we decided to drive around the park and see which trails we would do the next day. On our way through the campground we found some deer grazing in the grasses.
Since the light rain wasn’t looking like it would let up we decided that instead of making dinner in the rain we would head to town and get warmed up at a local place.
It was a chilly night’s sleep and I was glad to be up and around the next day. The rain had cleared and we had beautiful blue skies great us for our morning hike and some infrared shooting.
Lone Pine Killbear PP
And of course you can’t miss photographing the small things:
From Darkness
Our last evening was going to be another cold one but we had some plans to hang by the fire before heading out to the photograph the windswept tree at night.
Killbear Tree at Night
As we photographed different angles of the tree we started to notice something happening on the water. A beautiful mist started rising up and moving along the top of the water. Added to that the moon’s glow made it seem eerie as you watched this mist move this way and that.
Enveloping Mist
I could have watched it all night but we had to get some sleep as we were heading home the next day. How quickly the weekends end when there is so much to photograph.
Today was a day of waterfalls. First we drove out to mighty Svartifoss, which we had skipped over yesterday because of a heavy downpour. Now I’m not adverse to getting out in the pouring rain but it was just miserable out and the fog was pretty heavy which meant that there was a high chance of not so great photos.
Svartifoss
It’s a long hike to the falls – a very long uphill battle as a matter of fact that is until one has to head back down into the valley below to see this waterfall up close and personal. It is a beauty with all the basalt columns surrounding it. While here we were able to experience a few different weather patterns while we photographed – it went from drizzle to hail to snow to sun. All in the span of an hour or possibly less – I didn’t time it. Crossing a bridge and up the other side Kathy and I clambered up onto the tallest peak in this park to get a view of not just one but two glaciers! (Still working on finding a great photo to show you). Then it was off to meet up with Paul and Galina who missed our waving from above.
Heygotufoss
As we walked downhill we found another waterfall, Heygotufoss rushing out of a crevice on the lower cliffs. I had to get a few different angles but my favourite is the one above. After shooting for awhile we realized that we had to get our butts back to the car because the other two were waiting for us by the car. To our surprise we were the first ones down and when Paul and Galina showed up we discovered they went on a side path to check out some more turf homes. There’s definitely a lot to discover here in the park and I wish we had more time to explore.
Foss á síðu
On the drive back to the hotel there was a waterfall by the side of the road that when the wind is just right it looks as though it flows skyward. It was our lucky day when we drove by that it was windy enough to see the phenomenon. It is very strange to wrap your mind around – you know its flowing down but visually its not what seems to be going on. Iceland continues to amaze me with strange and wonderful things.
