Hiking in Owen Sound
Saw "Hairspray" yesterday. Fun, feel-good, groovily retro and the music is wonderfully infectious. Queen Latifah can do no wrong and the gal who stars as Tracy is irresistible. Both John and I liked it a lot.
Got sidetracked by Harry Potter mania (warning- there are many Book 7 spoilers behind those two links), but I wanted to post some photos from our hiking trip to Owen Sound last week.
We tracked down six waterfalls during our three day trip and this photo here shows John at Indian Falls north of Owen Sound.
This is Eugenia Falls, which we detoured over to on our way north to Owen Sound. Not far from there we also tracked down Hogg's Falls, which wasn't as tall, but in a lush and pretty spot.
Once we settled into our hotel in Owen Sound we headed east of the city to Hibou Conservation Area. The Hibou was a ship that went down in Owen Sound (the body of water as opposed to the city) in 1936. That's Owen Sound in this photo. We found this deserted rocky beach during our exploring. We only discovered later that there was a more conventional sandy beach there, too. We went back there later the next evening, but we found the area was closed.
We went back to stroll around downtown Owen Sound, check out the shops and then we grabbed some Tim Hortons for dinner and headed to Harrison Park where we picnicked by the river and kept the company of very cute chipmunks. We then travelled down to Inglis Falls Conservation Area (above) to see our third waterfall.
The next morning we started out the day by checking out Jone's Falls, just west of Owen Sound. From there we headed up the coast of Georgian Bay northwest of the city. We stopped for awhile at Kelso Beach, home of the Summerfolk Folk Festival and watched the sailboats in the bay. We headed back along the coast again to Indian Falls Conservation Area (see first photo), drove by a few Georgian Bay lookouts and marvelled at the gorgeous cliffs along the left-hand side of the road.
We then stopped at Bruce's Caves Conservation Area, just outside of Wiarton. John loves exploring caves and these caves were quite impressive for being such a reasonable driving distance away. Me, I'm just always somewhat aware that all those huge chunks of rock we were clambering over were once up on those cliffs, so I was somewhat wary! :)
We had lunch in Wiarton and then checked out the "Wiarton Willie" tourist traps in the town :). Wiarton Willie, you see, is the official Canadian groundhog of Groundhog Day, and even though we've gone through Wiarton during other camping trips they really seem to have played up the groundhog tourist angle a lot since the last time we were there. There's Wiarton Willie statues, signs, merchendise booths and even Willie himself that you can peek in at (he was hiding, though, we couldn't see him).
One thing we were very struck by in Owen Sound was the thick mist that rolled in from across the water each morning and each evening. Our hotel was a long way from the bay, but still we woke up to heavy white mist out our window each morning before the sun burned it away. The mist was especially pretty during sunset on our last night in the city. I was very taken by what the mist and the setting sun did to the colour of the sky and water.
On our way back to Richmond Hill we detoured over to Walter's Falls in the small town of, wait for it, Walter's Falls. It was in a secluded corner of the countryside, but it inspired the building of a large and impressive looking hotel there where every hotel window angles to look at the falls. Over in Flickr,
lord_korak (Walter :)) had the following to say: "I find myself particularly partial to this cascade waterfall - remnant engineering elements (low saddle dam and penstock) - and a good solid name! :-D". Hee. I keep meaning to look up what "saddle dam and penstock" means :).
Fun times. Our next trip will be early next week when we're going to go with my Dad to Penetangishene to check out Discovery Bay.
You can see all my Owen Sound hiking photos here: Owen Sound"
Got sidetracked by Harry Potter mania (warning- there are many Book 7 spoilers behind those two links), but I wanted to post some photos from our hiking trip to Owen Sound last week.
We tracked down six waterfalls during our three day trip and this photo here shows John at Indian Falls north of Owen Sound.
This is Eugenia Falls, which we detoured over to on our way north to Owen Sound. Not far from there we also tracked down Hogg's Falls, which wasn't as tall, but in a lush and pretty spot.
Once we settled into our hotel in Owen Sound we headed east of the city to Hibou Conservation Area. The Hibou was a ship that went down in Owen Sound (the body of water as opposed to the city) in 1936. That's Owen Sound in this photo. We found this deserted rocky beach during our exploring. We only discovered later that there was a more conventional sandy beach there, too. We went back there later the next evening, but we found the area was closed.
We went back to stroll around downtown Owen Sound, check out the shops and then we grabbed some Tim Hortons for dinner and headed to Harrison Park where we picnicked by the river and kept the company of very cute chipmunks. We then travelled down to Inglis Falls Conservation Area (above) to see our third waterfall.
The next morning we started out the day by checking out Jone's Falls, just west of Owen Sound. From there we headed up the coast of Georgian Bay northwest of the city. We stopped for awhile at Kelso Beach, home of the Summerfolk Folk Festival and watched the sailboats in the bay. We headed back along the coast again to Indian Falls Conservation Area (see first photo), drove by a few Georgian Bay lookouts and marvelled at the gorgeous cliffs along the left-hand side of the road.
We then stopped at Bruce's Caves Conservation Area, just outside of Wiarton. John loves exploring caves and these caves were quite impressive for being such a reasonable driving distance away. Me, I'm just always somewhat aware that all those huge chunks of rock we were clambering over were once up on those cliffs, so I was somewhat wary! :)
We had lunch in Wiarton and then checked out the "Wiarton Willie" tourist traps in the town :). Wiarton Willie, you see, is the official Canadian groundhog of Groundhog Day, and even though we've gone through Wiarton during other camping trips they really seem to have played up the groundhog tourist angle a lot since the last time we were there. There's Wiarton Willie statues, signs, merchendise booths and even Willie himself that you can peek in at (he was hiding, though, we couldn't see him).
One thing we were very struck by in Owen Sound was the thick mist that rolled in from across the water each morning and each evening. Our hotel was a long way from the bay, but still we woke up to heavy white mist out our window each morning before the sun burned it away. The mist was especially pretty during sunset on our last night in the city. I was very taken by what the mist and the setting sun did to the colour of the sky and water.
On our way back to Richmond Hill we detoured over to Walter's Falls in the small town of, wait for it, Walter's Falls. It was in a secluded corner of the countryside, but it inspired the building of a large and impressive looking hotel there where every hotel window angles to look at the falls. Over in Flickr,
lord_korak (Walter :)) had the following to say: "I find myself particularly partial to this cascade waterfall - remnant engineering elements (low saddle dam and penstock) - and a good solid name! :-D". Hee. I keep meaning to look up what "saddle dam and penstock" means :).Fun times. Our next trip will be early next week when we're going to go with my Dad to Penetangishene to check out Discovery Bay.
You can see all my Owen Sound hiking photos here: Owen Sound"