Capturing the Art of Nature
Hilton Falls Conservation Area - Ontario (Day 2)
It was great being back in Ontario for my annual autumn colours tour. Today we started in a new area.
Category
Ontario Adventures
2009
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I always look forward to my return to Ontario to explore some of the back areas and see what beauty the autumn change brings. This year I was joined by Mike and his son Luke as before but we added Mike's brother-in-law Steve to the group. Steve enjoys the back country and is familiar with a number of the areas worth exploring. He suggested the Hilton Falls Conservation Area for today's trip. It's fairly easy hiking and offers some great forested areas to enjoy.
So we started out from Grimsby , met Steve in Burlington and set out for the Conservation area. We parked in the back roads area next to the park and quickly started up a trail. The trees looked great with leaves in all stages of falling. We soon came to a little stream that we crossed over where we found a number of interesting photos angles to shoot. It looked like it would be a great hike. We traveled off the path for a ways to get a look at a swamp area but couldn't find a decent vantage point for taking some photos of it.
We returned to the path and travelled further, soon we came to a fork and noticed a nasty sign posted on a tree along the left path. It was telling us that this wasn't the proper way to the Falls and that we need to go to the official entrance. So we decided to take the other branch and circle around another swamp area and back to the car. It was a lovely hike and we had many opportunities to collect images of some small streams and various trees. Eventually we were back to our starting point, but as it was still quite early we needed to choose what to do next.
We decided to drive around to the main entrance to the park and explore the actual Falls from there. We were shocked to find the price of entry was $5.00 a person but we were here and so we paid it and parked so we could explore the Falls. We made our way along the well groomed trail to Hillton Falls enjoying the colours and fresh air. At one point Mike noticed some small birds flittering in the nearby trees. He held out his hand with some seeds and soon they were quite willing to eat out of his hand. After enjoying the birds for a few minutes we continued along to the Falls.
Once at the Falls, we scouted the area for some good angles and soon found ourselves at the bottom looking up at the water fall. Though not a very big drop, it still has a majestic quality to it. I was able to capture a number of different angles and exposure settings of the creek. The whole rock face was seeping with water which was also very pretty. Once we had all gathered a number of images and explored the creek from all sides, we set off downstream to an old viewpoint Steve remembered from years back. We found the spot but the view was over-grown so we didn't have the desired scene.
We climbed back up the escarpment and found a plaque describing a circular hole that had been formed by the creek in years past. Then it was back to the trail and the walk to the car. It was a lovely setting and a good first day out in the trees for this trip. The differences between the forests in BC and here are quite amazing and though there aren't the huge mountains , the subtleness of the hills here pack an amazing amount of grandeur into the area, and it is often more accessible.