Capturing the Art of Nature
Rockway & Decew Falls (Day 2)
Our first day out this season. We decided to explore some waterfalls and spent the day at Rockway and then Decew Falls. Both were lovely and had lots of colour for us to enjoy.
Category
Ontario Adventures
2013
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Our flight to Toronto went without any troubles, only some turbulence to add a bit of character to the flight. The drive to the B&B last night went smoothly as well. It seems that the drive around the lake to the Grimsby area gets shorter and faster each year. That's good I guess as we waste less time en-route. This year we are staying at the Crown Ridge B&B for a change. It is very nice and though our access code didn't let us in, an onsite family member heard our difficulty and let us in. So this morning we arose to a nice breakfast and please conversation with the hostess.
Done with the gourmet meal, Mike arrived and after a few minutes chatting we set off for our journey. His SUV was broken and so we had to drive the short distance back to his place to drop off his car and then we could head out using my rented BMW. This year Mike hadn't planned any destinations so we had a few moments of thinking and we decided to head to the Balls Falls area to take photos of the waterfall. It took a bit to get out of Mike's yard and on to the road but once moving we quickly climbed the Escarpment and left the city behind.
We drove straight to the conservation area and soon we were driving down into the ravine but we discovered a serious problem. They wanted money for the visit! And for a short stay it was not a reasonable amount so we decided to skip it and drive some backcountry. While driving Mike looked up his map and found another waterfall – Rockway Falls - just a bit further east. We had just driven past the road to it but the next one allowed us to backtrack to the correct road. On the side street we drove past a vineyard with wines that had huge clumps of brown grapes, they were quite different from the normal black ones we see. Soon we arrived at the small community hall next to the falls and we set out for the west side of the ravine where there is a nice view of the waterfall from above.
Rockway falls is very pretty and we gathered a number of photos from the top of the rock face. It's quite a drop should one step too far. Done with the above photos we returned to the car and the east side of the creek where there is a trail that leads away from the fall but allows one to descend to the creek and then one can backtrack to the waterfall. We were taking our time along the creek as there were so many amazing scenes that demanded our time. Eventually we arrived at a good viewpoint of the waterfall and we were able to capture some shots from the bottom. Our only problem was that the sun was now directly behind the waterfall and made shooting quite challenging. When we had finished collecting photos we returned along our path in and soon we were resting back at the car.
We decided to continue east to St. Catherine's and look for a place to eat lunch. After a few false turns we found a small restaurant that served Shawarmas. We each ordered one and found it to be a lovely meal. A nice side adventure for the day. Once we were done eating, we continued back along Pelham road and took a turn to Decew falls. Here we parked in the small lot and made our way past the old mill buildings and looked for a good view of the fall. Unfortunately the views were all blocked by trees so we continued along the gorge trail to a place where there is an access to the creek below. This short drop requires the use of a rope to get over one steep section but once down, this part the walk along 12 mile creek was pleasant and we were soon at a great place to take photos of Decew Falls. After taking a quantity of photos we packed up the gear and set off for the car. I found climbing back up the rock face easier than the down trip. A few minutes more we were back to the car and ready to head home, it had been a lovely drive and we had two amazing waterfalls to enjoy.