The next day, though it was bitterly cold again, it was sunny, so I persuaded my buddies to go and see if we could find Ragged Falls on the Oxtongue River. In spite of driving past this point numerous times over the years on our way to Algonquin Park up the highway, starting while I was a young child, I had never paid attention to Ragged Falls.
It turned out to be only a short walk in off the highway; we hardly needed the snowshoes as the trail was well travelled. The falls itself looks spectacular, but when we were there it was mostly frozen, and in shade which made pictures difficult. It's certainly a much larger falls, on a larger river, than Stubb's Falls we'd visited the day before.
I tried zooming in on the part that was open water, and adjusting the light settings to show the raging stream, but even then the foam on the water made it nearly as white as the surrounding ice and snow. This is another waterfall to return to in other seasons, and now that I know how easy it is to get in to, I will. I'd say 80% of the waterfalls is frozen over.
Upstream, you don't go far and the entire river is frozen over. Here the water bubbles out under the river-wide ice cover just upstream of the falls, as the current picks up. We've actually paddled part of the Oxtongue River further up in Algonquin Park, many years ago.
Looking downstream you can just see some darker openings in the snow and ice where the river shows up below the falls. Our viewpoint was actually half-way up the big drop, so the first two photos above are only half the falls.
The trees at the edge of the falls were all decorated in white icing from the spray.
And on the way out we spotted this ice-flow down over some of the rocks not far from the trail, the ice tinged yellow from the water flowing through the tanin-rich pine needles and debris on the ground. This was an easy and successful trip to Ragged Falls, and I'm sure I'll be back in another season in the future.
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Fantastic photos ! I would love to hike there in the summer and fall that would be pretty as well ! Thanks for sharing , Have a good day !
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! I like the yellow tinged icicles and would never have known what caused them to be that colour. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI've never been up there in winter, but often in other seasons. It's amazing particularly in spring, when the melt is at its height. It's also fun in summer, when the water levels are low enough that y ou can scramble around the rocks all the way to the bottom. And it's a beautiful area in fall.
ReplyDeleteThat yellow ice is cool! Glad you were able to find the waterfall.
ReplyDeletestunning! please do send the snow here hehe
ReplyDeleteShe's a cold winter and it seems like all of the rivers a frozen. It should be worth it to return here in the spring when the melt turns it in to a raging river.
ReplyDeleteI especially love that last picture with the amazing yellow ice. And the one looking up at the sky where the branches are decorated with white. :-)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful scenery!
ReplyDeleteThese are winter views not all will ever be lucky to catch, thanks for sharing for our Floridian and other warm climate bloggers!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed both of your trips to the falls, I am anxious to see them in summer if you return:)
ReplyDeleteWow great pictures. That ice flow is amazing.
ReplyDeleteGreat scouting, and it looks like it will be a fun future outing.
ReplyDeleteMany years ago we used to picnic quite often at Ragged Falls. We went right to the top, beyond where most people go, and with dear friends, one of whom passed away several years ago, spread a red gingham table cloth, opened a bottle of wine and dined al fresco. It was quite wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI love the ice in the last photo.
ReplyDeleteLove that falls, need to check it out in fall as well.
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