A Frozen Webwood Falls

I did make my destination yesterday, heading down Sideroad 25 to find Webwood Falls.  This was a very short but challenging snowshoe walk, as no-one had been in to the viewpoint over the falls, and I had to find my way through very deep snow - after climbing the 4 foot snowbank.

Sideroad  25, with a view of the west side of `Blue Mountain` and a completely frozen Georgian Bay in the distance.

Here`s the totally frozen Webwood Falls, just a huge pile of ice where Fairmount Creek drops over the edge of the Manitoulin escarpment and starts carving a deep ravine downstream.  No sound nor sight of running water.

It`s a difficult waterfalls to photograph at the best of times because of the trees in the way - this would be the best viewpoint if it weren`t for the trees.  And those little branches play havoc with your auto-focus too.

I did manage to tramp around to another safe spot behind some trees and lean through to get this photo.  A better photo would require descending the ravine, the sides of which are far too steep to allow this safely.  Someplace under that ice water is running.

Like all these waterfalls I`ve described, there was an old mill here years ago.  There are two bits of stone wall remaining, shown here, just above the falls.

On the other hand, the stream above the falls was still partly open and running.  I could hear it gurgling away as I climbed another snowbank to get this picture.

And down in the ravine there was at least a little open water, so I know that water is flowing over the falls.  In this view you  can see the steeply-sloped ravine this creek has carved.  In fact this waterfalls is geologically different from the three previous ones I`ve featured the past few days.  They all fall over the Amabel dolomite, and then tumble gradually downstream.  But this falls tumbles over the Manitoulin formation, and then carves a ravine through the highly erodable Queenston Shale formation below - the result is a much more steep-sided valley.

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