McGowan Falls

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day, even if it was a little cool, and we headed out for Durham, about half an hour west of here, on the Saugeen River.  I wanted to visit McGowan Falls, the last of the waterfalls in Grey County's Waterfall Tour that I hadn't yet seen.

I had the wrong impression from photographs that McGowan Falls was just a stretch of rocky ledges over which the river ran, but we found it to be a major roaring current over about an 8 foot drop.  The river runs in part through low limestone bluffs which you can see on the left of this picture.  The falls was in fact just out of sight from the main road we've driven down many times into town, and about a 50 foot walk from the parking lot!

Above the falls is a mill dam and quite a large pond, but we saw no evidence of an old mill here.  I'm going to have to do some sleuthing to find out the history.  I must return with tripod and filters to try to get a better photo.  It was far too bright today to 'slow down' the water.

The winter ice here has mostly melted, and the water was running underneath the ice that remained.  I was intrigued by the water coming out beneath the ice here.

But I wondered about this canoe, apparently abandoned here for the winter.  I wonder what's the story behind this!

You can walk across the dam on a narrow walkway to the Conservation Area on the north side of the river, and get a good view down the river.  Lots of snow here still except for the main rivers and some small streams which are now open flowing water.

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