Spirit Rock Staircase and Shoreline

The other interesting part of our hike at Spirit Rock (after yesterday's post on The Corran), was the shoreline on Colpoy's Bay, and the spiral staircase to get down the cliff to see it.  Georgian Bay always looks so good on sunny days, in any season.

There were only 2 or 3 places where you got a view out to the bay from the trail on top of the cliffs as we hiked in, but this is a nice picture looking across to the south shore.  I always love the colour of the water on sunny days.

Then we came to the spiral staircase, and I looked over the edge, unsure of what I'd see.  It turned out to be quite solid, and a quick walk down.  It was entirely steel with steel mesh steps.  It appeared to have been built in place.

Spiral staircases always make interesting patterns.  Do you think this railing would qualify for TexWisGirl's 'Good Fences'?

Once we got down on the shoreline there were beautiful views out across the bay.  Even near noon though, the low angle of the sun at this time of year creates a sharp contrast in the light. 

This is the route of the main Bruce Trail, with the white blazes, in contrast to the blue-blazed side trail up above.  It looked like a tunnel through the cedars, just 20 feet in from the water.

But there were several gaps in the trees that provided a chance for more pictures, here looking out to the far northeast end of Colpoy's Bay.  Skinner's Bluff is on the right, and Malcolm Bluff on the left.  The Bruce Trail follows both of those in a huge curve around the bay, right through downtown Wiarton.

It wasn't a storm, but there was enough wind to form small whitecaps, the wind coming down out of the northeast.  I've slowly learned to include more foreground in pictures like this, and adjust the depth of field for the foreground to be in focus.

Then it was back to that spiral staircase and up the cliff.  We headed north along the trail out to Colpoy's Bay Road where we had left the car.  This was certainly one of my more interesting hikes along the Bruce Trail, with full credit to my hiking buddy for choosing this location.  I think I'll be going back to explore, perhaps with my Photography Group.

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We're having a brief warm but wet break in the weather today.  It rained almost all day and the snow is 90% gone, just small patches left.  And it hit 10°C.  Same is forecast for tomorrow.  Left my phone at our daughter's Tuesday, and she shipped it home to me.  It arrived today.  The Post Office now has specific small boxes for shipping cellphones - I guess lots of old fogies like me forget their phones and leave them behind!

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