A Snowy Rock Cut

You probably drive right past them and don't notice, but I'm intrigued with rock cuts along the highways.  And a week or two ago they were decorated with lots of snow clinging to the rocks. 

This is a rock cut at the village of Woodford, halfway to Owen Sound from here.  It's the Amabel dolostone, a hard limestone that sometimes shows narrow layers, and sometimes large blocks of rock.  It forms vertical cliffs along the Niagara Escarpment.

In fact the road used to avoid the cliff by curving around the hill to get through Woodford, but a few decades back they blasted out the rock and provided a nice straight road so you don't have to slow down.

You can tell these rocks haven't been exposed for too many decades, as they're not weathered and still fairly light brown or beige in colour.

I just thought the pattern of snow catching and holding on all the little rock ledges was really interesting, and there's a nice wide shoulder to safely pull off on here..

Interesting layers,

and some big snow cornices along the top in places.  Of course this is all gone now, after the thaw late last week.  And starting tomorrow it's supposed to be above freezing again for a few days, with considerable rain on the weekend.  I expect we won't have much snow left at all by Monday.  It's the usual 'January Thaw', even though today was quite cold with a serious windchill.