Keefer Creek

Having told you in my last post that probably not many who drive Hwy. 26 know about Keefer Falls, or recognize Keefer Creek valley, or even the creek itself, I thought I'd better fill you in a bit you so any local readers will have no excuse in the future!  I've pulled a variety of photos from the past to put this together.

Although this is 3 years old, it could have been yesterday, the valley looks the same today.  We're looking west here, a few miles west of Woodford, and a short distance east of the airport.  For anyone driving the highway the valley is very obvious.

The same view in summer looks like this.

The tiny streams this high up in the watershed are most easily seen during spring runoff, when there's a bit of snow still on the ground.  This is one of three that drains under the highway coming from further up in the valley.

Then the stream continues on the north side of the highway on its way to Georgian Bay (eventually).  This stream joins with Keefer Creek itself just beyond this photo. 

Upstream of these tiny streams, above the slope of the valley we went exploring once and found Keefer Creek Farm.  This appears to be where the creek originates.

An air photo of the main spring where Keefer Creek originates in the front fields of Keefer Creek Farm.  (From google Maps).

Where it passes under the sideroad (Concession Rd. 5N) the stream is backed up a little and looks larger than it really is at this point.  Lots of flowers along the creekbank when we were there.

There is also a sinkhole that feeds into Keefer Creek, about a mile and a half west of this point.  However I've never got a good picture.  A local reader told me about it, and I've watched it as we drive by, but I don't know if anyone knows where the underground flow joins the main creek.  I'll keep trying to get a good picture.

Take a jump several miles in the other direction downstream and the creek is flowing like mad in the early spring, heading for Keefer Falls and the site of the old mill.

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It comes to an abrupt drop and plunges over Keefer Falls, site of an old mill.  Note the icicles under the edge of the rock on the right - this was very early spring.

The bedrock it's dropping over here is not the Amabel Formation of the upper escarpment but the Manitoulin Formation, a lower geological layer.  It's composed of many thin layers of dolostone, as shown in this photo, and is the cause of many waterfalls along the Bruce Trail.

The foundations of the old mill can still be seen, right beside the falls.

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And two of you got the answer to yesterday's mystery question, the strange white, pink, blue and green pattern with little bubbles in it.  It's the psychedelic pattern of soap sprayed on our car windows when we go through the car wash.  I have nothing to do but sit there and watch the windows!

As you can see Blogger didn't help me with this post.  It's stuck in the 'centre all text' mode.  Sorry about that, it's not my usual style.