Winter #6 - My Waterfall

I've always enjoyed chasing waterfalls, and for a year or two back in 2015/16/17 those were almost the only winter photos I took.  We're blessed by having a surprising number of waterfalls around, all thanks to the bedrock of the Niagara Escarpment.

This is the best known of them, Inglis Falls, just on the south edge of Owen Sound.  I'm told that my great-grandfather used to bring his grain to the mill here, to get it ground into flour for the winter.  It's half or more frozen in this photo, and a truly beautiful falls all year round.

A little harder to access, requiring a hike of a mile up a narrow valley, is Indian Falls.  It's a classic geologically, falling over a thin-bedded dolomite layer into the softer Queenston Shale, which accounts for the narrow, steep-sided ravine you have to hike up to get there.  The normal view is from the top, but one year of exceptionally cold temperatures, enough of the stream below froze over to allow you to hike up to see the falls from below.  It became a local hit, with crowds braving the cold to see the very icy waterfall!  Maybe you can see the footprints in the first photo.

Hoggs Falls is much closer to our former home.  Right in the heart of the upper Beaver Valley, it was once the home of an early power house for the nearby village of Flesherton, run by you guessed it, Mr. Hogg.  In summer you can clamber down to see it from below, but I wouldn't dare do that in winter.!

Similarly close to our former home is the village of Eugenia, with a higher narrow falls, here frozen in blue ice.  It too was the site of an early hydro attempt, which eventually arrived in the 1914 Eugenia Power Plant, still an important hydro contributor in this area.  It has the highest drop of any hydro plant east of the Rockies.

This was my first view of Stew Hilts Falls 10 years ago, when I hiked off the Bruce Trail to assess the idea of putting a side trail here.  You can read the geology here easily.  It falls over that narrow-bedded dolomite, the Manitoulin Formation, but quickly into the Queenston Shale which has eroded into these extremely steep slopes.

A few years later and a side trail was actually created, enabling hikers to see this tiny gem.  It's much better seen in the winter when these ice columns form - but that does require snowshoes to get here.  I had nothing to do with the side trail being named the Stew Hilts Side Trail.  And by default the little un-named waterfall became the Stew Hilts Falls.  I'll happily go to my grave knowing there's a waterfall named after me!