Once we made it to the two waterfalls, of course all the boys wanted to do was throw some rocks. So they did....for a long time.
In the sumer of 2009, Kieran and I had camped at Tettegouche and visited these falls as well, what I forgot about is the number of stairs. It's definitely a short hike, but it has a lot of stairs. It's a one-way trail, meaning the walk to the falls is easy (down the stairs), the hike out is difficult.
The river that flows through the park creating the waterfalls is the Baptism River. It's like almost all of the other North Shore rivers in that it's rocky, has a high gradient, brown water because of the tanins in the water, etc.
To get to the High Falls of the Baptism River, we needed to go on a much longer hike, approximately a mile or so one way. We also had to cross the river on a pretty interesting bridge. Both boys really liked the bridge, it wouldn't sway when you walked across it, but it definitely moved up and down with each step. Posted signs at the bridge clearly say "5 people on the bridge" at a time, with the amount that the bridge moves up and down, you know why.
Kieran and I had also been to this particular waterfall before, but we had only viewed it from the time on our previous trip. His little legs couldn't handle any more steps or the stairs needed to go to the base of the waterfall back then.
We made it to the bottom of the waterfall this time and it was worth it, but what did the boys want to do at the bottom? Throw rocks of course....
We spent a long time at the bottom of this particular waterfall and the boys spent the time throwing their rocks. Every stop we make they pretty much take a glance at the point of interest and are finished, until they find rocks to throw.
After a quick lunch, we took off on another long hike that none of us had ever done. We were taking the trail to the end of Shovel Point, this is a high exposure over the lake that rock climbers use and where peregrine falcons nest. After just a little walk, we were able to look back and see Palisade Head (the peak with a radio tower on top), it is about as high above the lake as you can get on the North Shore. We had never been to the top of Palisade Head either, that would change.
Here's a picture of Shovel Point from the trail, you might be able to see the columns that formed when felsic lava cooled that formed the point. Shovel Point, Palisade Head and all the waterfalls along the Baptism River in the Park are comprised of the 1,096.6 million year old Palisade Head Rhyolite.
It was nice that there were a couple of benches at the end of the trail on Shovel Point. We needed them and took quite a break before hiking back. Looking north from the end of Shovel Point, we could just make out the Sawtooth Mountains to the north, dipping by about 20 degrees towards the lake.
We then learned that you are able to take a small and winding road to the top of Palisade Head. I was under the impression that you had to hike to the top. Since all of our legs were tired and we could drive, we went to the top of Palisade Head. It was the one time that it rained during the entire week, temperatures ranged between 75-80 degrees for the week as well. (The weather was perfect, completely different than what we've had since we got home, the high temperature hasn't been below 86 and dew points on most days are at or above 70). Because it was raining, the boys didn't want to get out of the car, but with the top of Palisade Head in the foreground, you can see Shovel Point far off in the distance.
Eventually the boys got bored of sitting in the car and came out for a few pictures of their own.
As soon as we left Palisade Head, the sun came out and turned into a great day again. After some time swimming in the river again and a great dinner, we spent our last night relaxing at camp waiting for the first star to come out.
Day 7, the last day of our week-long trip, would mostly be spent driving home. We did make a few stops though, and those will come in the last post for the trip.
To be continued...
No comments:
Post a Comment