May 30 – Rosewall Creek Provincial Park

Another waterfall day.

I had seen the falls on Rosewall Creek mentioned in a bunch of blogs and brochures. They all mentioned the length at around 4 km but some never said one way or round trip. One did say one way and another did say round trip and it had a GPS track so I went with that one. I even tried to measure on a map and 4 km total seemed reasonable. You know where this is going. I should have read the round trip blog a bit closer. The lady did the hike with her kids and it turns out they gave up before getting to the falls. So it was around an 8 km hike today. It was longer than I had intended and with all the scrambling I did at the actual falls, my legs are rather sore.

 

Even looking at the scale on the GPS track afterwards 2 km one way would seem reasonable. I guess all the wiggles stretches it out.

First, under the highway.

And then a smaller road.

The trail pretty much hugged the side of the creek except for the few times that the shore got too steep or eroded and we had to climb around.

I think this tree was soon going to be in serious trouble.

I am told that this is a Sapsucker and and that is what we saw on Newcastle Island.

A lot of the trail was on the flood plain of the creek. These pictures are terrible but Jennie is looking up at what are some of the roots of the tree. They were once underground and have been exposed by erosion. You can sort of see the rocks that have been trapped by the roots.

The section below was a short steep downhill. I guess it was dug out by the water from all the exposed root that are still hanging there.

We had to go around this huge jumble of logs at the outside of a sharp corner in the creek.

We haven’t had a mushroom picture in a while.

At about the 3 km mark I finally resigned myself to it being an 8 km day.

The falls occur right at a sharp bend in the creek. Right at the bend is a vertical wall that prevents access. Before the bend is a nice cascade. A small ribbon waterfall enters down the wall from the side and the main falls are around the bend almost out of sight.

These picture are so heavily and badly photoshopped that it was hard to show them here but it is the best I could do. To get good pictures we should really come on cloudy days but it is much nicer to hike when it is sunny and the falls do look better in person.

Here is what we could see from the viewpoint most people start at, if you went as close to the rock wall as you could.

The ribbon falls are just visible if you go downstream a bit.

Father down there was a spot that let you get out into the creek far enough to get a good view of the cascade and the ribbon.

To continue any farther meant climbing up a VERY steep trail to the top of the cliff and working your way around until you could come down a VERY steep trail to get closer to the main falls. Jennie stayed behind at our future lunch spot while I went off exploring.

Part way up there was a ledge where I could get a slightly better view.

I noticed that someone had snapped off one of the small trees to improve the sight line. Still not great.

Looking back down at Jennie through the trees.

Onwards and upwards, mostly on hands and knees.

I worked my way back down to near the top of the ribbon falls. I took this really lousy photosphere but it gives you an idea what I was up against.

Rosewall Falls Photosphere 1

In hindsight, the pictures I was able to get from the places that I was (almost) safely able to get to were just not worth the risk and effort. But I did it so here they are.

Working my way down to another narrow ledge.

This is as close as I could get.

I worked my way downstream a bit for a couple of more shots.

Time to head back to Jennie. By the time I got back to her I was exhausted. She had long since given up waiting and had lunch. We decided that we are going to have to bring some walkie talkies so that we can both feel safer when I go off like this. (No cell coverage here).

After I ate my lunch and rested a while, I took one more photosphere and we headed back.

I am not why sure part of it is out of focus. I was perched up on a rock so maybe I just took them too fast. (I also chopped off Jennie.)

Rosewall Creek Photosphere 2

After dinner I wandered out on to the beach in front of the RV park.

A day of more than expected exercise.