Monday, January 13, 2014

Views of the Valley Part II

The Beaver Valley starts out quite narrow and deep, almost a gorge in its upper reaches, but widens as it flows north.  About half-way north, it widens out and swings a bit to the east, until eventually the Beaver River flows into Georgian Bay at Thornbury.

This view is taken about halfway down the valley, facing east, along the Epping Sideroad, on a clear crisp day about 2 weeks ago.  This valley is a giant indentation in the Niagara Escarpment, or what geologists call a 're-entrant' valley, so we're standing on the gentle west slope of the escarpment, and in the farthest distance is the opposite east slope.  

Right down in the bottom of the valley there is a very large soft maple swamp, extending for several miles along the river, here frozen enough to be snow-covered, though I certainly wouldn't walk on it.  This is a popular canoe route, and this year a nesting Bald Eagle was reported upstream of this point.

In the northern half of the valley, the slopes are much gentler than further south (near our place), as in yesterday's post, where the huge vertical cliffs of Amabel dolomite outcrop along the valley sides.  This photo is taken from the bottom of the valley, looking back up to the west.  The trees are two of an interesting row of Black Locusts, rarely seen around here except in a few planted fencerows and roadsides.

I've hunted extensively for viewoints that would make a really good picture.  The human eye seems to catch a horizontal sliver of the valley in the distance and translate that into a mental view of a wide-open valley landscape, but the camera is quite different.  Having a handy tree to help frame the picture helps I think, but there are precious few viewpoints like this.

Even with the red 'No Tresspassing' circle (mainly intended for hunters I expect), this tree helps frame a nice view of the escarpment outcrop known as the 'Blue Mountain' in the distance.  And the pictures give you an idea of the wider, gentler valley slopes compared to the upper valley in yesterday's post.

This is a closer look at the west side of the 'Blue Mountain', across part of the large swamp down in the valley bottom.  Several of the bigger Ontario downhill ski clubs are found on the north and east slopes of that hill, where they're facing out of the sun, including the popular Blue Mountain Resort itself.

10 comments:

  1. This is such a beautiful area. I appreciate your sharing the photos of it on here and the interesting facts on the geology of the area. It was certainly a beautiful day for photos.

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  2. I would like to see those Black Locust Trees again in the spring..the leaves too! Beautiful photos, I enjoyed them...and your Blue Mountain is very blue:)

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  3. Beautiful photos of the valley... I especially like the ones with the trees framing the photo... Excellent.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  4. Terrific photos of that valley. I too like the Tree framing!

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  5. une région trop aride pour moi
    mais qui donne de jolis panorama
    superbes photos
    tendresse
    edith (iris)

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  6. This is such a lovely area. I rarely see it in winter so this is a treat!

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  7. I try to mark the places where there are good vistas on my maps so I can go back at different seasons. There aren't many here. Our hills are just overgrown sand dunes, anyway.

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  8. The pictures of the valley are so very pretty. I too like the tree in the picture.

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  9. We are so blessed to live places that are so beautiful.

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