July 14, 2007 - BALL'S FALLS; Vineland, Ontario

I'm starting to think that travelling to all these waterfalls during a hottest and dry summer really doesn't make all that much sense. The best time to catch large volumes of water cascading over the edge would be spring since it is after the snow melt. I was a little miffed at the waterfall - rather watertrickle - that we came upon at Devil's Punchbowl in Hamilton. Anyhow, I surprised Sherri with a spontaneous trip to the Niagara Escarpment to tackle a few more waterfalls. The weather was "cool" and wet. We battled rain pretty much the whole way up AND while on our hikes. Knowing how dry it has been I still remained optimistic that we would see some pretty decent waterfalls today considering the rain and all but in the back of my mind I knew that the grass and the farm fields would be soaking up any and all water that fell upon them.

With all this said, We proceeded to Ball's Falls Conservation Area in Vineland, Ontario. Sadly, before we even entered the Conservation area we had to cross a bridge which crossed some dried up riverbed. Since Vineland, ON is about 30-45 minutes away from Hamilton (RE: Devil's Punchbowl Falls), you can pretty much guess what the falls looked like.

Not to just settle for a view from the top, Sherri and I and decided to take a gander to the bottom of this gorge. Mind you - this was ABSOLUTELY no simple task.. WHATSOEVER! First thing, it was raining. Rain in this region turns the clay into some slimy goo that makes it EXTREMELY difficult to walk on. Secondly, we were both wearing hiking sandals. It was a sensible idea since it was a waterfall we were going to see and we don't mind getting our feet wet! Thirdly, since the height of these falls is 90 feet and the width of the gorge is 100 meters, therefore the slope of the sides of this gorge are INSANE! With all that said, wet, slimy goo-like clay + Hiking Sandals + crazy steep gorge walls = Very difficult, borderline insane. Then again, considering all those factors in one locations means an awesome challenge for us!!

You can just see Sherri at the bottom. The lighting at the bottom of this gorge was rather tricky hence some of the pics didn't turn out all that great.

Sherri navigating the rock/boulder strewn river bed.
This was looking up the side of the falls. You can see the distinct layers of rock. It was VERY interesting!

So although there was no water cascading over the edge and the hike to the bottom of this gorge was rather treacherous there was one highlight of this trip that cannot be forgotten! While we were at the top of the falls, I saw something in the HUGE pond at the bottom of the falls. At first glance I thought it was a duck, took a picture of it and thought nothing of it.

Sherri then took a longer, harder look at it and asked me if it was a beaver. Sure enough - it was. This was the very first beaver that Sherri had seen in the wild. It is one thing to see some animal all couped up in a zoo and all but it is more rewarding to see an animal in it's natural environment. So from the top of the falls we saw this little guy. Sherri named him Finnegan.





That was all good and great but then when we ventured to the bottom of the falls, I just happened to mention to Sherri that if there is one beaver around then logically there should be another one. No more than 5 seconds after I said that, Sherri saw two beavers swimming around the pool of water! Sherri named the second beaver Lola.

I'm working on a video that we shot of the two of Lola and Finnegan since the pouring rain made it rather difficult to take pictures of them. I'll post the link ASAP!

July 14, 2007 - LOUTH FALLS; Jordan, Ontario

So we carried on to Louth Falls. This was a tricky one as the directions to the falls were a little sketchy. Granted the site that I got the directions gave GPS coordinates and I do own a GPS but since it IS a waterfall you'd think it would be rather apparent. Sadly... it wasn't! There was no signage for the Louth Falls Conservation Area and just ended up parking the car and hit a trail leading into the woods. It was part of the Bruce Trail and it was quite scenic.

So since all the falls that we've recently been to have been dried up, we saw a dried up riverbed and figured that was Louth Falls.




So then we were leaving that location and heading back to the main road when I noticed this wee little creek that wandered under the road. I said to Sherri; "Boy! I really hope that is not where the waterfalls are!" So to follow my gut instinct, we backed up and parked on the side of the road and took a hike!

This is actually Louth Falls. Surprise! Surprise! It's dried up also!


This was pretty cool. Depending on the angle you take the picture, the pool at the bottom of the falls was in the shape of a heart!

As you can tell by Sherri's pant legs, the amount of hiking that he had already done at this point of the day was rather grueling but very rewarding.

As we did with the picture of Devil's Punchbowl Falls, we took pictures inside the tunnel through which the creek flows. You can tell by our clothes that it was a rather "damp".

July 14, 2007 - DECEW FALLS; Thorold, Ontario

The last falls that we tackled was Decew Falls. Sadly, en route to Decew Falls we suffered a setback. First I decided to show Sherri what a Lock looked like - seeing that we were so close to the Welland Canal. As we pulled into the parking lot at Lock 7, I hit a manhole cover and popped the tire! WONDERFUL! Nothing like popping a tire when you're 244 miles (4 hours 13 minutes according to Google)

June 11, 2007 - DEVIL'S PUNCHBOWL FALLS; Stoney Creek, Ontario

FINALLY! We started up our waterfalling tour after a much too long hiatus! What better way to start the new season than attending the second most fascinating waterfalls in Ontario next to Niagara Falls!!!!

It wasn't until we reached this destination did we realize that the waterfalls source was dried up!!!! ARG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




Regardless the photo op was there and we proceeded on this journey regardless. The following pictures were taken at the top of the waterfalls. This was the source of both the Lower Devil's Punchbowl Falls and Upper Devil's Punchbowl Falls.







This picture was taken with the camera on the tripod and me extending the tripod out over the edge.



The following is an interesting read from another website about these Falls

The history of the Devil's Punch Bowl dates back at least some 450 million years (the late Ordovician and early Silurian periods) when materials which form the Niagara escarpment were originally deposited in a large inland sea. At this point in history, corals and other organisms inhabited the area until, as the sea bottom deposits slowly changed to rock, these organisms became fossilized. Approximately 1 million years ago, the area was subjected to four great ice ages. By this time, the inland sea had already retreated and great slabs of ice covered the land. Their effect on the landscape was to either sharpen or expose the escarpment rock face or to bury it with drift material. Following the end of the last ice age there was a period of high water levels. This is what etched the final details into the landscape of the Punch Bowl. The water concentrated into huge streams which had a tremendous capacity to carve out the landscape. One of these powerful streams plunged right over the escarpment at Stoney Creek and carved out what would later become known as the Devil's Punch Bowl. Eventually, there was less water available in the area to continue the powerful stream, and its capacity has been greatly reduced. It has become a landmark that is famous with geologists worldwide for its exposed rock strata.

June 11, 2007 - LOWER DEVIL'S PUNCHBOWL FALLS; Stoney Creek, Ontario

To access the Lower portion of Devil's Punchbowl we had to do some "investigative" hiking which involved a nice, moderate walk down a very narrow road and had to look for a narrow pathway in the roadside. Once we found this narrow pathway, we followed it until it opened up a amazing, enchanting world. To think this beauty was a stones throw away from Hamilton is rather hard to believe!!! Below is the path that we had to walk down to get to the Lower portion.



This is the best picture of the entire Lower Punchbowl waterfalls. Sadly - there was absolutely no water cascading over the edge of the falls but if you used your imagination - you could just picture how nice it would look. The one drawback of this area was due to the fact that it was located in an urban area. It reminded us of Rock Glen in Arkona - but an urban version of that. There was graffiti all over the place.. on rocks and trees. There were computer monitors, shopping carts, golf balls and baby strollers all strew about the area of the Lower falls. It was EXTREMELY difficult to orchestrate a decent photo to capture the pure beauty of this place but the following pictures were my best attempts at doing just that!







Some of the rock may appear to be red. From the bottom of the falls, you can see the many different coloured layers of stone, sand and fossils that make up the Escarpment in this area. The Punch Bowl is the only area where you can view such a large vertical display of Silurian stratified rock. Some of the layers include Queenston Formation red shale, Cabot Head grey shale, limestone and shale dolomite which are more evident in the pictures of the Upper Devil's Punchbowl.



Sometimes - you just gotta get a little silly. This is an example of what happens when you put the camera on timer and set it to take 10 simultaneous pictures! LOL