Location Taken: Just south of Wawa, Ontario
Time Taken: June 2010
Feel free to click on this to see a larger version. Panoramas don’t fit too well in blog format.
This is a somewhat unusual piece for my artwork day, since it is, well, a photo.
Ok, more like five or six photos carefully stitched into one in photoshop, carefully balancing the different exposure levels of each one, adjusting the angle and making sure the blending edges were invisible.
Which is why I’m perfectly happy posting this panorama instead of some other art. Besides, I didn’t come up with decent topics for the other pieces I was considering and this one was speaking to me.
This beautiful falls is not easily found. There’s a small sign on the Trans-Canada Highway just south of Wawa (which is, well, in the middle of nowhere). It says “High Falls, Next Left” (or I suppose “Next Right” if you’re coming from the other direction.) Said turn is a dirt road right from the start, winding along the edge of a few cleared patches of forest, down a hill on a curvy pitted path, and then, there it is, a gravel parking lot right next to the falls. There’s a few small signs, telling the history of the place, mainly focusing on the small dam at the top that keeps flood waters in check. On the right side of the falls there is a path up to the fenced-in observation area at the top of the falls, where you can also actually see the dam.
Mostly, though, there are the falls. Roaring, falling, twisting in the light. Braiding themselves amongst the hard rocks of the area. Each drop forming its own path that still follows the ones that came before.
It’s not an overly spectacular falls, the type to draw in tourists from hundreds of places. There are a lot of similarly beautiful waterfalls dotting the northern coast of Lake Superior, as streams come over the high rocks of the Canadian Shield and find themselves plummeting to lake-level. Still, for those who like waterfalls enough to stop at any that come their way, it was a rather nice one.
My Mom’s one of that type. Her parents are too. I saw a photo of them standing in front of a waterfall that looked nearly identical to this one, though they say they don’t recall stopping here. I suppose there could be another like this one, it isn’t an overly unique falls. Still, I do wonder…
