fall colors

Meech Creek Valley in Gatineau Park

Meech Creek Valley covered bridge (1932) in Chelsea, Québec, Canada (Gatineau Park).

meech creek covered bridge in gatineau park

Meech Creek Covered Bridge in Gatineau Park (Purchase)

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   In my last post I showed some fall foliage I’d seen at Gatineau Park in Québec. Those images were from the southern part of Gatineau Park, so I thought with this post I’d show some of the scenes I found in the northeastern parts of the park. The fall foliage color wasn’t quite as pronounced here, but was still nice and as always adds a bit of color to a photograph that wouldn’t be quite the same with green leaves. This first photograph is the Meech Creek covered bridge in Chelsea, Québec, just within the eastern border of the park. Unlike a lot of the other covered bridges I photographed during my week in the east, this bridge doesn’t appear to have an official name and doesn’t have the year it was built posted on it. There is an information sign further up the road which indicated this bridge was built in 1932 as a Depression era make work project, but while it calls it the “Meech Creek Covered Bridge” it doesn’t appear to be as official a name as that given to some other covered bridges.

chemin cafferty in chelsea quebec canada

Fall Foliage in Chelsea, Québec (Purchase)

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   This old gravel road (Chemin Cafferty) is near the eastern edge of the park (near Autoroute 5) and eventually joins up with a trail called Cross Loop which heads to Lac Carman in Gatineau Park. I may have been standing in the exact same spot for this photo as the one below with the hay bales and the fall colours on the Gatineau hills behind. Either way, I think this photograph of the fall foliage and the gravel road disappearing into the forest – is one of my favourites of the whole trip. At least so far. The photo makes me want to walk through the trees and see what is around the corner.

hay bales farm field quebec fall leaves

Hay Bales and Fall Leaves in Chelsea, Québec (Purchase)

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   On a hill just above Meech Creek and the covered bridge I saw these two men painting the bridge. An internet search reveals a lot of paintings of this bridge and the surrounding fields, so this appears to be a popular spot for painting (and photography). I’ve also seen several drone videos from the area. When I was photographing the bridge and the scenes around it there was a man flying a drone over the bridge and fields. I don’t know if it is legal to do so there, but it certainly seemed to annoy the painters! Drones seem like a lot of fun to fly and photograph with – but they certainly destroy the ambience of a nice quiet place like this one.

two men painting meech creek bridge gatineau park

Painting the Meech Creek Covered Bridge

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For more of my photographs from Quebec visit my Québec Photos Collection.

Fall Rhapsody in Gatineau Park

Fall foliage color at the Beaver Pond during Fall Rhapsody Festival at Gatineau Park in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada.

beaver pond fall color in gatineau park

Fall Color at the Beaver Pond in Gatineau Park (Purchase)

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   A few weeks ago I was in Ottawa, Ontario visiting family and we did a lot of driving around looking for fall foliage colors and other scenery. I was there a week before peak color, but I still saw a lot of foliage that was well beyond what I’d normally see even during a great fall color year in and around Vancouver. Much of the great color was in Gatineau Park, which is just across the Ottawa river in Quebec. I’d been following Gatineau Park happenings in social media for a few weeks, and while the peak of color was the following week, we also avoided all the closed roads and crowds!

   I have many photos yet to come from my trip to Ottawa, but I thought I’d start here with a few that show some of the best color I saw, but also from locations that don’t really merit their own blog post in the future. The first photograph here is from the “Beaver Pond” along the Gatineau Parkway. I couldn’t find a more official name for it, but the “Beaver Pond” is what most people seem to call it. This photograph, and the wider angle of it, show some of the reds and oranges that we rarely get (from native species) here in British Columbia.

lac bourgeois fall color in gatineau park

Lac Bourgeouis Trees at Gatineau Park (Purchase)

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   The second photograph here was made at Lac Bourgeouis but from the side of the Champlain Parkway. I’d been to Lac Bourgeouis the day before, but these colors had improved a lot from the day before, and probably show the most interesting foliage I saw on the trip. Clearly the Maple leaves have not turned to the extent one would see at “peak” foliage color, but there are lot of reds and oranges, as well as yellow and the summer greens. I like that this photo shows the whole spectrum from summer to fall foliage.

gatineau park fall foliage color fall rhapsody

Fall Foliage at Gatineau Park (Purchase)

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   This panorama shows off the lighter colors of the maple tree trunks with their brighter foliage above. This is another unnamed marsh/pond in Gatineau Park, but is near the “Shilly Shally Shelter” and the junction of the Lac Fortune Parkway and the Champlain Parkway. I have several (to be published later) photos of this location that show a wider perspective but I think this one shows the most interesting elements of the scene. There are some smaller conifers in this area which further contrasts it from British Columbia where they would be the dominant type of tree in a mature forest.

roadside fall color in gatineau park

Fall Leaves along Dunlop Road during Fall Rhapsody at Gatineau Park (Purchase)

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   Sometimes a good patch of color is just along the side of the road!

For more photos of fall foliage visit my Fall Photos Gallery.

Whatcom Falls Fall Foliage Colors

Whatcom Falls in Whatcom Falls Park in Bellingham, Washington State, USA

whatcom falls at whatcom falls park in bellingham washington usa

Fall Foliage at Whatcom Falls (Purchase)

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 Whatcom Falls park in Bellingham is one of the few US based places I remember going to as a kid from British Columbia. I remember going down and spending the afternoon fishing and having lunch or dinner on one of the park benches. When I visited it again probably 20 years later I remembered the name, but not the waterfalls or what I was about to find to photograph. I made this image way back in 2009, but it remains one of my favourites of the main falls in Whatcom Falls Park. I occasionally “complain” about the fall foliage colours in this part of the world, but it looks like 2009 was a great year! Most of the fall foliage we get around here are from the Bigleaf Maple trees (Acer macrophyllum), or sometimes from the smaller Vine Maples (Acer circinatum). When they get the right conditions they can really give some great colors. The above photograph is the view at Whatcom Falls park of the main waterfall from the Limestone Bridge that crosses Whatcom Creek. Most of the fall foliage colours in this first photograph are from Bigleaf Maple trees.

whatcom falls at whatcom falls park in bellingham washington usa

Fall Foliage along Whatcom Creek (Purchase)

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 This second photograph is the view looking downstream on the other side of that same Limestone Bridge. There are a few larger Bigleaf Maple leaves in this photo but most of the colour here comes from the smaller leaved Vine Maples.

For my other photographs of Whatcom Falls Park please visit my Washington State Misc. Photos Gallery in my Image Library.

Ohanapecosh River Fall Foliage

Vine Maple (Acer circinatum) fall foliage colors along the Ohanapecosh River at the Grove of the Patriarchs – Mount Rainier National Park, Washington State, USA.

ohanapecosh river fall foliage colors in mount rainier national park

Fall Foliage at the Ohanapecosh River in Mount Rainier National Park (Purchase)

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   I first photographed this scene at the Ohanapecosh River in Mount Rainier National Park in the fall of 2009. This spot is right next to the small suspension bridge that crosses the Ohanapecosh River on the trail to the Grove of the Patriarchs. I liked the fall foliage colors of these Vine Maple (Acer circinatum trees along the blue waters of the river. I have visited this spot a few times since during the fall and have either been there when the leaves are still green, or after they have turned brown and begun to fall off – but it is always a nice spot to eat lunch. I’d love to photograph this scene again with a fuller extent of oranges and reds in the foliage, but that will be a matter of getting my timing right. Now that I’ve discovered what the park is like when the wildflowers are in full bloom which is usually in August, exploring Rainier for fall foliage colours may have to wait a few more years.

For more photographs of this area including other versions of this scene please visit my Mount Rainier National Park Gallery in the Image Library.