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)

-click to enlarge-

 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)

-click to enlarge-

 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.

Whatcom Falls Park

Edit: This is a very old post. If you are looking for much better (newer) photographs of Whatcom Falls Park – visit my new blog post: Whatcom Falls Fall Foliage Colors.

About a month ago I once again travelled down to Bellingham to Whatcom Falls Park. I had planned on taking a few pictures there then moving onto Whatcom Lake, which I had never actually seen. However, as I have written about before, my battery had other plans. These are among the few shots I managed to take before the battery death.

whatcom falls Whatcom falls

whatcom falls

Batteries do no good if left IN A DIFFERENT COUNTRY.

whatcomfalls A few weeks ago I went on an epic photo journey through Manning Park, Princeton, Penticton, Kelowna, Kamloops and the Fraser Canyon. Before I embarked on the PhotoJourney™ I thought it wise to purchase a spare battery. Having haggled a local drugstore down from $160 to $80, which I was quite happy with, I was set. I recently purchased a new Canon lens with Image Stabilization which is rumored to decrease battery life. While I took 650 pictures (many using the IS lens) I did not require the use of my new battery. The question was then – how long can I go before I need to swap out batteries?

The following weekend I went on a quick trip across the US border to Whatcom Falls Park. I saw that the battery indicator was showing about 1/2 of its strength, which means it is almost dead. I still wanted to see how far I could go before swapping out with my spare battery. On the bridge I took about 15 quick pictures before the battery finally died. Nice – about 700 shots per battery!

I reach into my bag to take out the spare. I couldn’t immediately find it. It must be in this flap… or this pocket or…. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I actually told my bag NO in dramatic enough terms to elicit attention from passersby.

Somehow the drive back to the border and home seemed longer than it should have.

At least I got a good shot of the waterfall. Handheld for 1.6 seconds! Image Stabilization works pretty darn good I’d say, though I think I’m pretty lucky to have this shot turn out.