Mid-Winter Photography Trip to Elora, Jan. 19 2010

Stop on the Highway on Road to Elora, January 19 2019

I was given someone’s old camera when they upgraded to a new and better one. It being the dead of winter didn’t stop us from going on a photography trip to try out our respective new cameras. We started on the Grand River at the mouth of the Conestoga River, photographing what we could from the side of the road, then cut across the county to Elora Gorge. The Grand flows through the Gorge and is joined by Irvine Creek at Lover’s Leap between steep walls of rock.

Was it a successful trip with regards to photography? That depends on what one counts as success. It was a black and white day so, despite having excellent colour capabilities on our cameras, we got black and white photos. In fact-checking everything for this post, I learned a great deal which surely counts considerably toward the success of the trip even if it came more than ten years later.

Junction of Grand & Conestoga Rivers

The big river curving through the middle of the photo is the Grand. Coming in from the right on the other side of the hill, almost hidden behind the trees, is the Conestoga.

Farm Across the Highway

Stop on the Highway

Horse Farm

Trees

Shapes, Shades, & Designs

Village of Elora

Truss Bridge

These old truss bridges that I find once in a while have a special place in my heart. Long ago, in the early 1960s before they reconstructed our part of the highway running from Guelph to Lake Huron, there used to be a truss bridge over the Conestoga River west of Wallenstein. I was a very young child at the time and I thought that was what real bridges were like.

Very few of them remain. Having the opportunity in January 2010 to see how these bridges were made, I took pictures from every angle possible. For more on this and other bridges in the area see Bridges of Elora & Fergus.

Inside view, rivets, bolts, how it is put together. See how full of braces the top is.

Side view, showing frame of trusses and overall bridge.

Here I can see what holds the bridge up. See that heavy pillar of concrete in the bottom right corner. There must be one at each end of the bridge, or on each corner; I can’t see exactly how they did it.

Pedestrian Bridge

David Street Bridge

Bridges of Elora & Fergus says the David Street Bridge was “first built in 1868, and reconstructed in 2002, with the original pier remaining.” This bridge crosses the Irvine Gorge, through which Irvine Creek flows just before joining the Grand River at Lover’s Leap.

Grand River in Elora

Icy Reflections in the Grand

Snow Thickens

The flurry, that has been blowing for a while, thickens but not enough for us to go home.

Pretty Hedges

I’m not sure what these photos are supposed to be. My notes mention berries. One thing is certain, they provide cheerful colour on an otherwise drab black-and-white day.

ELORA GORGE

We can’t go down the steps into the gorge since there is no winter maintenance, but I can photograph the rock walls. Having lived all my life in gentle agricultural land I have not seen rocks bigger than field stone. Here the walls of rock are taller than trees. I want to understand rock of this immensity in real life, not just look at pictures of the Rocky Mountains.

CORRECTION: In the Summer of 2000 I lived for some time on the Cape Croker Indian Reserve, through which runs the Niagara Escarpment. I was taken for a walk on The Bluffs, as they call it, and I saw rock around the Cape. But in 2010 I wanted more. Much more.

Approaching the gorge from the car through the park…