Arisaig Provincial Park
On August 26, 2017 I visited Arisaig Provincial Park, on Nova Scotia's Northumberland Shore, about 23km Northwest of Antigonish. I have lived in the 'Nish for years, but this was my first time to the park.
Arisaig Provincial Park overlooks Arisaig Harbour, and its cute little lighthouse.
Above is an overgrown stump, just one of the little experiences with nature abundant along the trails.
To the right is a more clear shot of a typical trail, winding its way through the wooded hill between the road (NS Highway 245) and the coastline.
The park has several picnic tables, a few in groups and others scattered along the roadways and walking trails. I did not bring a picnic, nor camping supplies for the tent spots. Instead, I focused my visit on the trails, which I found to be well maintained and comfortably wide. The park is not barrier-free; there are stairs at several points.
I recently purchased a new camera, an Olympus Air. It is a little different from most cameras in that it has no screen of its own. Instead it transmits images to a mobile device, from which it can be controlled remotely. It works with the lenses I already own, but offers a little more flexibility than a machine you need to be standing behind to operate. This little walk in the woods was an opportunity for me to test it out. Low-angle mushroom shots that would be difficult to take with a usual camera? Yes please!
As much fun as the forest is, many tourists to Nova Scotia come for the Atlantic. We aren't called "Canada's Ocean Playground" for nothing! After winding through the woods, the path crests a hill and presents the Northumberland Strait just meters away. That is the first glimpse on the right.
The Arisaig Park has a waterfall, but as is often the case, the journey is as important as the destination. Below is a shot of the falls, which are admittedly not overwhelming. Still, being amidst the jagged cliffs and steps away from the sea makes the spot worth the short walk to reach it.
Usually, I go for a certain amout of realism in my shots, even when I post-process them with HDR toning (As many of the photographs here have been). Sometimes, though, the computer spits out something I was not quite expecting. That is the case with the rather dramatic photo on the right, which was originally meant to be a standard look at the cliffs from the rocky beach.
Not long after taking the previous photograph, I saw three figures emerge from the trail up on the hill above my location in front of the waterfall. They made their way down to look at the tumbling stream, a little miffed at its lack of height and flow, and I traded places with them at the top of the cliffs. Since I was up there, I looked around a bit at the crest of the falls, and took the image on the right, looking down over them.
Below is the last shot from my adventure, a look at a flower I saw blooming along the path on my return leg. I had seen quite a few of these pretty two-tone flowers on the verge of the path, and I am glad I got a good portrait of one.
My inspiration for visiting Arisaig Provincial Park was a picture that I saw on a weather website, a night scene with the harbour in the distance , taken through an arch of stone chiseled out by the waves. Unfortunately for my efforts to find that arch, it was right around high tide when I arrived. With heavy surf, I wasn't about to risk wading around the cliff. I will have to explore beyond it some other time.
