Canada & USA 2023

20th September: We landed in Toronto for a few days to meet friends and have a quick tour of the city before heading onto Niagara Fall.

Our journey will take us east from Niagara Falls (Canada) towards Lake Placid and Burlington, Vermont before heading south to Boston. We hope we’ve planned the dates just right to catch the peak of the Autumn colours. After a few nights in Boston we will take the train into New York before flying home.

Toronto

This shot was taken on one of the waterfront cruises which was part of a booked excursion with See-Sight Tours. We met up friends that I hadn’t seen since 2019 when I retired. They moved from Ukraine to Toronto, so it was really great to share the whole day and evening with them.

Our first stop was the CN Tower to take in the views over the city….

… and of course the view straight down…

There’s many interesting things to see in Toronto including a huge number of glass fronted skyscrapers. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to capture the reflections we considered – but we will return another year to try it again. For now here a few images of Toronto:-

We did want to capture the early morning sun radiating the city, so with an early start we headed down to the harbour – pier 35 area where we had an unobstructed view across the water to the city bathed in warm sunlight.

After breakfast in the St Lawrence Market we collected our suitcases from the hotel and headed to the Union station to catch the train, then bus taking us to the Niagara Falls for 2 nights.

Niagara Falls

22nd September: To be blunt – very impressive and depending where you stand, very wet. Vanessa headed off for the boat tour under the falls whilst I found somewhere dry to photograph her journey.

Tomorrow we’ll see what sunrise may deliver across the falls – this time we are prepared with the plastic coats to walk past the worst of the wet air.

The plan to photograph the falls at sunrise didn’t happen – as so often happens, it was a cloudy start. But we did walk back to the old Niagara power plants, but it wasn’t a good photographic journey. When we returned to the horseshoe falls I did try some long exposure photos:-

This was 0.4 seconds (using a Lee ‘Little Stopper’ filter)

After a coffee we walked down to the Rainbow Bridge to check what we need for tomorrow when we cross over to the USA. Discovered the ‘WeGO’ bus service which took us north along the river to the ‘Whirlpool’ where you could take a cable car ride across the river.

The cable car crosses between the Canadian shorelines and back (in the first image – the American shoreline appears on the right). Note: you can’t exit on the opposite side.

From here we continued north to visit a botanical gardens which included a tropical butterfly lepidopterarium.

Still learning about macro photography, but these images seem to be reasonably sharp.

Last views of the Falls before USA

We managed to catch the bus from the hotel to the Rainbow Bridge crossing point into the USA. We did a trial run yesterday on our way to the Butterfly place when we discovered we needed 1 dollar cash each to cross the bridge – we hadn’t needed any cash in Canada until this point. A very friendly American gave us 2 dollars so we could avoid currency exchange. Unfortunately you need 4 quarters each and the change machines didn’t work, so we had to seek out change anyway.

Crossing the bridge after paying the dollar was simple. At the crossing point I took this last photos of the falls…

Into the USA

Our first task was getting to our hire car which was at the ‘Niagara Falls International Airport‘. So we took a taxi from the customs building to this location only to be greeted by an irate American women who had also booked a hire car pickup from the airport – the AIRPORT WAS CLOSED! Apparently it is no longer an international airport – everything moved to Buffalo. Yes you guessed it, there was no car hire services on site either. Luckily she also booked with Enterprise and we had passed their offices a few miles down the road, so after getting cash from an ATM for the taxi as he didn’t take credit card, we headed down the road. If we hadn’t come across her, we wouldn’t have realised the issue until our taxi left.

Fortunately Enterprise sorted out a car for us and we travelled to our hotel at Geneseo, New York State. Tomorrow we will do some trekking in the Letchworth State Park.

Letchworth State Park (New York State)

25th September: This location wasn’t strictly along our original planned route, but after seeing some photos online we planned a short diversion. As the park is on a more southerly latitude than Niagara, the autumn colours weren’t very intense, so if you’re thinking of going here, the end of 1st week of October may be better. This is why we are travelling down through Vermont around this time.

You can find the park on Google Maps here :- https://maps.app.goo.gl/kxj3n6xUrsuo7S696

The southern part of the park has the waterfalls, but there are walks throughout the whole park. We parked the car midway between the upper and middle waterfalls, which is at the bottom of the first hill (if you enter from the south) – ideal if you don’t like hill walking. The carpark can be found here:- https://w3w.co/shudder.braves.rise (using ‘what 3 words’).

This is the upper falls, just south of the carpark. I used a 6 stop filter to reduce the light entering the lens, hence a longer shutter speed which is why the water is blurred – make sure you use a tripod.

Turning north again it’s a short walk to the middle falls.

After this we returned to the car and travelled about 1/2 mile north to Inspiration Point. Looking south again you get a distant view of this water fall and the railway bridge in the distance.

You can imagine how much more impressive this would be in the full autumn colours.

We followed the trail north to the lower falls, but our advice now would be to get back in the car and drive north to the Restaurant – on the map it is marked the ‘Lower Falls Recreation Area’. From here walk south towards the lower falls. However, we will say they are not as accessible or as impressive as the others.

Wildlife in the Park

On entering the park we saw chipmunks and groundhogs, but we were a little surprised when we nearly stepped on this…..

Fortunately it was a non-venomous Milk Snake.

Up the skies there are Turkey Vultures circling around and then this Bald Eagle in the tree.

Leaving the park heading north

The rest of the park has several view points which would be better in full autumn colours, but the images below will give you an idea what you will see.

Tomorrow is another travelling day, so not sure what we will be photographing.

26th September: Travelling towards Lake Placid with a one night stop over at Cazenovia. The town has some attractive buildings which seem to be typical of what we’ve seen so far.

There was another waterfall in the area that we ventured to photograph…

Chittenango Falls

Lake Placid Region

27th September: The Journey from Cazenovia took around 4 hours by avoiding the toll roads. Had we chosen the toll road option (which has higher speed limits) it would have taken an additional 30 minutes and added approx. 30 miles to the journey. So check carefully before you set off.

It soon became apparent that the Autumn colours are not as intense as expected. The region has been experiencing higher temperatures than normal which has delayed the colour intensity by a few weeks. So we have to make the most of it and search harder for our photos.

We thought we’d start the day by going to the top of White Face Mountain which towers above Lake Placid. At 0630 we arrived at the road barriers at the base of the mountain. Gates didn’t open until 0845, so no chance to get the sun rising over the peaks and misty valleys around the region. So we continued to drive around the area looking for inspiration.

There were 3 deer in this field when we arrived, but they seemed to be camera shy. Feeling disappointment, we headed back towards Lake Placid and stopped for some breakfast on the way before seeing this image in Saranac over Lake Flower:-

We might try this again tomorrow just after Sunrise.

We continued to drive around from Lake to Lake seeking out the colours…

…but only came across an occasional burst of autumn and this bees nest

So we changed our plans and looked out for other features to photograph. We heard there was an old covered wooden bridge near Jay, so headed off to investigate.

Fed up with driving around we fancied a walk, so found a trail which leads to a good viewpoint.

Cobble Lookout Trail and the Flume Falls

A 1.2 mile walk with a gradual incline through the woods can be found just off the Whiteface Memorial Highway heading west from Wilmington.

Heading back to our lodgings, we had one more stop at the Flume Falls

These weren’t that impressive and difficult to photograph in the full sun, but just down the trail we discovered this tranquil scene

29th September: We did get up early for a last sunrise in Lake Placid, but unfortunately the sun didn’t appear. Unfortunately with photography we come to expect these days but have to make the most of the conditions.

The top image was taken at the top of the Whiteface mountain with Lake Placid below. The other 2 images were taken just after sunrise back at Lake Flower.

After this we had over a 3 hour drive to Stowe via the northern part of Lake Champlain (borders between, New York State, Canada and Vermont).

Tomorrow we’ll explore Vermont…..

Into Vermont

30th September: We headed north to Mount Mansfield to take in the view from the top. We took the cable car (referred to as a Gondola in the USA) as us old fogies couldn’t face the climb – not with heavy photo back sacks in tow.

We did venture on a 1 mile trail around the top before heading down again. The rest of the day wasn’t really planned, so we just headed north again in search of the illusive autumn colours. Fortunately during the drive we came across Belvidere Pond and got the cameras out.

There was a small group of people in the layby who were there for a wedding – as you can see by the other pictures below, they chose a good location.

These were the first real colours we’d seen, but they were still sparse, so we continued on for a few miles before stopping again.

We see these waterlogged areas frequently, but most have no parking nearby. This time we were lucky.

Tomorrow we’re heading to the northern part of New Hampshire to try our luck in that state.

Excursion into New Hampshire

1st October: We left early to travel north towards the Canadian border and into New Hampshire – the idea behind the long detour north was to find the autumn colours. We stopped off at a small town, Island Pond, still in Vermont for some lunch and a stroll around the town. This was an old Railroad stop off with a wooden covered bridge over the track. The town had 3 churches and whilst wandering around came across this derelict building.

From here we travelled up to Colebrook and then east along the 26 to Errol. Along the way we stopped many times to photograph the various images below.

I’m not sure what this species is, but it looked like some form of cormorant.

What we have observed over the past few days is to avoid the larger lakes as these are mostly populated with private houses and cabins around the perimeter which makes it difficult to get to the shoreline for good images. So we looked out for small ponds or the rivers that were adjacent to the road.

The road 26 east through New Hampshire did have Lake Gloriette on the left hand side which was definitely worth a stop. There is a large hotel – The Balsams which was closed for renovation.

Most of the time the colour was along the roadside which made it a very pleasurable trip.

We really enjoyed the tranquility of these ponds. The colours weren’t at there best everywhere, but we enjoyed this part of our journey the most so far.

Travelling southeast from Stowe towards Conway

2nd October: The overnight stay we had booked in Bartlett (before you get to Conway) was the most basic accommodation so far – we will be complaining to ‘Booking.com’. We were in an outside cabin away from the internet connection. On Monday nights, most restaurants in the area were closed and the only one we found was a Mexican (with no internet!). So do check carefully before you book. Most places have been very acceptable.

The breakfast in Bartlett was dreadful, so we stopped off in a Dunkin’ Doughnuts eatery for breakfast (they do good coffee) and they have internet – Yeh! (which allowed me to update my post). The journey was quite good stopping at a number of locations. However you readers must be getting tired of just looking at trees, so we found a few more covered bridges – which we now know are quite frequent.

We did stop off for other views as well and before you ask, the road I laid on was extremely long and quite.

We travelled through the White Mountain National Forest along the ‘302’ which had some spectacular views – recommended. We were also fortunate to see the Conway Scenic Rail train pass in this area.

Turning around you get this view

Now we are heading up the Kancamagus highway, which is supposed to be spectacular – I’ll let you know tomorrow.

Conway through to New London

3rd October: First photo stop was another covered bridge that we had marked on the map – The Saco Covered bridge

This was probably the best bridge we’d come across with the added interest of two fishermen up from the Florida area. This bridge was open to traffic which is surprising when it was built in 1890. The roof helps keep the water off the main timbers. Of the 66 bridges of this type in New Hampshire all were built in the 1800’s and only 2 are no longer in use.

Kancamagus Highway

Taking road 112 between Conway and Lincoln is a must for the Autumn colours and it didn’t disappoint. One driving tip for any keen photographers is to allow at least triple the time for your journey on any route with good photo locations.

The road runs just south of the Swift River and you’ll find plenty of opportunities to stop and photograph the river.

We also walked up the 0.3 mile trail to the Sabbaday Falls – there is a self payment system for the privilege of parking, although many didn’t pay the small $5 charge. The falls were impressive but due to the bright sunlight, difficult to get good images.

These photos were taken handheld with my small Panasonic TZ70 camera – results weren’t bad.

After this we continued west with glorious colours on both sides of the road – there are only so many photos you can take, so you’ll have to trust me on that. Before leaving the highway, we took one more image from the ‘Sugar Hill Scenic Vista’

I think we can now say that we are very satisfied with the colours we’ve experienced over the last 4 days. Tomorrow we have a more relaxing day scheduled around the New London / Andover area. The main task tomorrow is to scout for a location to photograph the Milky Way. We’ll update everyone tomorrow if we are successful.

4th October: Last night we had a meal with an ex-work colleague and he invited us up to see his latest project. He was creating a trail campsite in the woodlands and invited us up to see what he had been doing. So the morning was relaxing and we decided to take the rest of the day at a slower pace.

We accidentally came across another covered bridge in the Meredith area and I promise this will be the last one I post on the blog

The first image was hand held and 3 shots of different exposure merged together so the dark and light areas are balanced.

We headed back toward our Maple Hill Farm B&B (which was great) and stopped for lunch in the local town of New London. We decided to take a few photos of the buildings because they were all quite unique and well kept, which isn’t what we have observed in a number of towns.

Then we spotted the Fire Station – with yellow fire engines? Not something we’d seen before.

After our evening meal we headed out to Little Sunapee Lake to catch the Milky Way between 8 and 9 in the evening. Here’s just one image.

If you look carefully, you can see the brightest stars reflected in the still water. Considering it was a 20 second exposure, then you realise that there was zero breeze.

Tomorrow we head off again…

5th October: We met up with some great people in our B&B and this morning and were shown a wonderful photo which was taken near Lake Sunapee. So naturally we found the location and set up to take something similar.

Fortunately the sun was still subdued behind the clearing cloud which always helps us to take a clearer image. Whilst taking our photos, we chatted to one of the locals who then informed us of other potential photo opportunities in the area. Naturally we followed her advice…

The sun by this time was in full brightness, much as it has been for the last week. So apologies for the harsh shadows – it couldn’t be avoided.

Heading South through Lebanon on route 89

Our next motel was due southwest, but the quickest route took us north towards Lebanon and through Quechee. Here we came across another covered bridge over some very uneven ground and waterfalls. Now I know I promised ‘no more bridges’ – forgive me

I had to clamber down the rock fall to get this view under the bridge.

Heading south again, we stopped off at a river bed for couple of photos as the colours all around were fantastic – the river bed being slightly more photogenic than a road.

We headed to the village of Weston to see an old disused water mill and found this rather striking other building next door.

The ‘blown up’ image below shows the outer panelling on the building.

Tomorrow we head into Boston where we drop off the car and explore the city for the next 3 days.

Travelling on to Boston

6th October: Well today was the first wet day that we’ve had since arriving in Canada 16 days ago. Luckily it was a travelling day and fortunately the weather had changed when we had arrived in Boston. We had a fairly brisk stroll around Boston and planning what to do tomorrow.

The Cheers TV program was probably one of the best shows associated with Boston, so it was one of our first stop off locations – unfortunately the stairs and doorway entrance was covered in scaffolding, so not really worth a photograph.

We crossed the road into the park and we greeted by friendly squirrels

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Vanessa was hoping to look inside the Massachusetts State House, but it had just closed for the weekend – unfortunately we leave Boston on Monday morning, so the outside is all we get – once the bus moved out of our way

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We returned to our hotel to collect our tripods and set off to Langone Park to photograph Boston at night

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First Reccy of Boston

7th October: The forecast was gloomy and so was Boston. We set off fairly early to revisit ‘Acorn Street’ without crowds of people this time. We also hoped for rain (which we did get later in the day) – so the image below was one after the rain as it emphasises the cobbles.

Earlier in the day it remained overcast and whilst we waited in the park for our tour to start, I snapped a few more squirrels.

Freedom Trail Tour

This was a 2 hour tour that followed the Freedom Trail, marked around Boston by a line of bricks. Instead of repeating any of the tour details I have included the link for you to check yourselves: https://freetoursbyfoot.com/boston-tours/

Our tour was led by Bob who’s wit kept the tour interesting. There was great detail about Boston’s past which was what we were expecting. The tour takes almost 2 hours and covers several of the old buildings. This was a tour we can recommend.

The Old State House and the Old South Meeting House

After the tour and lunch we headed west towards the Charles River (in the rain).

The city was covered in very low cloud which hopefully will clear tomorrow.

Sunrise in Boston, then a daytrip to Salem

8th October: The forecast was good, so we set off early before sunrise to capture the Boston skyline again.

Today was Sunday, so after this we headed back into Boston to recapture some photographs without people in the images.

The first image is the Irish Famine Memorial, then the Old South Meeting House and lastly there are 2 images of the Old State House. The circle in from of the state house is the Boston Massacre Memorial…..and NO people!

After some breakfast we headed north to the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge.

Our aim was to photograph this again in the evening, but after we visited Salem.

Salem

Salem was extremely popular – the train was packed and with an hourly service it wasn’t long before the town was crowded with people; many dressed as witches! Salem has a strong link to witches through cinema – e.g. Hocus Pocus. The town capitalises on witchcraft and Halloween with many exhibits and themed events in the town. The American’s seem to love Halloween and during our time in the USA (from end of September) many homes have Halloween decorations around the front door – but Salem wins all the prises….

We headed back to the station before the crowds filled the trains again.

Back to Boston

After one cancelled train we got back into Boston and enjoyed a great Chinese meal in Chinatown. Then headed out to the bridge again for our last photos of Boston before heading to New York tomorrow.

Most of the next day was taken up travelling from Boston to New York by train, which seemed to be a particularly popular mode of transport as the train was packed. The journey took 5 hours, so we didn’t arrive until late afternoon.

New York

We only had a few days planned because we spent over a week here in 2012 (just after hurricane Sandy). So we only intended to visit the sites we missed before due to closure.

10th October: We didn’t hear the alarm at 0530 so didn’t quite get the early morning shots we desired. But what we did take was still bathed in a good light:-

The Freedom Tower

We did take a trip up to the viewing platform of the Freedom Tower which was about 18 months from completion the last time we were in New York (2012). The best part of the trip was the lift which had 3 sides covered in TV screens which shows how NY had developed over the years as the lift progressed to the top.

The lift got to floor 102 in double quick time – it was extremely smooth. The views were great, but as it was bright there were lots of reflections off the glass.

Back at floor level there is a white structure called the ‘Oculus’ which has a new shopping centre below ground.

Hudson Yard Developments

We also headed over toward the Penn Railroad Station and the Hudson Yard development, over which a new skyscraper complex has been built including a new glass inlay walking platform called the ‘Edge’.

You can just see the ‘Edge’ in the middle building in the righthand image.

New York View from Brooklyn

We ended the day over at the Brooklyn side for this image – there were 6 other photographers there when we arrived, so a popular spot. Be careful not to get too close to the shore line as the ferries pass at high speed and the wash could easily soak you if there was also a high tide.

We awoke early this time and headed back to the Brooklyn shore for another sunrise attempt. We seemed to be in more luck this time…

The last time our family were in New York was about 11 years ago, this bridge was covered in scaffolding & white tarpaulin; much better now. Looking behind us we had this view of the Manhattan Bridge…

After this we returned for breakfast and then set off to The Battery Park for a trip over to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

Boat Trip to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

We actually had a trip up to the crown booked, but the view from there wasn’t great – it was all about the experience and the extra 165 steps to get there. After this we headed to Ellis Island which was brilliant. Definitely something we would recommend. They provide you with ‘audio tour’ handsets which guide you through the attractions.

The Reception Hall

Back in New York and the 911 Memorial Museum

Our last visit planned for the day was the 911 memorial/museum. 11 years ago they we still building this exhibition hall, but we did see many of the artifacts in a temporary 911 exhibit. We entered at 5pm, but it closes at 7pm and we found we needed more time (so book an earlier time). Many of the artifacts couldn’t be photographed, but here are a few shots from inside the halls. Despite the awful nature of the exhibits, it is a must visit if you haven’t been.

Tomorrow the plan was to head over to Newark to a hotel near the airport ready to fly out early on Friday morning as we also have seats for an Ice Hockey match in Newark, so this is the reason this will be the last post on the blog for this trip.

Unfortunately our plans were disrupted by British Airways who cancelled our Newark flight and rebooked us with American Airlines out of JFK – which was too far from Newark for the early flight, so we had some last minute re-planning to deal with before we could enjoy our last day/evening. Thanks BA!

The End.