Day trip to Sauble Falls

The best colour of the day

Another nice fall day, another short day trip on a sunny Friday. We decided to make our way north to Sauble Falls, looking for fall colour changes. We saw quite a few changes, but most colours were somewhat muted so far, except for the lead picture in Ripley.

Not too far along we noticed a colourful farm stand in the morning light:

Sure hope this fellow is retired now

An eye-catching display

Maitland River. Gulls and ducks really seem to like the shallow waters in this stretch

 

A pretty little private pond looked like it would be a great place for a morning paddle:

Those grey lumps are Canada geese, soaking up the morning sun

and even more Canadas nearby, just quietly waking up

 

Lucknow was in a handy location for us. They have a good pharmacy on the main street I was happy to find. This morning I had opened up a small cut on my hand that had been healing up, and needed some small band-aids. 

The pharmacy is right next door to Green's Meat Market, a great place for various kinds of meats. Today's lunch included a couple of slices of thick and tasty back bacon we got there yesterday. We'll have to go back sometime, better prepared to stock up on supplies.

In a nearby store window

 

We had decided to stay some ways inland rather than driving up the main highway 21, so had a different view of some of the many windmills visible from Hwy 21. They must be adding more all the time:

Fall brings apple crops along:

An old-looking apple tree at the edge of a field

Not sure what variety, but a bumper crop

 

This old farmhouse looked like it would have been grand in its day:

We had brought some sandwiches with us for lunch, and as it was getting about that time we thought we'd stop somewhere. Plans do change. Since we were going to go right by the Lord Elgin restaurant in Port Elgin, we decided the sandwiches could wait for supper. It's not every day we can get Lord Elgin fish & chips:

 

Eventually we worked our way to Sauble Falls Provincial Park. We were aiming for a parking lot beside the river, just past a bridge over the rived. Well that's now a controlled entry due to being part of the Provincial Park. A sign announced pre-registration is required, somehow. Only 1 car in the lot. 

So we backed up a bit and went in to the main Park entrance. This was manned, and our park pass got us in with no issues. A short walk got us to the falls:

The river below the falls. You can see some of the fall colours here.

A lone fisherman trying his luck

A few trails, some with boardwalks, give easy access to the river and falls:

On our way back south via Hwy 21, we stopped in a the main beach area in Port Elgin. Cool and breezy, but still nice in the sun:

Some migrating swans resting up in a shallow-water cove

Lots of wave action in more open water

A fellow was determined to take his sailboard out for a spin. It looked like it would need good balance and upper body strength, both to get it going and to keep it  going: