Views from the Rosedale Road

After leaving the Smithville Road, I returned to Highway 252 and drove through Hillsborough to the Old Mull River Road (previously known as the Brook Village Road) and drove out to the Rosedale Road in Miramichi. I first discovered this road in 2007 (a summer photo taken from this same location appears here) and have driven it frequently since, enjoying its back country views as it follows the course of the Miramichi Brook before turning east through the Rosedale Valley.

Photo #1 looks south towards the Bornish Hills in Upper Glencoe; I have recently dubbed the prominence in the centre of photo #1 “Mount MacKinnon” because it sits not too far distant from the MacKinnon farm on the MacKinnon Road — it is, of course, unnamed on the topographical maps. The Whycocomagh Road east of Glencoe Mills runs parallel to and on the far side of the ridge seen in the middle ground. The clouds in the sky are wreaking havoc with the sunlight and the camera, which has captured a considerably darker scene than my eyes did. Those trees in the fore­ground, for example, are bright yellow-green, a cross between a lemon and a lime, and they stood out brightly. The colours on the slope leading up to the ridge across the valley of the Miramichi Brook were also far brighter than they appear here, though still in the earlier stages.

Photo #2 gives a more realistic sense of the actual colours of the foliage here, which were verging on the bright and brilliant under the sun. This view is towards the southeast, showing some of the Rosedale Ridge in the far distance at the left. The MacLellan Road runs along this ridge connecting the Rosedale Road to the Whycocomagh Road in Dunakin.

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Photo #3 was taken about 300 m (0.2 mi) east of the junction of the MacLellan and Rosedale Roads in Rosedale. I stopped here for the brilliant reds seen in the tree left of centre and then was taken with the beauty of the whole scene. In this part of the Rosedale Road, fairly high up along the ridge, I noticed lots of leaves already down in the road, sometimes to the point of nearly covering portions of it, likely brought down by the nor’easter and the windy days which followed it; a number can be seen on and by the road in this photo. The green of the grasses at the edge of the road indicate that they have not yet been damaged by frosts, for surely there must already have been frosts up here. What gorgeous fall colours on a gorgeous day!

Photo #4 was taken another 300 m/yds down the road and shows the branch of another glorious red tree, just slightly tinged with gold and pretty successfully hiding some green here and there, giving it a magnificent hue in this beautiful sunlight. And this was but one of many such trees along this part of the road! What a lovely drive this has been!

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Photo #5 looks east to the hills which rise above it on each side; here, the colours are not as bright as they were higher up in the valley, but they have definitely changed and are changing still. Note particularly the lovely tall tree right of centre of the photo, with its greens down below, mixed colours in the crown, and red branches on its right. The roadside grasses here definitely show signs of frost, yet the ferns along the road (seen here in a 2009 fall photo) were mostly untouched and, while showing signs of some yellowing, remained defiantly green, like the grasses seen in photo #3.