Views from the End of the Red River Road

When I arrived at the end of the Red River Road, I parked the car at the trail head, collected the GPS coördinates of the parking lot, and walked up the start of the trail to the bridge over Archies Brook, where I took some photos of the brook from the bridge. I had no time to go further, so I turned around and came back to the parking area, where I took more photos, some from the side of Archies Brook. “The Knuckles” and the northwestern coast as far south as “Wreck Brook Mountain” are visible from there, but the lie of the land hides Polletts Cove. Since this coast is pretty well covered on the previous page (and in great depth in the previous essay), I have restricted the photos on this page to local views.

Photo #1 shows Archies Brook from the bridge over it at the start of the Polletts Cove Trail as it descends over the cliff and down towards the shore below. The dirt/stone/rubble cliff spanning much of the photo is typical of the cliffs along this coast, as are their underpinnings of much more solid stone. In this case, the top of the cliff is just above the upper edge of the photo, but there is a very substantial drop from there to the waters of the Gulf below. This day, after recent rains, there was a good flow in the waters coming down the Highlands.

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Photo #2 is a telephoto view of the brook as it nears the edge; the mouth is not directly below, but past the end of the cliff face at the far left of the photo and outside its scope. There must be a fairly decent waterfall beyond the boulders, but I did not attempt to climb down there to see what it looks like. The boulders and the lack of vegetation near them attest to the force of the waters, at certain times of the year, which has pushed them there and keeps them clear.

Photo #3 is a look at Archies Brook upstream from near the bridge. The water is descending smartly, as one can tell from the white splashes, but has significantly less depth and apparently somewhat less force, as the boulders are smaller and some vegetation has been able to survive close to the stream.

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Photo #4 looks up from near the parking area at a hill above Archies Brook. There are lingering traces of oranges and a few pale yellows near the top, but most of the deciduous trees are leafless. At the right, some trees further down the hill are closer to peak and probably similar to those that are now bare. Some yellows can also be seen at the far right.

Photo #5 shows a bright yellow/green stand of trees on another nearby hillside; there was enough light to make them stand out quite brilliantly. Note that the upper right corner of the photo is mostly of bare trees on an adjacent hillside. Nature is certainly capricious!

Photo #6 shows some brush near the parking area whose branches have mostly been stripped bare of leaves; only these remaining few soft magenta leaves, tinged yet with green at the ends, remain of what must recently have been a gorgeous shrub.

Photo #7 shows another shrub, whose still intact leaves to my untutored eyes look very similar to those in photo #6, except that their colour is considerably more vivid. The thorns and red leaves seem to indicate a wild rose bush. This specimen still retains significant amounts of chlorophyll in its lower leaves especially. It is surrounded in the ditch where it was growing by plants in the thistle family whose flowers have turned into seed pods that will soon be scattered by the birds and the winds.¹

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¹ The plant identifications reflect the thoughts of my very plant-knowledgeable friend and gardener extraördinaire, Marg Little of Rocky Ridge, though she was puzzled at the absence of rose hips on the red-leafed plant.↩

Photo #8 was taken from near the parking lot looking south towards Gampo Abbey; the knob left of centre is a foothill of Baldy and the Gampo Abbey lies on this side of it. See this view from the top of the first mountain on the Polletts Cove Trail for a good overview of the area between the parking lot and Kerrs Point. A few fall colours are evident at the edge of the road and at the far left of the photo, but most of the trees are evergreen, so not a lot of colour is present. But note that sun is now strong enough to cast shadows on the road! That really gladdened my heart!