Early Colours near Dunakin

Continuing towards Whycocomagh, the forest hides the views from the road beyond “The Plains” until one approaches the MacKinnon Road, where logging in recent years has opened up vistas that did not previously exist. 240 m (⅙ mi) west of the MacKinnon Road, there are now fine views of the ridge to the northeast I have dubbed the “Rosedale Ridge”, which stretches between Dunakin and Rosedale above the valley carved by the Miramichi Brook. The views now reach around to the northwest as far as Cape Mabou behind Glenora Falls. According to the road signage, this location is still in Glencoe Mills, but the sign for Dunakin is not far down the road.

Photo #1 looks along the “Rosedale Ridge” across the Miramichi Brook Valley (hidden, in this view, by the brush in the foreground). The MacLellan Road runs along the upper portion of this ridge; you can see the line along which it runs in the centre of the photo. This road was logged earlier than this site at the border of Glencoe Mills and Dunakin, but still offered excellent views when I drove it last year, although the brush was beginning to get high enough to interfere with some of the views. The road starts in Dunakin just past the gravel pit (the first left turn, which requires another immediate left turn).

The colours on the “Rosedale Ridge” are no longer summery greens, but have a definite orange/red shade, especially across the upper parts of the ridge. Trees much closer at hand in the middle ground are of the same shade, so this is no artefact of the distance. The bright red maple in the foreground and the much darker red one at the right are local exceptions to the surrounding greens, but are well in tune with those across the valley. I’m not positive, but I believe the white weed in the foreground is fireweed which has gone to seed.

Photo #2 is a telephoto view of the uppermost portion of the “Rosedale Ridge” seen in the centre of photo #1. While there is some admixture of evergreens and tamaracks, the changed colours are plenty visible across the ridge, though the unchanged greens are very much still in evidence—it’s early days yet. In this view, the path the MacLellan Road takes along the ridge is easily made out across the full length of the photo.

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Photo #3 looks at the leftmost portion of photo #1 (the Rosedale end of the ridge). Under magnification, the trees at the top of the ridge appear to be mostly bare of leaves. The deciduous trees lower down still have their leaves, but they have already begun to change, though they appear to be somewhat less advanced than those on the Dunakin end. The whitened trunks are spruce trees destroyed by the spruce bark beetle that haven’t been removed. In the foreground, the deciduous trees are mostly well along, with an orange at the left and a dark red at the right and various spots of other colours on the smaller trees and brush.

Photo #4 shows some of the small trees close to the road where I was standing. The red maple in the foreground is newly changed—many of its leaves, especially at the bottom of the tree, are unchanged or only partly changed. The darker red of of the tree behind in the centre right is due to even more residual chlorophyll in its leaves; these trees can’t have been showing colour for very long.

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Photo #5 is a close-up of the “Rosedale Ridge” nearest Dunakin; the path of the MacLellan Road is near the top of the ridge here and can be made out as a line through the trees across the width of the photo. There are no views from this portion of the road, as the trees, not part of the logged portion, extend well above it, making a sort of tunnel in the summer time. Below this ridge, the Miramichi Brook rises; the valley is not very deep here because the Brook is only starting to form. While changed colours are visible everywhere, there are many unchanged greens as well.

Photo #6 looks to the northwest to Cape Mabou behind Glenora Falls. Its location is easy to determine because the wind turbine beside the community pastures there sits just right of the centre of the photo, though it is a bit hard to make out in this reduced version of the photo. (The marks against the sky to the right of the wind turbine are prongs of the birch tree in the middle ground below, now mostly stripped of its leaves.) Many’s the time I have wished I had a “cherry picker” on my car to gain some height for seeing over adjacent trees; this is one of them! But I’m nevertheless grateful to even have this view: until the logging had been done here, this lovely panorama was completely hidden.