Views from the Hinkley Glen Road, Part 2

This page continues with a selection of the photos I took during my drive along the Hinkley Glen Road; like the previous page, it moves deeper into the Glen as it progresses.

Whilst researching Hinkley Glen and the Hinkley Glen Road for this essay, I discovered next to no information about either on the internet and was unable to turn up the travelogue in Google Books. However, I did stumble upon this page, which, if you click on the Red River Falls icon near the bottom of the left column, brings up this intriguing description: “From the quarry [at the end of the Hinkley Glen Road, where I turned around], hike just a little farther along the same (SW) side of Red River to the big pool. Cross in front of the pool to the NE side to see the falls. Good swimming hole, but cool water. Best to visit mid-afternoon when sun hits the pool.” This is one of a few other local spots described on the same page that I was unaware of until now; I have added them to my to-do list, so I will attempt to seek them out in the future.

Photo #1 looks upstream from the bridge over the Red River, just a bit shy of half way to the driveable end of the Hinkley Glen Road. This view shows the mountains on both sides, Icy Mountain on the left and Andrews Mountain on the right, with a bit of the ridge on North Mountain showing in the far distance at the centre of the photo. Although a few fall colours are in evidence, greens still predominate, even along the river.

Photo #2 looks downstream from the bridge where again the brightest of the colours are along the river, with only a bit of initial colour on the slopes of Andrews Mountain above. Although the river appears quite shallow here and has only a modest amount of water flowing this fall day, after a very dry summer, I suspect that it would have rather more water in a wetter year or closer to the spring run-off season.

[continued below]

On the southwest side of the river past the bridge, the road does not follow the river too closely, moving inland away from it and then returning to its banks three times during the next 1 km (⅝ mi). I stopped for photo #3 when I happened to catch a glimpse of the distinctive rock formation along the summit of Icy Mountain across the Red River in the foreground. The colours here are very early, yellows and oranges and not a lot of either.

Photo #4 is a close-up of the rock formation along the summit of Icy Mountain seen in photo #3; it looks far closer here than its actual distance, which is better gauged in photo #3. How it came to have this shape would be very interesting to learn; I’d guess erosion of surrounding softer rocks left this harder rock isolated, but I’m no geologist and can only idly speculate.

[continued below]

Photo #5 is an upstream view of the Red River from the same point as the two previous photos. The trees along the river here are not maples; I’m no expert on trees either, but as best as I can make out using magnification and my trees guide, these are a mixture of birch and oak.

Photo #6 looks upstream along the road at the same location; again, I find no maple leaves in the foliage seen here. As can be seen, the road hugs the base of Andrews Mountain and the Glen is gradually narrowing as the slopes of Icy Mountain approach those of Andrews Mountain at the east end of the Glen.

[continued below]

Photo #7 was taken from further into the Glen than the last four, but looks in the opposite direction (west) along the Hinkley Glen Road and up at the near slopes of Andrews Mountain—Andrews Mountain is massive, extending south from Hinkley Glen to the Grande-Anse Valley (through which the Cabot Trail passes on its way between Pleasant Bay and North Mountain) and rises higher than the slopes directly adjacent to Hinkley Glen, which hide the summit further south.

Photo #8 is at the driveable end of the road; an ATV trail continues straight ahead, how far I do not know. The highland in the upper portion of this photo is part of Andrews Mountain, so the end of the Glen is not far off. As I mentioned in this page’s introduction, I discovered while working on this essay that the Red River Falls are only 250 m (⅙ mi) further down this trail; I now rather wish I had explored a bit further on foot! No matter, I’ll definitely be back, hopefully with somewhat better light for photography.

[continued below]

Photo #9 looks up at the rock quarry above the end of the Hinkley Glen Road on the south side of the Glen. The stand of birches above is showing some colour, but has a ways to go yet. I have no information on what the quarry was used for, but the dark colour of the rocks is seen in some of the boulders at the bridge over the Red River near the middle of the Glen.

Photo #10 is a telephoto view at the eastern end of the Glen looking at the upper slopes of Andrews Mountain, where considerable colour can be seen; the nearer slope definitely has a few maples, but the bulk of the deciduous trees appear to again be birch and oak. Given the spots of bright red on the further slope, it appears there are also maples there.