Waterfalls – The Glasgow Gallivanter

The Birks of Aberfeldy (and other walks)

January 15, 2018January 15, 2018Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter80 Comments

The Birks of Aberfeldy

Between Christmas and New Year we spent three nights in Aberfeldy in Highland Perthshire. The Birks (birch trees) of Aberfeldy is a famous walk, and also the subject of a Robert Burns song, a few words of which you can just about make out on the Breadalbane Stag above (Breadalbane being the name of the wider area).

The walk itself is a steep climb up one side of the Moness Burn and down the other. It’s the third time we’ve done it, the first being at a similar time of year in 2009, but with much more snow. Check out the two photos of Burns’ statue to see the difference! This year Rabbie, like the stag, has been decorated for Christmas.

2009

2017

I actually preferred walking on the deeper snow – it was more stable. In 2017, a thin covering of snow, followed by rain which froze over night, meant we slithered up and down to the Falls of Moness. Again, compare and contrast – in 2009 the Falls are frozen.

2009

2017

Black Spout

Another circular walk starts in Pitlochry, taking you past Black Spout waterfall and the Edradour Distillery (sadly, closed to visitors in the winter – a warming dram would have been nice).

Black Spout

Edradour Distillery

Falls of Acharn

Yet another waterfall, this time above Loch Tay. Again, we slithered up one side of a gorge and down the other. The Falls are seen by walking through a so-called “Hermit’s Cave”, in reality an artificial structure built in the 1760s by the 3rd Earl of Breadalbane in order to conceal the view until the last minute. Some of these pictures look almost black and white but they are definitely in colour!

Hermit’s Cave

Falls of Acharn

Viewing balcony

Falls of Acharn

Viewing platform

River Tay at Kenmore

No waterfalls in this walk! Kenmore is a model village built by the Lairds of Breadalbane. After lunch in the Kenmore Hotel, which dates from 1572, we walked downhill past Taymouth Castle gates.

Taymouth Castle gates

Crossing the bridge over the Tay, we could see the back of the hotel, with its modern extension, on the other bank.

Bridge over the Tay

Kenmore Hotel from river

We walked along the river as far as a Gothic folly named Maxwell’s Temple, built by Lord Breadalbane in 1831 as a tribute to his wife Mary.

Maxwell’s Tower

Returning through the village, we passed the church, white timbered cottages built by the 3rd Earl in 1760, and the Post Office which still advertises itself as a Telegraph Office (zoom in above door).

Kenmore Church

Kenmore Post Office

Kenmore cottages

Aberfeldy

Should you ever need to visit Aberfeldy, we can recommend the Townhouse Hotel: comfortable rooms, a great breakfast and pleasant staff.

Townhouse Hotel, Aberfeldy

We ate in the hotel the first night and set out to explore on the other two – not that we got far: The Three Lemons was just across the road. We had a lovely dinner on night 2, but liked the look of the pizzas on the next table so much that we went back on night 3 to try them. Delicious!

Three Lemons, Aberfeldy

Linked to Jo’s Monday Walks, which this week comes from Lisbon and is a much sunnier prospect than Aberfeldy.

Along the Icefields Parkway

September 18, 2017September 19, 2017Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter60 Comments

From Glacier, we headed north to Jasper along the Icefields Parkway. A few days later, we drove back down the same road to Lake Louise (there really isn’t any other way). We made several stops each time which I’ve combined into one south to north sequence, starting with the Crowfoot Glacier viewpoint (above).

Peyto Lake and Bow Lake Lookout

This was a day of very poor visibility due to smoke blowing over from the fires in BC. From the parking lot at Bow Summit, a short, steep, paved trail leads to a viewing platform over Peyto Lake (first picture). It was thronged with people so we only got one photograph but, as is often the case, we carried on a bit further and lost most of them. The trail to Bow Lake Lookout goes through forest, moraine and snow, some of which is not terribly solid. Guess who went in to thigh level? Still, to make up for that we met a cute marmot. The view of Bow Lake was pretty enough but nothing like it could have been in other circumstances. The picture near the end of the gallery, slightly enhanced, is the best we have.

Peyto Lake

Forest and wildflowers

Bow Lake Lookout trail

Marmot

Parker’s Ridge

The trail to Parker’s Ridge, overlooking the Saskatchewan Glacier, is about half way between Lake Louise and Jasper. We hiked here in 2007 too – the weather wasn’t great then, but better than it was in 2017 with a squall of hail at the top. The panoramas below are just before the storm and just after.

Bears!

On the drive down from Jasper, we saw a mother with two cubs! Much zoomed and a bit blurry, but still – bears!

Bears on the Icefield Parkway

Bear on the Icefield Parkway

Bear cub on the Icefield Parkway

Sunwapta Falls

We stopped here on the way down and had lunch at the nearby Sunwapta Falls Resort. It wasn’t amazing, but it was a lot better than the meal we had at the resort at Saskatchewan River Crossing on the way up – although, to be fair, there are three places to eat on site. We chose the Parkway Pub for the views from its deck – I’d recommend you to forego the view and try one of the other options.

Sunwapta Falls

Athabasca Falls

We spent about an hour here exploring the various trails round the Falls. Such awesome power in the water – we were reminded of this by the plaques to those who thought it would be fun to hop over the fence and never came back.

Athabasca Falls

Athabasca River at Athabasca Falls

Three busy days in Jasper coming up next.

Jackson to Yellowstone

October 31, 2016October 31, 2016Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter46 Comments

A large berry fire had closed the North Entrance of Grand Teton and the South Entrance of Yellowstone, our obvious route. A detour into Idaho was required to reach Yellowstone’s West Entrance, thus adding an unexpected new state to my tally. The drive wasn’t a huge amount longer, but we had no idea about sights along its route, whereas the road north through Grand Teton had many obvious stopping places. Here, social media came into its own. I’d been keeping an eye on both parks’ Facebook pages for news, and one helpful user commented that anyone taking the western detour should consider visiting Mesa Falls. That was our plan made for us!

Along the Mesa Falls Scenic Byway we stopped first at the overlook for Lower Mesa Falls – we’d be able to hike down to them later in the morning.

Lower Mesa Falls

A short distance along the road was Upper Mesa Falls where the Big Falls Inn (built around 1915) now serves as a visitor centre. There is also a network of board walks taking you to the Upper Falls and their attendant rainbow.

Big Falls Inn, Mesa Falls

Upper Mesa Falls

From the parking lot, the one-mile Mesa Nature Trail takes you to the Lower Falls which we had looked down on earlier. Thank you Facebook commenter, we loved Mesa Falls!

Mesa Nature Trail

Lower Mesa Falls

After a lunch stop at the Angler’s Lodge in Island Park, where I had possibly my favourite veggie burger ever, we crossed back into Wyoming and continued on to Yellowstone. Before long, a line of cars stopped at the roadside signalled our first wildlife sighting – elk and a very lazy looking bison.

Bull elk

Elk

Bison

Our final stop of the day was Norris Geyser Basin. Our eyes popped out on stalks and remained there the entire week we spent in Yellowstone, which is basically the caldera of a giant volcano. We watched the earth’s surface literally boiling at our feet, through geysers, springs, mudpots and fumaroles, and had a constant smell of sulphur in our nostrils. We have so many pictures, I’m not sure how I’m going to whittle them down for the next few posts. In the meantime, here are some highlights from Norris – first, Porcelain Basin. The colours are caused by the different minerals and algae present in the water.

Porcelain Basin

Ledge Geyser

Porcelain Basin

John with steam coming out of his ears!

Back Basin is home to Steamboat Geyser, the world’s tallest active geyser. Major eruptions (300 feet) are rare, the last one being two years ago, but we certainly saw it ejecting water for 10-20 feet. We thought this was awesome till we went to Old Faithful a few days later!

Steamboat Geyser

Cistern Spring?

Back Basin

Veteran Geyser

Back Basin

After a long day, we arrived at our accommodation, Canyon Lodge, to be brought down to earth with a bump. It had one huge advantage – location: the main road in Yellowstone forms a figure of eight loop and Canyon Lodge is very central. It’s also the largest lodge in the park and the only place we could get in for a full week, but my advice would be “don’t stay there”. Built in the 60s, it has massively expanded since then in terms of accommodation and the services haven’t kept up. Our room was 15 minutes walk from the dining room up a pot-holed unlit road and, although superficially attractive, wasn’t terribly comfortable either (one hard chair). I could go on and on, but John has written a very scathing review on Trip Advisor so if you’re thinking of going to Yellowstone, read that!

Canyon Lodge bedroom

If I were doing it again I would stay a few days in the south of the park at Old Faithful and a few days in the north at Mammoth Springs – if we could get in. However, we didn’t let the lodge dampen our enthusiasm for the park and packed as much as we could into the next few days.

Next up – Yellowstone Canyon itself.

Canadian Rockies: Lake Louise

February 15, 2016Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter46 Comments

On the way down from Jasper to Lake Louise, we stopped off to hike the Parker’s Ridge trail which overlooks the Saskatchewan Glacier. The weather seems to have deserted us here, but I don’t remember that. It all looks very dramatic in the cloud.

Parker’s Ridge trail

Saskatchewan Glacier

By the time we got to Lake Louise, all was sunny again. On arrival, we climbed to a lookout over the Lake and the fabulous Chateau Lake Louise – and we had to do it twice!

On the map, it looked as though you could do a circular walk by taking a steep rocky path down from the Lookout to the Lake and following it round the water’s edge to the original starting point. However, when we got to the Lake it seemed that any previous path was long submerged. We paddled for a bit, but when it became wading we had to turn round. I got back up that steep rocky path PDQ and was glad that a) this was near the end of the holiday and I was much fitter than when we set out and b) we had a table booked for dinner which we would miss if we didn’t hurry. This was a huge incentive as you can imagine!

The next day, we hiked the Plain of the Six Glaciers and Lake Agnes trails. My main memories are that, despite my smile, I was very unhappy on the scree sections and (better) that there were two tea-houses on these trails. Unaccountably, we have no pictures of them, but I’ve checked the guidebook and my memory is correct. Scotland’s mountains need more tea-houses! 😉

Plain of the Six Glaciers trail

Unhappy on the scree?

Plain of the Six Glaciers trail

Lake Agnes trail

View down to Lake Louise

Lake Agnes trail

Lake Louise

On our final day, we ventured first to Moraine Lake:

Then we crossed the border into British Columbia. Many years before, we had a holiday in BC and the furthest east we ventured was Emerald Lake and Takakkaw Falls in Yoho National Park. So this time we ventured west to revisit them and our two holidays “met up”.

Emerald Lake

Hiking near Emerald Lake

Emerald Lake

Takakkaw Falls

Rockey Peak

Takakkaw Falls

The following day, we drove back to Calgary for our flight home. I’ve really enjoyed writing this series – I remembered the Rockies being beautiful but they are even better in retrospect. I want to go again! If you read earlier posts, you might remember that this was my 50th birthday trip in 2007. You don’t have to be a mathematical genius to work out that I have another big birthday coming up soon, so maybe I should celebrate in the same place? Especially as Canada also has a big birthday in 2017 (150th) and I’ve recently read that all National Parks will be free next year to celebrate. Watch this space….

In the meantime, our next Canadian trip will be to Toronto. Hints and tips from local bloggers welcome! And finally, this post is linked to Jo’s wonderful Monday Walks series. She has a lovely spring-time Algarve walk this week, which should cheer you up whatever your own weather is doing. Enjoy!

Lake District walks: Elterwater circle

June 15, 2015July 1, 2015Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter39 Comments

We had one completely dry day on our recent Lake District holiday and we used it to do a beautiful circular walk starting in Elterwater village. First, we walked alongside Elterwater itself, with views across it to the Langdale Pikes.

The route then took us through fields and woodlands via two beautiful waterfalls, Skelwith Force –

Skelwith Force

– and Colwith Force.

Colwith Force

Next to Colwith is this wishing tree, studded with small coins. Is this a peculiarly British practice? I know I’ve seen it before, but can’t remember if it was at home or abroad.

Continuing through more fields, our next discovery was the oasis that is High Park Farm. We were not expecting to come across a tea garden on our walk, but we were glad to enjoy a delicious lunch overlooking Little Langdale and the company of fellow hikers – and some beautiful Dutch Bantams. The farm is also a B&B and right on the Cumbria Way for anyone (not me!) considering a long-distance footpath.

Little Langdale valley

Dutch Bantams

High Park Farm

Tea garden

After lunch, the walk descended past the spoil heaps of the disused Little Langdale Quarry. A pair of tunnels allows you to access part of it – Cathedral Cavern.

Quarry path

Entrance to Cathedral Cavern

Cathedral Cavern

On the final part of the walk, we crossed the River Brathay by the 17th century pack-horse bridge – Slater Bridge – before climbing up the other side of Little Langdale from where we took a bridle path back down into Elterwater.

Slater Bridge

Little Langdale Tarn

The walk is 7.8 miles with about 1200 feet of ascent – the route is on the excellent WalkLakes site – and I’m linking it to Jo’s Monday Walks. Why not pop along there to see where everyone else has been walking this week?

New Lanark and the Falls of Clyde

March 24, 2015March 1, 2018Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter24 Comments

New Lanark was built in the 1780s by cotton mill owner David Dale to house his workers. His son-in-law, Robert Owen, became a managing partner of New Lanark in 1800 and expanded the business while also implementing a series of social and educational reforms designed to improve the quality of life of his workforce. Today, the village is owned by a trust – the mills have been turned into museums and a hotel, and many of the millworkers’ homes have been restored and reoccupied.

Our most recent visit was not to view the mills – we’ve done that several times. We wanted to see a tapestry that was on display, and then have a walk up to the Falls of Clyde. Tapestries are quite the thing at the moment – last year, I wrote about both the Great Tapestry of Scotland and the Scottish Diaspora Tapestry. Those two were similar in that they had a theme but each panel stood on its own. This one told the story of the Battle of Prestonpans in 1745 (when Bonnie Prince Charlie defeated the government army) so it was like a giant comic-strip. Here’s just a flavour:

Prestonpans Tapestry

Panel 37

Panel 94

Panel 96

Panel 97

Panel 102

I also loved the banners round the walls:

New Lanark banner

Then it was off for our walk. We’ve done this before too, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much water in the Falls – the immense power which was available to the mills is obvious. We followed the Clyde Walkway past Corra Linn….

Corra Linn

….as far as the even more spectacular Bonnington Linn.

Bonnington Linn

We then looped back on the woodland trail and had a last stroll round the village before starting the climb back up to the carpark….

Woodland trail

New Lanark

….via the Old Cemetery, reflecting on Robert Owen’s words as we went. Truly a man ahead of his time.

Robert Owen’s words

Old Cemetery

I’ve added this to Jo’s Monday Walk collection.

Scottish Snapshots: Moffat

February 25, 2014Anabel @ The Glasgow GallivanterLeave a comment

Scottish Snapshots is a series of short posts about places I visited in 2013 but didn’t write about at the time

Moffat is a lovely little town in Dumfries and Galloway. John and I visited for a weekend a couple of years ago; this time (May 2013) we were meeting up with our friends, Val and Kenn from Yorkshire. We made an excellent choice of accommodation: I can’t praise McAdam House Holiday Apartments more highly – I wanted to move in! Our only complaint was that we couldn’t make use of the roof terrace because of the weather, but I guess the owners can’t be held responsible for that.

Roof terrace in the rain

Living area

Dining area

Bedroom 3

Kitchen

Bedroom 2

Bedroom 1

Stairway lighting

There are some easy walks around Moffat itself, but it’s also handy for the Grey Mare’s Tail and St Mary’s Loch where there is a good pub, Tibbie Shiel’s, for a hearty lunch to fortify you. Have a giggle at their weather report!

Grey Mare’s Tail

Lamb at St Mary’s Loch

St Mary’s Loch

Weather report at Tibbie Shiel’s

On our previous visit, we also walked at the Devil’s Beef Tub and there are many other walks to try. Add to that a selection of good restaurants and we have every reason to go back.

Maine rains again

July 25, 2013January 7, 2014Anabel @ The Glasgow GallivanterLeave a comment

But not much. We woke to a beautiful day in Bethel, so set off for Grafton Notch again to do some of the hiking that we had deemed it too wet for the previous day. As we drove upwards, the clouds grew thicker and when we got out at the trailhead it was raining lightly. We had decided to climb 900 feet to Table Rock to start with – this hike has two choices, a steep route and a more moderate path, so you can make it a loop walk. We chose to go up the steep route (because I feel safer climbing than descending) which was described in the information leaflet we had as “boulder strewn”. It certainly was. What the leaflet didn’t mention was that you had to climb over many very large boulders and scramble between them. Rock climbing if you ask me – occasionally, I needed a helping hand to pull me up and, once, a firm shove from behind. I was particularly despondent when we met two young men coming down who told us that the route got more challenging ahead, and I almost decided to turn back. Fortunately we didn’t because they were wrong – we were over the worst and the views from the top were lovely, despite the low cloud. Here we are enjoying our triumph.

Going down the easier route was fine, but I didn’t feel like any more stiff climbs so we left the park (with the sun reappearing as we drove) and stopped at Step Falls, just outside it. We climbed (gently) as far as you could go without trespassing on private land and sat for a while enjoying the view.

Thus ended our stay in Bethel – just one last word about its restaurants though. For a very small town it has a wide selection and we ate our best meal of the holiday (so far) here in 22 Broad Street. Tomorrow, it’s on to the coast. The forecast is dry – until Friday. I wonder what there is to do in Bar Harbor in the rain?

In Maine it’s mainly raining…

July 23, 2013January 7, 2014Anabel @ The Glasgow GallivanterLeave a comment

At least over Bethel today. There’s not much to do indoors here, so off we went out into it – in the car. This was planned as a hiking section of the holiday, but the rain was so unrelenting we decided on a driving tour with lots of short stops. Coffee and lunch are always good! However, we did stretch our legs at a couple of points in Grafton Notch State Park. I have loads of pictures of pretty waterfalls from everywhere we’ve been so far, but haven’t posted them because they all look much the same. These ones are a little different, accessorised by zipped up fleece and umberella.

Our B&B host, Carol, had recommended this route as a good one for seeing moose. As we have been everywhere else, we were disappointed. Perhaps this creature is the only one we will meet!

We’ve struck it lucky with our B&B again – or, rather, my planning and research has been superb. Bethel Hill is a much more modern house -1970s – than the Victoriana we have slept in so far, and has been extensively remodelled by the current owners. We love it!

As I type, it is almost time to go in search of dinner, and the sun has come out. Tomorrow is another day – if the weather holds, we’ll go back to Grafton Notch and do some proper hiking.

There’s gold in them thar hills – Dahlonega

August 1, 2011September 17, 2012Anabel @ The Glasgow GallivanterLeave a comment

Well, contrary to expectations, we had a lovely day and reached the airport with no stress at all. We’ve said a sad goodbye to our trusty jeep which has got us about the place for three weeks:

Now we are in the lounge waiting for our flight and I’ve copied and pasted my diary into this blog. On our way down this morning, we stopped for a short hike (2 miles) at Desoto Falls:

We then had lunch in a lovely place called Dahlonega. It was the most successful gold mining town in Georgia in the 19th century, but is now set up for tourism – though in a much more tasteful way than Alpine Helen. All the old buildings round the main square have been turned into shops or restaurants – we ate on the balcony of the Bourbon Street Grill, a little piece of New Orleans in Georgia.

The old courthouse in the middle of the square has been turned into an interesting little museum about gold mining, which we enjoyed.

So now we have two flights to go and then we’ll be home. Time to start planning the next trip.

The Birks of Aberfeldy

Black Spout

Falls of Acharn

River Tay at Kenmore

Aberfeldy

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Peyto Lake and Bow Lake Lookout

Parker’s Ridge

Bears!

Sunwapta Falls

Athabasca Falls

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