Vermont

We started today in Winooski (part of Burlington), Vermont (just across from New York) and ended in Littleton, New Hampshire (just across from Vermont). So today was basically all Vermont — which is beautiful. It was rainy this morning, so we headed out late, but it cleared up after noon.

We went to Camels Hump State Park to try to climb Camels Hump mountain, but the trail to the summit was closed until memorial day, so it could dry out.


So we walked the much shorter "view" trail, instead. This picture shows the mountain, but the summit is shrouded in cloud: even though the sun had peeked out, there were clouds hanging around the mountain the whole time we were there.


We did, however, find this toad. He was very friendly and consented to pose for pictures...

... after I moved him into the sun.


Nothing particularly Vermont-ish, but they were fun to take.


And look at all that nice, soft bokeh!

After the hike, we went through Stowe and stopped off at the Ben & Jerry's factory on the way for their tour.


We also found this covered bridge (Tracy has a thing for covered bridges). It is the last still-operational covered railroad bridge in the country. The sign says so.


However, the sign is dated 1968. It's not actually operational anymore.

Chittenango

On our way from Syracuse (where we stayed last night) to Vermont, we took a detour and stopped at Chittenango Falls. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. I really like taking pictures of waterfalls; I'm addicted to slowing them down with my neutral density filter. It's almost as bad as my addiction to lots of really soft bokeh.


This was shot from the observation point halfway down the wall of the gorge.


Off to the side, before turning to cross the stream on the footbridge they'd set up, there was this smaller cascade. In a way, I like it even better than the main falls.


Here is the main falls, seen from the footbridge. I almost didn't take this picture: when I got to the bridge, there was a lot of fine spray blowing down from the falls. But after a couple of minutes, the wind shifted and I figured I could get the picture before my filter got too wet. Glad I stayed!

Niagara

Our trip to Niagara resulted in some impressive photos, albeit of a very different sort than people typically associate with the falls. There was heavy mist in the gorge from both the American Falls (pictured above) and Horseshoe Falls (the source of most of the mist) that never allowed a very clear view of the falls. The sky was generally leaden, with only a couple of breaks later in the afternoon.

I tried to play with the mist, rather than fight it, and make it as much of a subject of the photos as the falls.


The mist made for some fairly dramatic (if soft) pictures. Here, the casinos and hotels on the Canadian side of the falls appear to be floating in the clouds.


A Ferris wheel emerges from the mist.


The source of the mist was Horseshoe Falls. In this picture, you can see the mist gathering at the left of the frame. It travelled down the gorge in patches, periodically obscuring and revealing the Canadian side. At the right of the frame, you can see the previous patch of mist moving out.


The American Falls are even more dramatic seen from the East, looking back to Horseshoe Falls.


Unfortunately, the mist churned up by Horseshoe Falls was so thick and constant that we were never able to really see them. This is the best view we had of them. Even later on, when the sky started to lighten and the sun peaked out, the mist was still as thick.


Here's a "detail" of Horseshoe Falls.

P.S. The sensor on my 5D appears to be really dirty.... I forgot to touch up these photos before posting them.