A Photo Tour of Smalls Falls in Maine

Since Laura has been to Smalls Falls only once, and since we lost most of our light before we arrived during that visit, we thought that a final stop at the falls was in order. Especially since the leaves are almost at their full fall brilliance. Yesterday was a phenomenal day for leaf peeping in Maine.

The nice thing about visiting this destination on a Thursday in October is that there is virtually nobody there. I remember stopping by with Steve last July – we could hardly find a parking spot for the bikes. This time, we drove right up to the front, next to the stairs that led down to the water. For most of our visit, we were virtually alone. It wasn’t until we were leaving that a group of, what seemed like, photography enthusiasts began making their way down the hill to the water. Tripods everywhere. What a sight.

I think the primary reason for our visit was to capture the colors. Like I mentioned above, they’re almost at their peak and we wanted to see all the sunshine we experienced yesterday bounce off of and shine through what we could. We had good luck for about an hour and then the sun began setting behind the ridge, shading the main falls. We’re losing light fast these days. That’s fine with me because I get to stay inside and write without any distraction from the outdoors attempting to pull me from my seat.

I suppose I’ll begin with the quintessential shot of the falls. This is the one virtually every single person who visits takes. When you cross the wooden pathway, it’s to your right.

I actually wandered off the path a bit to stand on a rock in the water to take a few shots. My location was fairly close to the action. The results I got were blurry around the edges due to the wide angle nature of my lens. Because of this, this post consists of mostly Laura’s photography. She consistently embarrasses me with her skills.

While I was hanging out on that rock, I took a bunch of shots of the water. Of course, these always look better in person, but I think I brought its essence out with some minor editing in Camera Raw.

When you see this next picture, you’ll understand why we went out yesterday. This year’s lighting can’t be beat.

Of course, some leaves are still green. I’d say we’ve got the rest of the month to enjoy the colors. It seems like the change is a bit late this year. Right now, we’re at where we were two weeks ago last year.

When I first visited the falls with Steve, we walked up along the fence and admired the primary clusters of pools. We didn’t hike straight back from the entryway to see that there was another river that runs parallel to Smalls Falls. In my opinion, the one in the back is more fun. It’s sort of like a small canyon. It’s got pretty high walls and lots of features.

I’ll tell you, the hiking in that area is fun. The ground is soft from all the white pine needles and there’s not much underbrush. If you were Laura, you could hang out back there all day taking pictures. And if it were up to her, that’s what we would have done.

I’ve got one last photo for you. Near the other river, whatever it’s called, there are tons of hemlock trees. And with these trees come crazy root systems that show through the soil. We took many pictures, but I think this one captures what I’m trying to say the best.