Dave’s Photo Blog

I love all the seasons, even winter, but the fall holds a very special place in my heart. Especially here, in New England. And so I found a way to take a few days off so I could slip away, deeper into New England and enjoy the fall colors. I chose Vermont, as I usually do. This plucky, rural state is perfect for fall camping, photography, hiking, fishing and a host of other activities I didn’t get to. But the camping, hiking and photography proved to be all that I had hoped. I’ve camped all over the state of Vermont over the years, but there are still a few places I haven’t been. Now I can cross Jamaica off that list, although it is one of those places I’d come back to again in a heartbeat. It’s a classic, rural Vermont town with a tiny town center mostly based on the local general store. But it’s surrounded by big country.

Thanks to the hiking trails in the area, I can show you what Jamaica looks like from above. There it is in the photo below. Just a few buildings overwhelmed by the peak fall colors.

The Jamaica State Park Campground is the perfect spot to see the local area. It’s located in the Jamaica State Forest and the interesting trails all depart right from the campground. Vermont State Campgrounds are excellent and Jamaica is no exception. Courteous staff, well kept grounds, hot showers and plenty of privacy marked my stay there. There would be a lot more people around if it were the middle of the summer, but after Labor Day the campgrounds tend to empty out as people get their kids back in school and get into the fall routine. I shared one wing of the campground with three or four other campers, depending on the night.

I was not the only person taking photographs of the foliage before I’d even left the campground for a hike. It is gorgeous there and the leaves were at peak color. The trees in this area are mostly yellow and green – not so many oranges and reds, but still spectacular, especially with the late-day sun raking through the foliage.

The campground is situated next to several interesting hiking trails that allow exploring and viewing Little Ball Mountain, Ball Mountain, Ball Mountain Dam and lake and Hamilton Falls. I didn’t make it to the Dam or lake, but I did make it up Little Ball Mountain. The trailhead for this hike was right next to my campsite. So I just packed up and walked up into the mountains. The Overlook trail, aptly named as you will see below, followed an old roadbed up the side of the mountain. After some gently uphill walking, the loop trail splits off and takes on right up the side of the mountain.

The trail was steep, but not too adventurous. This is a view of a typical section. In this photo, the camera is pointed almost directly level to the ground. As you can see, the trail has quite an uphill pitch to it. But it’s manageable – each steps is a step up, but it’s not like you have to actually climb up looking for handholds or anything like that. Still, with a heavy backpack and a tripod with camera over my shoulder, I did work up a bit of a sweat.

The payoff for this hike is a spectacular view of the surrounding area. The triptych below shows three of the better views. The views come at several different overlooks at the summit of Little Ball Mountain. Unfortunately, I saw some other hikers that assumed they’d gotten to the top after the first overlook that provides sweeping views of the valley between the Ball mountains and the town of Jamaica. These hikers took photos, sat down, rested up and took in the views, then made their way back down the mountain. But if you continue to follow the loop trail, there were several other vistas, no less spectacular than the first and these hikers, unfortunately, missed those views.

The next hike brought me to one of the more spectacular waterfalls in Vermont – Hamilton Falls. These falls are formed as the river cascades 125 feet down through a series of rock potholes. I didn’t make the climb to the top of the falls, which I regret. I guess I’ll just have to come back and shoot that another time. But the falls were beautiful at the bottom, and I took some time to photograph them.

I love running water, especially as a subject for photographs. If you look around on the Internet, the suggestion is that you try to photograph these falls on a cloudy day. The reason is that when the sun is shining directly on the falls, it creates to wide a range of brightness for most cameras. The shot above has the sun in it, but it was a little tricky to get the exposure just right. So for many of the photographs, I zoomed into areas of the falls not in direct sunlight. The photo below is an example of this, and of the magic of flowing water. You can clearly see how the water, bouncing off the rocks in the waterfall, is cutting through the surrounding rock. It’s a view into the geologic time scale, enabled by a longish exposure. In order to show the water as a smooth flow, I had to keep the shutter open for a decent fraction of a second. Otherwise the water doesn’t form the kind of shape it does below. But with a little extra time in the exposure, the shape of the water and surrounding rock pops out.

The trail to Hamilton Falls meanders around the West River in an old railroad bed. Once you depart the West River Trail, the hike to the Falls proceeds uphill. But the River Trail itself is flat as rail trails will be. And really pretty. The trees here are a mix of deciduous and coniferous varieties. That makes the green to yellow contrast really striking in the fall as you can see.

The West River is beautiful here. A classic, crisp, clear and fast-running New England river. If only I had a 5-weight rod, some waders and a fly, I’d have been in fishing heaven. This is also a classic trout stream. But it’s hard to serve two masters on a short trip like this, so I concentrated on taking pictures. This is a bend in the West River at the entrance to the campground.

There is a lot to see on the West River here. There is the Salmon Hole, right at the entrance to the campground. The Salmon Hole was the location of, “The Salmon Hole Massacre.” Back in 1748, French and Indian fighters ambushed a group of British soldiers resting at this stretch of the river. Further upstream is a section called the Dumplings. There are a series of large boulders – glacial erratics – sitting along this stretch of the river. There’s even a viewing platform next to the trail that overlooks the river. That’s only partially for the boulders, though. It’s also because this stretch of river attracts white water boaters who like to practice techniques shooting through the water around the dumplings.

This final photograph was taken a dusk, although it may not be obvious looking at it. The problem with a photo like this is the same as the waterfall scenario – the sun makes it hard. So I waited until the sun was almost down. That allows the camera to pick up detail both in the bright parts of the sky as well as in the deep darkness of the river water. You can tell this is a long exposure by looking at the water, which is soft and flowing. I was luck that it was a still evening – not much wind. Otherwise the trees would have been all blurry from the wind.

It was peak foliage season in Jamaica when I was there. Now it’s past peak and turning into the hard part of Fall. But I will always have the wonderful memories of this special corner of Vermont to draw upon when I contemplate the wonder of the seasons.