City Daily Photo Theme Day: Best Of The Year

 My last set of posts for my favourite shots of the year date to the fall, and one day. They're from the Gatineau Hills, much of which is a federal park called Gatineau Park. On the Quebec side of the Ottawa River, the park is mostly beyond the limits of Gatineau itself, in the municipality Les Collines-des-l'Outaouais. A shuttle bus takes people from Ottawa and Gatineau up into the hills, and I wanted to see the fall colours.

My first stop that day was a place called Pink Lake. This unusual lake is a meromictic lake, an unusual kind of lake where the layers do not mix.

It's a beautiful lake, and especially so in the fall. A hiking trail goes around the entire lake, though this year I had to turn back, as I was dealing with an injured ankle.

My next destination that day was the Champlain Lookout on the Eardsley Escarpment, where the Hills drop sharply towards the Valley floor. The river itself is seen here in the distance, and the views from this spot are the best in the park.

My last destination that day was the Mackenzie King Estate. This was the home for fifty years of one of our best prime ministers. William Lyon Mackenzie King turned this place into a weekend and summer retreat from the city, crafting his ideas and establishing residences on his land. Upon his death, he willed the property to the country.

One of the residences he called Kingswood, and consists of a couple of cottages and a carriage house. This was the first established residence for Mackenzie King, and this is the main cottage.

Downslope from Kingswood is Kingsmere Lake. The lake's name preceded his presence here, but surely influenced him in buying land here.

The second residence, established as his political star was rising into leading the country, is a proper home. Moorside is a beauty.

Here is the places where his ideas of gardens and follies were fully realized.

The Abbey Ruins is one of those follies on the site- recycled from buildings being torn down and other sources, and made to look like ancient ruins. It speaks to the sentimental streak in Mackenzie King. This particular view of a portion of it is inevitably my favourite perspective of the Abbey.