Just the names of these two places should make you want to go there, right?
We were back from our eventful trip to Pukaskwa National Park and had a few days to rest and catch up. Since we still feel a bit like tourists in our new town, we are always on the lookout for new places to explore. These two places caught my eye when I explored maps of the area.
Hungry Hollow
About ten thousand years ago, an earthquake caused a section of the bedrock to drop almost 80 metres, creating a gorge where today’s Ausable River flows towards Lake Huron, through the Wyoming Moraine gravel deposits at Hungry Hollow. This revealed rich fossil beds and that’s where we were headed.
It sounds as if the name Hungry Hollow was inspired by this catastrophic event, but local lore begs to differ. This community sprung around a mill in the 1800s, and then came a tavern. The local men ended up in the local tavern as soon as they were paid and their families went hungry. Hmm, sounds sketchy, let’s go with the first option.
We were given vague directions to where we can go looking for fossils along the Ausable River north and south of the bridge.
On the south side there’s a plaque that is barely readable.
Luckily, this photo was taken when it was not yet marked by time and the elements.
We drove along the south side of the river but couldn’t find the pit so we tried the north side.
We drove along the river
until we came to the end of the road.
A short trail led towards an open pit filled with water. It used to be a quarry and fossils can be found along the walls. Today, however, wasn’t a good day to do any climbing along these muddy-slidy walls.
We just wandered along the dirt road and pretty soon realized that we are walking on fossils.
All we needed to do is bend down and look a little closer.
We did find what looks like a brachiopod minus its wings!
Maybe next time we’ll come here with someone who knows what they’re doing.
Mystery Falls
We continued north towards Mystery Falls along pretty hilly terrain.
It was a beautiful crisp fall day, perfect for a walk in the woods, even though most leaves were on the ground by now.
We stopped a the small parking lot and after a false start found the trail and the trail map.
The woods were beautiful,
and the light filtered through the remaining leaves
creating soft shadows
The short trail to the falls (1.5 km in and out), but the hilly terrain made us work hard for the pleasure of viewing the waterfall.
A preserved fossilized show and tell and a couple of benches marked the location of the falls.
At first we thought that the there were supposed to be trilobites in the display case, but these are actually fossilized trails of trilobites.
How cool in that!
We took the wooden stairs down to the river and the, mostly, waterless waterfall. It was pretty even without water.
It’s probably more impressive in the spring with more water cascading from the crescent shaped rock,
but it was still pretty cool.
We went back the same way we came, only this time the steep hills were steep declines and the declines were steep hills,
so it looked a bit different.
Time to go back and get ready for our trip back to the Upper Peninsula. Remember that campground we weren’t able to get to? Well, stay tuned and maybe we’ll take you there.
Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrated.
Another adventure well met 🙂
Indeed!
Another one of those wonderful little adventures.
It was! I love finding interesting places nearby!
The fossilized trails are pretty cool. It is a beautiful area. The rock formation of the falls is very interesting.
They really are cool! We loved finding out about them!
I am glad to see you back out and about exploring.
So are we!
Finding fossils during an outing looks like such a wonderful highlight. It really is amazing how thousands of years of evolution impacts our present day and how we often take it for granted!
Wishing you all a lovely weekend. I’m getting over two days of sickness, blah, but glad for the sunshine today!
Oh, no! I hope you get better soon!
Another nice walk…and fossils to boot.
What more would we need?
What an absolutely beautiful and fascinating walk! I can’t believe the TRAILS of trilobytes were fossilised – and how on earth do they recognise them?!
It’s really unbelievable that these were discovered and recognized for what they are, but I guess a trained eye can tell the difference!
I had no idea there were still places where you could just look down and see fossils! Very cool.
I know! I think that most places are protected!
What a great post. I love your photos. The woods were gorgeous. I loved the photo of the lane leading to the falls – such a nice waterfall.
Thanks you! It was a beautiful walk in the woods!
Fossilized trails of trilobites! Now that’s pretty super cool!
We thought so too!
Fascinating. Apart from the geology info I loved the last photo of the sun through the tall thin trees.
Thank you! I love this photo too even though my new phone seems to have a crappy camera (I bought it because I thought it would be a better camera). It messes up with the colours and exposure and functions extremely poorly in low light. Some pictures, however, turned out okay.
I am not yet confidant in my phone camera and I use my Nikon B700 which is now out of date.
I loved the photos that my old phone took, but the battery doesn’t hold anymore. I am taking a lot less photos with my SLR camera, but may need to go back until I get a normal phone again.
So cool you found fossils there! Another lovely post from nature. A wonderful (belated) Thanksgiving from the US!
Thank you!
A lovely adventure Maggie. Love the unusual shape of that waterfall. It would be something to see in the spring too.
Yes, the shape of the waterfall begs for more water, doesn’t it?
Such an amazing fossilized trail.. none here .Anita
It is amazing.There are lots of fossils in NS, but I think that you need a special permit to collect them.
I like all your posts, but this one appeals to me even more than most. Sorry I couldn’t leave a “Like,” but I still can’t get a “Like” to ‘take.’
I’m glad you like it even though you can’t like it 🙂
I continue to be impressed at your sense of adventure, especially when directions aren’t always clear! How cool to find a random fossil along the dirt road. The hike to Mystery Falls looks lovely.
I am at my best when directions are not clear 🙂
I love that unique little waterfall! Nice to see them appear in the most random ways!
Yeah, it’s a bit different than other waterfalls, and still pretty despite the lack of water.
Lovely photos. It is always neat to explore for rocks and fossils like that. The waterfall area is very nice, and I agree it would be more impressive when the water was flowing a bit more…but still worth a visit regardless!
Thank you! We will definitely try and go back in the spring!
Love the autumn colours, what a lovely little waterfall as well 🙂
Thank you for coming along!
Wow beautiful path👀💕✨
It was!
How unusual that the fossils are so plentiful. It should be renamed Fossil Hollow!
Haha, good idea!