Nova Scotia Waterfalls









A pocket guide to over a hundred fine waterfalls in Nova Scotia. The sites have 2019 photographs and walking descriptions. They are also mapped in a Satellite view which is zoomable, shows location in real time on request, and has the option of driving directions through Google Maps.

There are hundreds, likely thousands of waterfalls in Nova Scotia. They tend to be grouped in certain hilly areas such as east of Parrsboro, the Rawdon Hills, South Mountain in the Valley, the Rawdon Hills, near Stewiacke and in central and western Cape Breton.

The waterfalls in this guide have been carefully selected and omit boring sites, those with Private Property issues and several that are just too difficult to reach. Those included are quite dramatic and often relatively unknown.

With a few exceptions, they are easy enough to access and less than a two kilometer walk and under five kilometers drive along gravel roads. Some lovely ones are within ten minutes walk from paved roads.

There are pleny of sites to occupy the avid explorer for several seasons. One's view of Nova Scotia will never be the same after seeing these amazingly beautiful sites.


USING THE WATERFALL APP

The app has two main pages, the Map page and the Site Page. There are also minor pages, The Waterfalls page listing all the waterfalls, and this text page for instructions on using the app, and warnings.


MAP PAGE
The Map page has circles marking the location of the 130 waterfalls included in the guide. The orange circles mark the finest waterfalls, the yellow circles the other waterfalls which have been photographed already, and the blue dots are waterfalls mentioned on the internet that have not been documented yet. (Later updates to the app will have fewer blue circles and more yellow circles.) Tapping the circles should cause the name of that waterfall to be displayed in red.

The Map page opens centered over the beutiful Harrington River waterfall, ten kilometers east of Parrsboro. The map can be zoomed in or out and slid to show other areras of the province.

The Map page has five buttons. The first one with the Hiker icon opens the Site page for the waterfall closest to the center of the map. To study any chosen waterfall, slide the map so that one falls is near the cross marking the center, then tap the Hiker icon.

The second Car icon toggles between the Satellite View and the simpler Streets view. Sometimes the latter makes it easier to see the roads.

The third Waterfall icon leads to the Waterfalls page with all the waterfalls listed by name.

The fourth Question Mark icon leads back to this Instruction page.

The fifth GPS Tower icon centers the map to your current lication. This will only work if 1) Location is turned on in your phone, 2) if a GPS location signal has been established and 3) if you are within range of cellular data. This centering to your location happens just when you tap the icon and will have to be repeated if your location changes.



SITE PAGE

The Site page contains a photo and a description for each of the waterfalls which have been documented. The description can be scrolled down to read.

There are four buttons along the bottom of the Site page. The Near To button brings up the waterfall closest to the one you are reading about. If you keep tapping it, successive waterfalls will be displayed, each the closest to the one proceeding it. If they have been shown already, they do not re-appear.

The Drive To buttom will show you driving directions to the waterfall being displayed. If Location is turned on, it will show the directions from your current location. If Location isturned of, directions from Halifax will be shown. The only problem is that Google Maps will give road directions to the closest point on a road but this may not be where the trail to the waterfall begins. Indeed in some cases, it may be to the wrong road entirely, on the opposite side of the waterfall In one case, at Indian Falls on the LaHave River, the GPS navigation led down a bumpy and long cul-de-sac west of the falls from which there was no access to the river. So use common sense in interpreting the map with regards to the given walking directions.

The Zoom To button will open the Map page centered to the waterfall you are reading about.

The On Web button will open a web description, if available, of the waterfall selected. If that waterfall has not been photographed and documented for the app already, thiese links may be all you need to find the site. But beware erroneous web descriptions and(usually) rely on the app route if available if there is a discrepency.



WATERFALLS PAGE
This page can be used to read the site description of any waterfall selected without finding it on athe Map page first.

There are various drop-down menus. The first has all the waterfalls in alphabetical order. The second list the best ones. The rest sort waterfalls by area, such as near Parrsboro. After you choose a waterfall. tap the button on the right side to open that description.

POTENTIAL HAZARDS
GETTING LOST - reaching some of the aterfalls require a limited amount of cutting through forested sections that lack any clearly defined trails. Often there is flagging tape marking the route, but not always, and it is often easy to lose sight of it. Banshee Falls at Bass River West has this problem, also Harrington Falls and several other sites. Never enter the woods without a compass and a lighter, and preferably a GPS navigation device other than your phone.

FALLING OFF CLIFFS - many of the falls are located at the base of deep and steep ravines. Reaching the bottom can be precarious. If you approach a waterfall from upstream, you will arrive at a slippery cliff every time. Bypassing the cliff to reach the bottom of the waterfall can be dangerous.

FALLING ON SLIPPERY WET ROCKS - wading across streams in search of an easier route or heading straight up a streambed creates substantial risks of falling on very slippery rocks. Good tread on footwear you don't mind getting wet is a help and a walking staff adds stability. Corney Brook Devil Falls is one example of a route that is almost impossible to traverse without a staff. If you didn't bring one along, just find a suitable length of straight and light tree branch about five feet long.

INSECTS - swarming insects can make any hike miserable and DEET-based insect repellant is a must. More worrisome are deer ticks which can spread Lyme disease. In the early summer, these dangerous pests are common in the Rawdon area in early summer, particularly in overgrown fields. Wear long-sleeved shirts, pants tucked into your socks, light colored clothing, spray on DEET and check after you get home to make sure none of these disgusting insects have attached themselves to your skin.

COYOTES AND BEARS - reaching the remote location of some sites such as James River Falls, MacCallum Gulch, Moose River East Upper Falls, Harrington Falls or Corney Brook Devil Falls places one in prime bear and coyote country. The coyotes in Cape Breton are sometimes crossed with wolves and potentially aggressive. A hiker was killed by coyote on the Skyline Trail in Cape Breton Highlands Park not so many years ago. And bears, even black bears are best to avoid. Carry a staff and maybe bear spray when traversing remote areas. And common sense suggests not carrying strawberries in bear country, as they may decide to share your picnic.

DROWNING - this is a long shot but wading across streams can result in a stumble and immersion in deeper water than expected. If you can't swim, be careful. At Drysdale Falls, a site purposely omitted from this guide because of safety concerns and No Trespassing signs, two visitors have died. One banged their head jumping into the water from the adjacent bluff, the other drowned in the pool below this falls.



LIMITATIONS OF THE APP WITHOUT DATA
In remote areas, especially in ravines, you will have no access to wireless data. Even your phone may not work for any calls without any signal. Hence, the study of the site directions and use of Google Maps should be done before you head out. But if Google Maps is open to the waterfall area, even after you lose the signal you can still view the map although it cannot be zoomed or panned.

It is now possible to download a copy of a map which can be used offline in Google Maps. THese copies show only the streets and not the satellite view but offer the advantage that your location can be seen in the context of a surrounding map. This is significant because the phone's GPS location will usually still work even after the internet signal is lost, as frequently occurs in remote locations.

Downloading an offline map should probably be done for almost every location because of the safety benefits, Instructions for downloading an offline map can be found here:

https://support.google.com/maps/answer/6291838?co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&hl=en






FUNDY MINERAL COLLECTING AND OTHER APPS