Well, not much of a secret place cause many people go there...
Mont St-Hilaire, on the South Shore of Montreal.
There is one of the best kept forest in the world, with McGill University taking care of its preservation.
There is a lake (can't swim, can't fish), and a natural spring where I fill up a bottle to bring this pure water at home everytime I go hiking.
I have observed deers, birds of all kinds from vultures to woodpeckers and from owls to scarlet tanagers, frogs, little snakes, bees and wasps, raccoons etc.
This place is just wonderful.
When I go with the kids, we have re-named many of the paths according to the feeling they give us...
There's Shrek's Marsh, the Elves' Enchanted Forest, The Old Trees' Nightmare etc...
Last time we went there, on Wednesday after apple picking, my daughter attracted a little bird (mésange à tête noire) on her hand to feed it!
Ofc I always bring my camera!
The sun was getting quite low... this explains the sunset like colors on most pics
Here are my latest pictures I took in my own Magic Kingdom
There is a very long wooden passerelle going across a wet area (the one we renamed Shrek's Marsh) so people don't step on the fragile plants and young trees:
This is the Lake. In the Fall season, Canada geese unite here before flying down South.
Unlike common belief, this is not an ancient volcano, but a depression left by ancient glacier.
The lake is all natural.
There is an old house that is mainly used for conferences and reunions for the University higher dirigeants (I think)..
No one lives there 24/7 and it is not accessible to the public.
Path going down, this is what most paths look like, until you get to the steep parts where rocks are more part of the trail.
I was surprised that most trees had a yellow color instead of the usual red or orange leaves we get in this time of year.
An older woman was explaining to me that it depends on the frost we get.
So far we didn't have any real frost, so the leaves don't get that bright red color
Some leaves still get nice colors
This is the bird my daughter 'adopted'
A lost ray of the sun on a pair of leaves...
And finally, a 'sunset' through the forest:
Needless to say it was even more beautiful in real life....
This post was edited by MotherOfTwo on Oct 17 2010 06:42am