Welland Canal Wetlands - Escarpment - Bruce Trail - Explore Lock 21 ? - 3rd Welland Canal - Pathway Directions

I know lot's of people go to visit the Blue Ghost Tunnel by Gate 12 on Glendale Ave.  I've found another interesting place to roam, with pathways, trails and cool things to see.  I was orignally looking for another route to the East End of the blue ghost tunnel.  For three years I've roamed around the land taking pictures and thought it would be cool to share them with all of you.  The photos were taken in August 14, 2009, I'm posting them in Feb 20, 2010.

Across from Lock 7 I think.

you can see the fourth welland canal on your left.

this is the road that you walk down.

on the left is a pump house I think it is #6.

on the right is a pathway going up to a fence, that is the back of the OLD Lakeview Cemetery.

head straight down the path. On your left will be old locks from the 3rd Welland Ship Canal.  Great for hiking when it's dry.  It's very muddy when raining or wet, too slippery and steep unless you have good shoes.

on the right is the fence, if you go up this hill you will find the Old Lakeview Cemetery where in 1923 graves were moved here from the Old German Church and St Peter's Anglican cemetery from 1802.  Back then 5 acres of land was donated to the church from Jacob Ball in 1802.  They stopped burying people in 1886.  When the St Lawrence Seaway purchased the land to make the welland canal, some of the graves were supposedly moved to this cemetery.  It's pretty cool because they moved the gravestones there.  You can see back then that whole families were buried in groups of  three or four.  Kind of sad, but back then sickness often claimed a whole family at once.

this is a picture of the roadway on your left, this goes up to a pump house ( i think that's what it is) and also you will see some sort of lock there and the path connects to the other in a circle.  It's quite muddy here and you will see how the water goes through.  I believe they used this for the third welland canal and are still using it today for the fourth one.

see the path on the right branches towards the lakeview cemetery and also there is a pathway going into the forest and lands up on the escarpment.  Follow it to the telephone lines and you will connect with the Bruce Trail. Look for blue markings on the trees there.


If you go straight this will take you towards the locks of the 3rd Welland Ship Canal.

Here is a closeup of the pathway veering off to the right

Up here is a pathway that connects to the escarpment and the bruce trail.  Notice the vegetation there.

I couldn't believe that the leaves were changing colors in August?  Pretty to look at though.

There were gouges in the earth made from the glaciers 11,000 years ago...

I measured them, each was 3 feet wide and 3 feet deep the same size as the boulder I found.  I thought it was caused from five meteors hitting the earth at the same time.  I'm not exactly very scientific.  I was glad to email the science department with my photos and they explained what it really was.

there is a hole crater here, it's 3 feet deep and 3 feet wide.  I used a measuring tape.  Again my theory was a meteor hit the earth here and made this hole.  I still can't figure out why it's the exact same size as my boulder?
Pretty nifty if you think about it.  Nature has a way of telling a story but only those who study the earths origins can decipher it's code.


I love nature and science, and taking photos of it.  This is my first time sharing it like this.  Hope you like my story of my little discoveries and adventures.  At times I'll write what I think it is and then later if I find out it's something different I post an update.

Here's the top of the escarpment in this area.  You follow this trail and it leads to part of the Bruce Trail.  I love the fluffy white clouds and you can get a nice view of the City of St Catharines from up here.  You can see the canal all the way to the Skyway Bridge too!

Out in these fields we found what looked like foundation stones and one of the trails leads to a well.  I wonder if there are any hidden caves here?  I know there's some along the escarpment in Niagara on the Lake by Queenston Heights.  We didn't search there yet.  I plan to in the summer and take photos of that exploration trip.


It's so peaceful here, the only sounds you hear are nature.  Birds chirping and singing.  It's a great place to sit and meditate or just breathe in some nice fresh country air.

Lots of people use three and four wheelers to come roam these trails.  It can be quite noisy on the weekends and it smells like gas when they are around.

See the many gullies that were made by nature, now dirt pathways are made by recreational vehicles.

there are 5 gullies like these all the same size the ridges within them are 3 feet wide and 3 feet deep.  Strange.

I wonder what makes this stone all these funny colors?

Oh look a little snake!  Yes he made me squeal!

We went back down to the main trail.  Here on the left is a small trail that leads to the locks.


If you go straight ahead there are more locks, some are submerged under water most of the time.  In the winter you can see them.  I have photos of winter time too and I will post them soon!