Overlook by the Falls

At the foot of the falls

What a great little place to go! You would never know it was here unless you got out of your car. I used to go to a restaurant in Tinton Falls named The Grist Mill and remembered that you could sit and watch a waterfall from certain tables. The restaurant has long since closed and re-opened under a number of different names and cuisines but the waterfall is still there. I used the falls to illustrate my latest PhotoByJoe blog post on “Creative Use of Shutter Speed”. The park is owned by Tinton Falls and the parking lot is located on Rt 537 just west of Sycamore Avenue.

There is a small, wooden platform overlooking the falls where you can sit but it’s much more fun to walk down to the water and explore. A word of caution before I get too far – it is very muddy so wear something that is waterproof and you don’t mind getting dirty. You can avoid much of the mud but there are places that are covered with leaves and will eat your shoe if you aren’t careful. It is tempting to walk over to the falls and just sit and relax which is exactly what I did the first time I visited but you are cheating yourself if you don’t explore. I walked down stream a bit and came to a natural dam where I took the shot to the right.

Part of the dam

The stream meanders a bit and splits off – one part continuing north and a smaller part turning west. I decided to take a westerly route and out of nowhere saw a great blue heron fly off – there is a small lake (or pond, you decide) in the middle of the woods. Of course, by the time I got the camera to my eye the heron was long gone. Now that I know the lake is ther, maybe I can sneak up on it the next time.

This is a nice, little park and it doesn’t seem to get a lot of traffic so it is a nice little getaway. I’m going to keep going back and see how far back the woods go and I am determined to catch that heron. I can even see myself having lunch at the foot of the falls when the weather gets warmer. I can’t think of a better place for it.

All images were shot with a Canon Rebel T3i and Canon 18mm-135mm f/4.5-5.6 lens.
The Falls: 1/400th @ f/5.6 ISO 100 – focal length: 24mm
Part of the dam: .8 sec @ f/36 ISO 100 – focal length: 72mm

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