Ward’s Island- Toronto’s Arctic Wonderland
Polar vortex or not, sometimes you just need to go exploring. My wife, Anastasia and I, along with our iPhones, took a trip in February to Ward’s Island (the best of the Toronto Islands), maybe our city’s most underrated destination. We visit the Island all through out the summer, but strangely this was our first time in the winter. We were rewarded immediately.
The Old Normal
Recently winters in Toronto have been on the warm side. Winter 2012/2013 seemingly had the first major snow that any 4 year old child had seen in the city. This year however has been a bit closer to what I remember as a kid. For those not in the area, we had a serious ice storm right before the December holidays, which was followed by sub zero temperatures and plenty of snow, for over 2 months now.
The Great Frozen Lakes
This year the Great Lakes nearly all froze over, reaching a rate not seen since the early 90s. However, and contradictory to what we saw out on the water, Lake Ontario has very remained rather unfrozen. While Lakes Superior, Huron and Erie have all frozen nearly 95% of their surface (and Michigan 80%) Lake Ontario has only hit 40%. The best guess to why this is has to do with the depth of Lake Ontario, which holds on to heat better than shallower bodies of water.
Isabel Teotonio of the Toronto Star has a great write up this frozen conundrum HERE.
Image information:
- Image 1: What it looked like to leave Toronto. We adventured with the idea of talking photos of the winter wonderland that is Ward’s Island. Turns out the snow was a bit too heavy for us. It did however give off the air of an early Arctic journey, or a voyage to an unknown island. Very spooky. Very awesome.
- Image 3: One of the coolest parts of our trip was seeing Lake Ontario in all her icy glory. In parts, the ice gives the dangerous impression that you could walk across it. In fact I overheard one of the sailors in conversation with a skier that he saw someone ski across the lake over the holidays. Here we are in the icy wake of an emergency response boat. This is one of my favourite captures from our adventure.
- Image 7: Taking the ferry to the Island is more like taking a jet to the Arctic- you lose all sense that you’re in a major metropolis, and instead feel like you’re lost in an icy wasteland. It’s a really remarkable feeling. The Island is so much more than just a summer getaway.
- Image 10: A view of Toronto through the snow. Even with many trips by the ferries from the City and the Island, the ice freezes quickly. In between the plates a thin film of ice forms that looks like plastic wrap across the surface.
More information
- Make sure to check out a few of the photos I took this summer here, Get outside with photography: Merging technology with nature.
- Anastasia, a real life proper photographer, took some stellar shots. Make sure to give them a look HERE!
Written by @kironcmukherjee. Last update: March 1st, 2014.
26 Notes/ Hide
- hyylae reblogged this from romkids
- hyylae liked this
- nobleknits2 reblogged this from romkids
- nobleknits2 said: just heard on the radio yesterday about it being 72 straight days that the icebreaker’s had to go out this year. Thanks for the photographic support to make that idea visual for me. So cool (no pun intended)
- ahmudhisham reblogged this from romkids
- ktrz86 reblogged this from romkids
- ktrz86 liked this
- pablosolaphoto liked this
- ran-angeldust liked this
- altitudeviolations liked this
- tessawegert liked this
- spocksbeard liked this
- tiigowtwd liked this
- ohitsjoanne reblogged this from romkids and added:
Beaaaautiful photos of Toronto &lake Ontario.
- thebrainscoop said: Gorgeous photographs, Kiron!
- thebrainscoop liked this
- ineskata reblogged this from romkids
- need-want-love liked this
- ohenieledam reblogged this from romkids
- ohenieledam liked this
- moonbeam-seas reblogged this from romkids
- sleepyface reblogged this from romkids
- romkids posted this