Discovering The St. Lawrence Seaway, Part 1

I'd taken a driving tour through the town of Massena, New York and intended to make my next destination the St. Lawrence Seaway. Massena sits right on the Seaway and bills itself as the "Gateway To America's Fourth Coast," but doesn't seem to have any public access to that coast. There's a park and nature preserve just east of the city, but I'd checked that out before and found it - well, mostly confusing. So this time I was going to a State Campground to the west of Massena. I drove toward the town of Waddington on Route 37, passing many nice country homes:

There were both flat hay fields and forests along the way:

The houses, some new and some old, tended to be more upscale than those I'd seen in Massena. This, apparently, was where the Massena folks with money lived:

Along the way I passed this solitary silo, no longer attached to a functioning farm but creatively re-purposed for use as a billboard:

When I arrived at Coles Creek State Park, I pulled into the public campground and ignored the "Park Closed" signs as I headed for the shore of the St. Lawrence Seaway. I stopped at the park office to obtain permission but no one was there. So I just drove in to see what I could see:

The St. Lawrence Seaway was huge and impressive, and I could see why they like to call this "America's Fourth Coast." It reminded me of the shores of Lake Erie, which I knew from my childhood:

I saw no passing ships of any kind. The wind was fierce and the skies were gray, seeming much like a November day on Cape Cod:

Flocks of birds bobbed atop the water, but I couldn't see what kind of birds they were:

The shoreline is extremely convoluted, perhaps even labyrinthine, and I could easily imagine why the Thousand Islands region would be such a tourist attraction:

I drove up and down the campground roads checking out the views and snapping pictures:

There were inlets and peninsulas as well as a few small islands. The "thousands" of islands, according to the map, start west of the campground:

The public campsites were located right on the water. I'm sure this is a popular spot in the summertime. I'll post more tomorrow: