An old barn with character
Peninsular area, Lower Kananaskis Lake
When winter comes to the mountains
Fall colours at Silver Springs Botanical Gardens
Peninsular area, Lower Kananaskis Lake
Bark colour after the rain
When fall colours are just a memory
Sometimes it's wildlife, sometimes it's .... cows
A patterned sky
A day of swans and ducks and geese
Gap Lake
The beauty of fall
Elbow Falls, Kananaskis
02 Hidden in the clouds
01 The glory of fall
Silos/grain terminal and old elevator, Herronton
An old favourite
A colourful walk through the woods
When storms blow in
Under a stormy sky
Simplicity
Two winters ago
Magic hour
Freedom
Running free
Reflecting the sun at 'golden hour'
Sharples grain elevator
Oak leaf and insect gall
One spectacular fall day
Before the snow came
And here comes the snow
Old barn at the Ellis Bird Farm
A few craggy peaks
Just like winter
A favourite mountain slope
Grain storage in Heronton
Plateau Mountain, Kananaskis
Following the fenceline
Before winter officially arrives
One of my favourite barns
A lone Larch in fall colour
Can you see what I see?
Jagged little peaks
Before the snow
TV's "Heartland" series location
Red's the best in winter
A beautiful start to a day
Sunrise colour over the mountain peaks
New Year's Day Bird Count
Nanton Christmas Bird Count
Winter walking
Snow turns something ordinary into beautiful
Our beautiful Alberta
An old, red beauty
Afternoon light on the foothills
Winter in Kananaskis
Down by the river on a frosty morning
Jazzing up the old silos - with Pacman
Modern - but I like it
Filtered
The peace of a prairie farm - my main photo today
The beautiful mountains of Alberta
Non-wild horses in a wild landscape
It's beginning to look a lot like winter
Almost above the clouds
A vanishing world
When sane people do crazy things
Distant haze
The beauty of Kananaskis along Highway 40
Autumn colours at the stormwater pond
Glorious colours of fall
Periglacial feature, Plateau Mountain
Looking towards top of Plateau Mountain
The long hike down the mountain
Our beautiful foothills on an overcast day
Across the river
Bunchberry Meadows, Nature Conservancy of Canada
Bunchberry Meadows, Nature Conservancy
The arrival of fall
The long road south
McDougall Memorial United Church
Lower Kananaskis Lake at Peninsular
Peninsular, Lower Kananaskis Lake
One of my favourite meadows
Mt. Buller, Buller Pond, Kananaskis
A view from Mt. Shark
Above the tree line
Mt Lorette Ponds, Kananaskis
Mossleigh grain elevators
Fading into the distance
Storm clouds over Canola
Gottlob Schmidt's Antelope Hill Ranch
Antelope Hill Provincial Park
Weathered and patched
01 Middle Lake, Bow Valley Provincial Park
Yellow and blue
Beautiful old house in the hills
Landscape colours
Layers of colour
The Grad Barn 2016
The difference the sun makes
Prince of Wales hotel, Waterton
Challenges of a photographer
Wildflowers galore at the Bison Paddock
Waterton Lakes National Park
Layers
Love those Canola fields
Lighting up the storm clouds
This old house
Escape of the Black-crowned Night Heron
Ram's Horn Snail shell
And then there were only THREE!
Middle Lake, Bow Valley Provincial Park
One of my favourite views
Hike on Erik Butters' beautiful land
Meadow Creek area, Benchlands
Along a country back road
Entrance to the Ellis Bird Farm
The old barn at the Ellis Bird Farm
McDougall Memorial United Church
Dandelions - of course : )
Still standing
An old barn in winter
Charcoal effect
Roof shingles galore
See also...
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192 visits
Distant Larch trees in their fall colour
Happy Thanksgiving, to everyone who celebrates this weekend! Stay warm and enjoy the snow, lol! Video shared from the weather network on 9 October 2016.
www.theweathernetwork.com/videos/Gallery/calgary-snowfall...
This was a view from the gravel road that goes up the side of Plateau Mountain and that we had to hike up. It was taken on 28 September 2016, on our first recent trip - the second visit was just one week later, on 5 October 2016. This shot shows the distant Larch trees with their golden needles, seen on a neighbouring mountainside through a slight haze. On our second trip, we were trudging through snow on the very top of Plateau Mountain, as seen in the third photo posted this morning, What a difference a week makes.
I have been lucky enough to visit this special area several times in the past, but wondered if I would ever be able to get back to one of my absolute favourite places. There are two gates across this road - the lower one always seems to be open, but the second, higher gate is always kept locked. This means a long hike up a gravel road to get to the first plateau area, and then a further hike to get to the very top (which we didn't do).
Took me a while to make up my mind whether to go on this trip, as I wasn't sure if I'd be able to manage it - my body just can't do anything uphill, even just a very slight incline. Also, I had read someone's report, saying that, up till the day they went, a female Grizzly and her two cubs had been hanging out there for 10 days! They didn't see the bears, but noticed all the many places where the bears had pushed over rocks and ripped up the ground to look for plant roots, etc.. Seeing all these digging sights on our hike was still unnerving enough! We also saw several bear paw prints in the gravel along this road. My main concern was that I would have to fall back and let my friends continue. The thought of being by myself and seeing a family of Grizzlies had been enough to keep me awake part of the previous night and I even broke into a sweat worrying about it, lol. However, I have very thoughtful friends, and we stayed pretty much together.
These friends were there to look for plants, mosses, lichens and liverworts - plus anything else of interest - so they don't walk at a fast pace and are always stopping to look at something. This suits my ability perfectly. We were, of course, too late for wildflowers, though there were a lot of False Dandelions in bloom. We also came across quite a few fungi, most of them the same kind of very small, brown fungus. We did see one or two other kinds that were worth photographing. Because of stopping so often, we ran out of time to continue hiking this road as far as the very top, flat plateau - I would have had to stay behind if they had gone further. The lower plateau is where most of my visits have taken place, but I think I have been right to the very top twice, maybe three times, before. Almost every visit other years had been in the month of July. Actually, the middle part of the hike was over ground that was very similar to the very top plateau, including some permafrost 'boils'. Birds seen on this trip included a tiny Wren of some kind (Pacific?), a few small flocks of unidentified birds flying fast, and a falcon (Prairie falcon?).
"This nearly flat high-elevation plateau is recognized for several unique features. There is an internationally recognized ice cave with ice crystals, curls, sheets and pillars (ice crystals are so fragile that a temperature increase of one degree Celsius can cause melting). The periglacial features (known as "patterned ground") in the reserve include active permafrost, sorted stone circles, polygons, steps and frost boils. The area also contains critical winter range for bighorn sheep." From www.albertaparks.ca/plateau-mountain.aspx
There are no public roads in Plateau Mountain Ecological Reserve; the road to the mountain top is leased by Husky Oil; to prevent vandalism to natural gas production facilities and to lessen impact on the area's natural features, access is controlled by the locked gate; travel in the reserve is by foot only; there are no facilities on site and overnight camping and open fires are prohibited."
www.albertaparks.ca/media/2741526/plateau_mtn_mgmt_plan.pdf
Thanks so much, Sandy, for organizing this wonderful trip and getting us out there! Not sure, but I think the last time I was out there was in August 2012. Major flood damage had kept the roads closed after that, so it was very exciting to know that someone else had discovered that the roads were now OK for travel. We were so lucky with the weather and only had a few raindrops. Rather chilly, but October is almost here, so it is hardly surprising. I think the temperature was between 2C and 4C, approximately. I was wearing thermal underwear, jeans, two fleece jackets and my thick winter jacket, and my winter boots!
Many thanks, too, to Ken, for the ride from and back to Calgary - much appreciated! A long drive, but through such beautiful scenery.
www.theweathernetwork.com/videos/Gallery/calgary-snowfall...
This was a view from the gravel road that goes up the side of Plateau Mountain and that we had to hike up. It was taken on 28 September 2016, on our first recent trip - the second visit was just one week later, on 5 October 2016. This shot shows the distant Larch trees with their golden needles, seen on a neighbouring mountainside through a slight haze. On our second trip, we were trudging through snow on the very top of Plateau Mountain, as seen in the third photo posted this morning, What a difference a week makes.
I have been lucky enough to visit this special area several times in the past, but wondered if I would ever be able to get back to one of my absolute favourite places. There are two gates across this road - the lower one always seems to be open, but the second, higher gate is always kept locked. This means a long hike up a gravel road to get to the first plateau area, and then a further hike to get to the very top (which we didn't do).
Took me a while to make up my mind whether to go on this trip, as I wasn't sure if I'd be able to manage it - my body just can't do anything uphill, even just a very slight incline. Also, I had read someone's report, saying that, up till the day they went, a female Grizzly and her two cubs had been hanging out there for 10 days! They didn't see the bears, but noticed all the many places where the bears had pushed over rocks and ripped up the ground to look for plant roots, etc.. Seeing all these digging sights on our hike was still unnerving enough! We also saw several bear paw prints in the gravel along this road. My main concern was that I would have to fall back and let my friends continue. The thought of being by myself and seeing a family of Grizzlies had been enough to keep me awake part of the previous night and I even broke into a sweat worrying about it, lol. However, I have very thoughtful friends, and we stayed pretty much together.
These friends were there to look for plants, mosses, lichens and liverworts - plus anything else of interest - so they don't walk at a fast pace and are always stopping to look at something. This suits my ability perfectly. We were, of course, too late for wildflowers, though there were a lot of False Dandelions in bloom. We also came across quite a few fungi, most of them the same kind of very small, brown fungus. We did see one or two other kinds that were worth photographing. Because of stopping so often, we ran out of time to continue hiking this road as far as the very top, flat plateau - I would have had to stay behind if they had gone further. The lower plateau is where most of my visits have taken place, but I think I have been right to the very top twice, maybe three times, before. Almost every visit other years had been in the month of July. Actually, the middle part of the hike was over ground that was very similar to the very top plateau, including some permafrost 'boils'. Birds seen on this trip included a tiny Wren of some kind (Pacific?), a few small flocks of unidentified birds flying fast, and a falcon (Prairie falcon?).
"This nearly flat high-elevation plateau is recognized for several unique features. There is an internationally recognized ice cave with ice crystals, curls, sheets and pillars (ice crystals are so fragile that a temperature increase of one degree Celsius can cause melting). The periglacial features (known as "patterned ground") in the reserve include active permafrost, sorted stone circles, polygons, steps and frost boils. The area also contains critical winter range for bighorn sheep." From www.albertaparks.ca/plateau-mountain.aspx
There are no public roads in Plateau Mountain Ecological Reserve; the road to the mountain top is leased by Husky Oil; to prevent vandalism to natural gas production facilities and to lessen impact on the area's natural features, access is controlled by the locked gate; travel in the reserve is by foot only; there are no facilities on site and overnight camping and open fires are prohibited."
www.albertaparks.ca/media/2741526/plateau_mtn_mgmt_plan.pdf
Thanks so much, Sandy, for organizing this wonderful trip and getting us out there! Not sure, but I think the last time I was out there was in August 2012. Major flood damage had kept the roads closed after that, so it was very exciting to know that someone else had discovered that the roads were now OK for travel. We were so lucky with the weather and only had a few raindrops. Rather chilly, but October is almost here, so it is hardly surprising. I think the temperature was between 2C and 4C, approximately. I was wearing thermal underwear, jeans, two fleece jackets and my thick winter jacket, and my winter boots!
Many thanks, too, to Ken, for the ride from and back to Calgary - much appreciated! A long drive, but through such beautiful scenery.
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