Bow Lake & Bow Glacier Trail

I am SO tired (but happy tired!) after a wonderful day in the mountains today! I don't get out there very often at all, and certainly not as far as we went today, so it was an absolute treat! Friend Sandy had found an interesting Liverwort there very recently and wanted to go back to see it at a different stage, hoping it would make ID a little clearer. She asked if I wanted to go with her - ha, yes, you bet! We went past Banff and Lake Louise, as far as Bow Lake (seen in my photo) along Highway 93. They do say that this scenic highway is the most beautiful in the world, and it's easy to believe. I had jokingly said to Sandy when we left Calgary, that what I would really like, please, was blue sky to start with it, then a few puffy white clouds and then maybe even a touch of gey with the white - and that's exactly what we got (plus some rain on the drive back to Calgary). www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/9484933371

I am SO tired after a wonderful day in the mountains today! I don't get out there very often at all, and certainly not as far as we went today, so it was an absolute treat! Friend Sandy had found an interesting, tiny Liverwort there (seen in my photo) very recently and wanted to go back to see it at a different stage, hoping it would make ID a little clearer. She asked if I wanted to go with her - ha, yes, you bet! We went past Banff and Lake Louise, as far as Bow Lake along Highway 93. They do say that this scenic highway is the most beautiful in the world, and it's easy to believe. "The Marchantiophyta i/mɑrˌkæntiˈɒfɨtə/ are a division of non-vascular bryophyte land plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like other bryophytes, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of genetic information. It is estimated that there are about 9000 species of liverworts. Some of the more familiar species grow as a flattened leafless thallus, but most species are leafy with a form very much like a flattened moss. Leafy species can be distinguished from the apparently similar mosses on the basis of a number of features, including their single-celled rhizoids. Leafy liverworts also differ from most (but not all) mosses in that their leaves never have a costa (present in many mosses) and may bear marginal cilia (very rare in mosses). Other differences are not universal for all mosses and liverworts, but the occurrence of leaves arranged in three ranks, the presence of deep lobes or segmented leaves, or a lack of clearly differentiated stem and leaves all point to the plant being a liverwort. Liverworts are typically small, usually from 2–20 mm wide with individual plants less than 10 cm long, and are therefore often overlooked. However, certain species may cover large patches of ground, rocks, trees or any other reasonably firm substrate on which they occur. They are distributed globally in almost every available habitat, most often in humid locations although there are desert and arctic species as well. Some species can be a nuisance in shady green-houses or a weed in gardens." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marchantiophyta

I am SO tired (happy tired!) after a wonderful day in the mountains today! I don't get out there very often at all, and certainly not as far as we went today, so it was an absolute treat! Friend Sandy had found an interesting Liverwort there very recently and wanted to go back to see it at a different stage, hoping it would make ID a little clearer. She asked if I wanted to go with her - ha, yes, you bet! We went past Banff and Lake Louise, as far as Bow Lake along Highway 93. They do say that this scenic highway is the most beautiful in the world, and it's easy to believe. This photo shows Canada Buffaloberries turning from yellow, through orange, to bright red. Bears love these berries and eat them in huge amounts. We were lucky enough to see two Black bears, not that far apart on the same road. Not good views and almost impossible to get photos, but I managed to get something that looks vaguely like a bear : ) Had hoped my photos would come out a bit better than they did, ha. And now it's time to falli into bed (half past midnight), before I fall asleep at my computer.

My friend Sandy and I had such a wonderful (and long) day out in the mountains on 10 August 2013. The scenery is so spectacular the whole journey, but Highway 93, the Icefields Parkway, is said to be the most spectacular scenic route in the world. We drove as far as Bow Lake and hiked slowly, looking for everything of interest. The Bow Glacier Trail runs along the right hand side of the lake and continues to the Falls that are at a much higher elevation. You can see these in the distance from the lake. On the return drive to Calgary, we were thrilled to catch sight of two Black Bears at the far side of the road, a short distance apart. Impossible to get even half-decent photos, but the one above shows the second bear, eating its fill of Canada Buffaloberry berries.

On 10 August 2013, I went with friend Sandy to Bow Lake, in Banff National Park. It is located along Highway 93, the Icefields Parkway, said to be the most beautiful, scenic road in the world. We walked very slowly along the Bow Glacier Trail, which runs along the right hand edge of the lake, searching for anything of interest and beauty. We went as far as the second rock fall, but didn't hike up to the Bow Glacier Falls. At one of the rock falls, we were entertained, while having lunch, by several of these small Golden-mantled Ground Squirrels. They look rather similar to a Chipmunk. They love a rocky mountain slope like this one - and I was happy when one of them climbed and sat on this brightly coloured, lichen-encrusted boulder. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden-mantled_ground_squirrel

On 10 August 2013, I went with friend Sandy to Bow Lake, in Banff National Park. It is located along Highway 93, the Icefields Parkway, said to be the most beautiful, scenic road in the world. When we returned to the parking lot at the end of our hike, we went inside the Num-Ti-Jah Lodge to look around. A very interesting place inside and it has a great story to go with it. "Num-Ti-Jah Lodge is the dream of the remarkable Simpson family. Our story begins with a wild, red-haired 19 year old named Jimmy Simpson who left England for Canada in 1896. He was to become the legendary outfitter known as the last and greatest of the Canadian mountain men. He guided scientists, mountaineers, big game hunters and artists through the little-explored Rocky mountains. His wild character, quick wit, and tall tales of the trail made him one of Canada's most eccentric pioneers. When Jimmy Simpson camped at Bow Lake in 1898, he vowed that one day he would "build a shack here". Twenty-five years later he began building the first log cabin on the site and had a permanent base for his outfitting tours. He called his operation Num-Ti-Jah, a Stoney Plain word for pine marten, a small animal similar to a sable. In 1937, the Banff-Jasper highway was completed as far as Bow Lake. Jimmy, his wife Billie and their children Margaret, Mary and Jimmy jr. began expanding on the original dream of a "shack". With the earnings from Margaret and Mary's professional ice-skating tours, the building of Num-Ti-Jah Lodge began. In 1940, the Lodge had six guest rooms. By 1950, a beautiful log and stone hotel with 16 rooms stood on the shores of Bow Lake. In the fifties and sixties, Jimmy Simpson's reputation attracted tourists keen to hear his stories. While Jimmy became a living legend, his son took charge of the Num-Ti-Jah operation. Jimmy jr. has his own mountain stories from an outfitting career that spanned thirty-five years ending in 1974, two years after his father died. Although he retired from managing Num-Ti-Jah Lodge in 1996, with his remarkable memory, he is the keeper of the old tales of Bow Lake. "Num-Ti-Jah Lodge hasn't changed much since it was completed in 1950. What you'll see and feel here is the dream of the Simpson family." From the Num-Ti-Jah website - I can't get the link to work.

On 10 August 2013, I went with friend Sandy to Bow Lake, in Banff National Park. It is located along Highway 93, the Icefields Parkway, said to be the most beautiful, scenic road in the world. When we returned to the parking lot at the end of our hike, we noticed this brightly coloured van. I was taking a shot or two when I heard a voice say "Take your time ..." A couple was just getting back to this vehicle. This campervan company has the wildest designs on their for-rent vehicles - bright and so much fun.

On 10 August 2013, I went with friend Sandy to Bow Lake, in Banff National Park. It is located along Highway 93, the Icefields Parkway, said to be the most beautiful, scenic highway in the world. She had seen a tiny Liverwort (non-vascular plant) maybe a week earlier on a different trip and wanted to go back to check it at a later stage, and asked if I'd like to go with her. How lucky I am! She had hoped that it might be a particular rare species, but as it turned out, it wasn't. Still an interesting species to add to the list of flora and fauna for the area. We walked very slowly along the Bow Glacier Trail, which runs along the right hand edge of the lake, searching for anything of interest and beauty. This is where I took this photo, almost looking into the sun, but still turned out OK. Couldn't have wished for more effective clouds and their reflection : ) Later in the day, none of the views looked as beautiful as they did in the earlier morning light. We went as far as the second rock fall, but didn't hike up to the Bow Glacier Falls. I had only ever once been to Bow Lake (that I remember), and that was 30+ years ago, but I had always longed to go back. Many, many years ago, I did an oil painting of just the area in the centre of this photo. www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/9503913004

Another photo from a wonderful day along the Icefields Parkway (Highway 93) west of Banff and Lake Louise, on 10 August 2013. Our destination was beautiful Bow Lake, so that my friend could check on a Liverwort (non-vascular plant) that she had seen there recently. The title for this image comes from the colourful plant in the foreground, called River Beauty. There were a few people out taking photos in this area, so it was a bit of a challenge to try and photograph in between them : ) "Chamerion latifolium (formerly Epilobium latifolium) is a species of flowering plant in the evening primrose family known by the English common names Dwarf Fireweed and River Beauty Willowherb. It has a circumboreal distribution, appearing throughout the northern regions of the Northern Hemisphere, including subarctic and Arctic areas such as snowmelt-flooded gravel bars and talus, in a wide range of elevations. This arctic plant provides valuable nutrition for the Inuit, who eat the leaves raw, boiled with fat, or steeped in water for tea, the flowers and fruits raw, and as a salad with meals of seal and walrus blubber. Every part of this plant is edible, tasting much like spinach, and is also known in the Canadian tundra as River Beauty. It is the national flower of Greenland, where it is known by the Greenlandic name niviarsiaq, which means "little girl"." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamerion_latifolium www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/9524200370