Elbow Falls Trail

Took this photo last fall, when I drove into the beginning of the mountains along Elbow Falls Trail (Highway 66). This was near Forgetmenot Pond, a place I love to go to. The winter gate will be across the road near Elbow Falls for many weeks yet, so I can't drive as far as this pond.

Well, snow on the mountain peaks looked beautiful today, but I had definitely not expected snow on the ground also! I drove out to Elbow Falls Trail (roughly 45/50 minutes), west of the city, to "explore" a little. Had hoped to find some mushrooms to photograph, but the ground was covered in fallen leaves and snow. Hey, this is still September! There were patches of gorgeous fall colours.

Came caross this Purple Avens out at the Maclean Pond area, off Elbow Falls Trail. Rather an unusual flower.

These tiny flowers are barely noticeable on the wild Gooseberry bushes, but so pretty when you see them enlarged. They hang down, but I tipped this one up so that I could see the inside. Photographed at Maclean Pond, Kananaskis, off Elbow Falls Trail, on June 10th.

A macro shot of a very small, individual White Camas flower. I love the ring of tiny green hearts around the flower centre. A number of these flowers grow together in a flower cluster at the top of a long stem. This native plant was growing at Cobble Flats, off Elbow Falls Trail (Highway 66), south west of the city, in Kananaskis Country, on July 12th. "White camas (Zigadenus elegans) is a native perennial herb that grows from a bulb. The plant can be found across most of Canada from British Columbia to New Brunswick and in parts of northwestern Canada. The plant contains several steroidal alkaloids, including zygacine, which can poison livestock and humans. White camas has caused poisoning in sheep and may have been involved in poisoning cattle. Ingesting the bulbs can also cause poisoning. This plant is considered to be about seven times less toxic that death camas (Zigadenus venenosus)." www.cbif.gc.ca/pls/pp/ppack.info?p_psn=79&p_type=all&... Has anyone ever had to access someone else's e-mail account? One of my good friends in England suggested that maybe I can get access to my brother's Hotmail account, in order to see if there are some contacts of his whom we aren't aware of and whom we should perhaps inform of his death. I did a bit of research on Google and it doesn't sound too promising with Hotmail, as it is a free system. Not sure I'd want to give out a copy of things like my driver's license without being sure just who I was giving the information to, either. In theory, though, it does sound a good idea.

I was happy to come across some of these beautiful little Calypso Orchids on June 10th, when I drove out west of Calgary to Maclean Pond, Kananaskis, off Elbow Falls Trail. They are such exquisite wildflowers! Unfortunately, a single flowerhead doesn't quite fit into a macro photo, but I have to balance that with a blurred background. Another hour, and I'm off to a full day of botanizing, north west of Calgary. I'm uploading my photos at an unearthly hour this morning, before 6:00 a.m., as I have to continue working on several photo projects /requests this evening. Later evening: I'm having problems with Flickr and Internet Explorer, grrr....Giving up for now.

The drive to Forgetmenot Pond is via the Elbow Falls Trail in Kananaskis. The reflections in the pond are different every time I go and were particularly strong on this day. The pond is surrounded by mountains, completely different in each direction.

Had to dig a little way into my archives, back to 29th August, to find this pair of mushrooms that were growing along the Fullerton Loop trail in Kananaskis (off Highway 66, Elbow Falls Trail).

Clover really is quite beautiful when the flower is seen up close. Red Clover is a plant introduced from Europe as a forage crop. Now it grows wild along roadsides, on waste areas and lawns, June-September. Photographed this particular flower two days ago at Maclean Pond, off Elbow Falls Trail (Highway 66).