Yellow Columbine

Another personal favourite in both the wild and the garden, columbine always impresses me with its grace.

Wood Lily

One of the nicest treats on the Grassi Lakes Trail was seeing hundreds of these dot the open forests along the way.

Falls at Spray Lake Power Development

The peak in the background is Ha Ling Peak, the first big hike I did in the Canmore area about 6 years ago. The falls don't show well in the picture, but they are a lovely cascade of water down the side of a cliff. The impressive penstock running from the Rundle resevoir to the power plant is just outside of the picture. :D Just upstream of this impressive display of water the water appears nearly still in a shallow pond lined with Labrador Tea and mosses.

Grassi Lakes

I think this might be one of my new favourite places to hike. It had a variety of flowers, pleasant open woods, an impressive waterfall, neat stuff for civil engineers to appreciate, turquoise lakes, swiss cheese rocks and views of snow covered mountain peaks.

Looking Down the Valley

The view facing down the way we'd come up was also spectacular. It was well worth the last climb up and the scramble over bare rock and patches of snow to have the feeling of being on the utterly (well, more like nearly) barren top of the world. It was entirely different than any of the other places we'd been all day.

Upper Valley of 3 Lakes

In the background are evil black clouds and a shear wall of dark rock (probably near where the third lake is) The second lake is likely under all the snow you see. I actually had cold ankles.

Second View of the First Lake in the Valley of 3 Lakes

I'm not sure the camera actually does the view justice, but here it is nessled in the lap of a grey mountain sky threatening rain in the distance.

Spring Fever

These Hoary Marmots were smooching under a rock ledge..... ahhhh... too cute.

Spring

It was noted by a fellow hiker that it was unusual this year that many flowers were flowering at the same time, that did not necesarily grow together normally. It sounds as though its been a cool spring and that some flowers are late getting going.

A group of Glacier Lilies

These lilies were different than many of the others that I saw having bright red anthers.

Western Anemone

These robust-stemmed white flowers were dotted all along the trail to Chester Lake and beyond. These particular pictures were shot between Chester Lake and the Elephant Rocks. I could not find a picture that matched it in "Plants of the Rocky Mountains", but the Sunshine Meadow's Blog identifies them as Western Anemone.

I was impressed at how they were designed to withstand cold (being very hairy) and how their flowers likely reflected the light onto the developing ovaries, allowing faster development of seeds. In spite of being thick stemmed, the petals are nearly translucent, sometimes a pale blue near the stem, and have an almost ethereal or ghostly feel to them.

Fog Rising

The morning of the Chester Lake hike the fog was thick earlier in the morning to the point that I could hardly see the building across the street (for those of you used to measuring visibility to guess whether the blizzard is bad enough to shut school down.)

At this point, about an hour later the fog had burned off, but the clouds near the mountain were still low.

Valley of Three Lakes

 

This was the first of the 3 lakes that we encountered after Chester Lake and the most charming in terms of colour and setting. (Actually we never found the the second lake (probably under snow) and we didn't go as far as the third.

Glacier Lily

 

Chester Lake Hike

 

I've been trying to mostly just work on my thesis and get it out of my hair before I go crazy. But it seemed reasonable to take one day off to do some real hiking seeing as I'm surrounded by world class outdoor trails. We had originally planned to do Taylor Creek, but it was closed for paving (we think either the road or the parking lot, rather than the trail itself.) This worked out great. The weather forcast was totally wrong, but we lucked out and missed getting rained on by about 30 minutes or so, inspite of a day where the sky couldn't decide whether to let the sun out or not.

Amusingly, of the 270 pictures I shot, there are only 2 pretty lame ones of chester lake itself. This is just before you reach the lake.

It was a wonderful hike, although the part of the trail past Chester Lake was much nicer than Chester Lake itself.

Lucky Shot

 

I cannot take any credit for this picture, it was a fluke that I noticed the flower at all tucked into an awkward knoll. I just pointed the camera blindly and shot a few time trying to check the light flooded review to see if I'd gotten the flower in focus. This was a lucky shot.

This is my third orchid of the summer the graceful Venus'-Ladyslipper, Calypso bulbosa.

I found it on the downward hike from Chester Lake I think as I stumbled over a loose rock.

Pink Wintergreen

 

Pyrola asarifolia.... pretty :D

Shooting Stars on Larch Island

 

Here are a couple more cool flowers. They are called shooting stars - apt name if you ask me.

Its supposed to hit 30 C today - so I may be forced to seek refuge in the library or a coffee shop. Otherwise, I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere on a particularly never ending project, not as fast as would be good, but at least in a measurable sort of way. YEAH!

Lets hope today and tomorrow are super productive - so I can take off some time Sunday to obtain more pictures for my blog.

Sparrow's-Egg Lady's-Slipper

 

This is the second and even more charming of the orchids we saw - (cypripedium passerinum)

Yeah for new flora!

2 Orchids in One Day

 

These seem almost common to someone who is used to being amazed just to find a single Orchid. (When I say two ochids - I mean 2 species, there were at least 100 plants like this where we were walking.)

It is a round-leaved Orchid (Amerorchis rotundifolia) according to "Plants of the Rocky Mountains"

Like Flies on a Honeysuckle

 

This is a long time favourite plant of mine. I didn't even know the bugs were there when I took the picture. The "Plants of the Rocky Mountains" guide identifies it as Lonicera dioica or Twining Honeysuckle.

Summertime Arrives in the West

 

We are looking at some descent hot temperatures here now, although not with the humidity that it the East I don't think. Here is one last (or maybe) picture from yesterday evening.

Sunset............

 

I don't really have anything more to say... just posting pics now.

Still a bit of Forester in me too

 

I do love trees, especially silhouetted against this amazing back drop.

We also ran into a British couple who quizzed us on beavers, plants and trails. It was really cool chatting with them.