Poppy Power

My first visit to this iconic Canadian vista left me amazed once again at the beauty of my home, whether it be the Tundra in the fall, Spruce bogs in northern Ontario or red spruce along the Fundy shore. This particular vista is Lake Louise from the Chateau gardens.

Poppies have left an impression on me also. They are both hardy and fragile looking at the same time and they come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours. I'll have to grow some more next summer.

Healy Pass Meadows

I will have to save the rest of the pictures and stories for tomorrow, but it didn't seem right not to post some paintbrush pictures. They were stunning. The glacier lillies are fading fast, although there were still patches where you could find them in their glory, and some kinds of anemone seemed to be finishing up their blooming, although the seed heads might actually be more impressive than their flowers, but the paintbrush were coming into their own.

The original plan had been to hike into Sunshine meadows, putter around and then maybe take the shuttle bus down, but seeing as the meadows in the direction of Egypt Lake were pretty spectacular, it was decided that there was a great advantage to going where there would be less people. We hardly saw anyone all day including having Egypt Lake entirely to ourselves, which was really nice. It was also nice going somewhere I hadn't been before.

I definitely was spoiled with wildflowers yesterday, and breathtaking views of mountains and clouds and blue sky. Even the sunset was spectacular on the drive home with the mostly full moon hanging just above the mountains.

Scarab Lake and the Amazing Falls

What lured us another 2.4 km, up the side of mountain? It was be the impressive cascade between Scarab and Egypt Lakes. The first picture was taken from fairly far away, up near Healy Pass, the second picture was taken from the shore of Egypt Lake and the third from the top of the falls. Unfortunately, there wasn't really a great place to get a good picture of the falls, after all that hiking, and although Scarab Lake is stunning, we made it up there when it was quite overcast, so the colour of the lake didn't come out all that well. Still, it was neat, and I'd love to go back there again when it was sunny.

The area near the top of the falls has a mini falls, it was actually quite scenic and the meadow just uphill of the lake had some of the nicest paintbrush that we'd seen all day.

More Pictures of Egypt Lake

Going on a long walk

30 km and 4000 ft of climbing up and climbing back down later, I'm sifting through a stack of photos, trying to pick the best ones. My feet vote that I'm not doing too much walking today, but otherwise, I'm still in awe of the landscape here. It was originally intended to be slightly less strenuous, however, its hard to resist the urge to hike a few more kilometers to see a lake nestled in bowl of dramatic and glacier speckled mountains. It would have be better if the sun had cooperated, but you can't win them all. This was our original destination and by far the most serene and scenic stop (and definitely the longest stop). Egypt Lake, a stunning shade of emerald and turquoise is surrounded by fantastic mountains, and coniferous forest and is 330 m below the highest elevation on the hike. (yes, that means there is a 330 m uphill climb on the way back, which might have seemed tough except we'd seen tough just beyond here on the way up to Scarab Lake.

Labrador Tea in Bloom

I took this picture at Grassi Lakes, just above the falls. It is another of my all time favourite forest plants - Labrador Tea. I like it because the undersides of the leaves have fuzzy redish brown fur and also because they manage to florish in bogs (an impressive acomplishments for a plant). There is another species of this plant that grows near Baker Lake (and on the tundra in general), but it is much smaller. What I don't usually get to see when I spend the summer in Ontario, is this plant in flower, in fact I don't think I've seen it flower since I was tree planting back when I was young and foolish and covered in black fly bites. The way the altitude affect seasons means that there have been a lot of plants that I don't usually see in flower, blooming away, even though it is July rather than May. Its kind of neat and it definitely has given me some reasons to get my camera out more.

Snowline moving down to 2200m

The weather forcast last week has some mention about the snowline, and I had wondered what it was and if they meant to put that in the forcast. Well, what it means is that the rain we were having in the valley is snow at some point, so the next morning all the mountains had a fresh dusting of snow on their peaks. It definitely made them look more impressive.

Twinflowers

Linnaea borealis - like bunchberry, it is one of my favourites from home, possibly in both cases because I learned to recognize them early in my forest plant memorizing phase

Drumheller HooDoos

There simply isn't enough time to do everything. I'd really love to visit Vancouver and Victoria. I desparately would like to visit Waterton and the Grand Canyon and the Yukon and Yellowknife and even Inukvik... well and the list in Nunavut - where the problem is that I simply can't afford the airfare - although I'd really like to visit Pang and Qikiqtarjuaq and Pond and Cambridge Bay and hopefully I'll get to see Iqaluit one day. So, where I meant to go with my opening, is that long, long ago, when I was young and travelled across the western half of Canada via Greyhound with my best friend, we went to visit the Milk River and the Badlands there. They were much more impressive then these two baby hoodoos, but seeing these made me really want to visit the other ones because they are so different from any land form I know and I think of all the courses I teach, my grade 12 environmental course is my favourite, and geology is my favourite unit (tied with weather) to teach. Perhaps this is why I appreciated watching 2012 last night. There was a lot of geology, even if it was a bit sketchy at times. I loved that they mentioned the neutrino lab in Sudbury and I think what made it watchable, aside from the cliche disaster movie intro where the divorced father is spending time with his kids, is that it didn't take itself too seriously. Even some of the special effects you could kind of tell they were crushing models, but it was fun. It made a point of finding major world landmarks and destroying them and the family survived near death so many times that you had to smile. It may have been saved as my expectations for it were so low that I had expected to wander away from the TV after a few minutes rather than holding my breathe after 2 and a half hours, even knowing that the ending was as predictable as the sun rising each morning. While for Avatar, on the other hand, I had high expectations, and it left me disappointed.

As for the too much to do and not enough time, I think it is only the 4th movie I've watched this summer - Coraline being one other (which was a bit weird, but I was impressed in a way with it, but I'm not sure I'd say I loved it), 4 Weddings and Funeral (which was a tough watch) and the other was Invictus, which was very good - although I've really yet to find a Morgan Freeman movie that was a miss.

So, Disaster, Freaky, Horky and Uplifting.

As for other things I don't have time to do, I need to update my blog. I've added a few new links to the northern blogger section, but I suspect that there are more that I need to add or change and if I'm smart I'll do it while I have fast and nearly unlimited internet at my disposal. That said, I'm nervous about switching from the classic template that I've built myself to the new format as I've carefully built my blog over the years, and I'd hate to lose any of my links, while I do like having the ability to see who's updated recently. So, in the short term, I'm going to work on the new template for another project and see if it is worth the bother - and if I can get it set up and the gadgets allow me to do stuff I can't do in the oldstyle, then perhaps I will. Although, I've noticed a migration to wordpress lately - so I'm also a bit worried that I'll have to make the switch when google declares I'm out of space, which I'm sure will happen as soon as I've done the update.

So, I'll see if I can dig up a few more pictures. Its been really rainy the last few days - so maybe I'll find a hydrograph to post, as I haven't done that in a few years and my apologies for the ramble, I haven't had coffee yet this morning or Yoga.

Badland's Inukshuk

Roasting under the midday sun, this brave inukshuk stands gaurd in the dry and eroded terrain, perhaps he is marking the sight of dinosaur bones, as I highly doubt that the fishing or hunting is much good here.

The Drumheller Dino

Run! I hope he does change direction and stomp my car in the parking lot....

Yellow Cactus Flowers

Still hiking the interpretive trail, hot sunny day, hardly a cloud in sight, I figure, since I didn't burn, I may have gotten my annual dose of vitamin D. I know that a month from now I'll be wearing long pants and sweaters agin and 2 months from now it'll be dipping below zero regularly and maybe even snowing. So, I'm enjoying the sunshine while I can.

Dessert Flowers in the Badlands

I got to visit the Royel Tyrell Museum with my brother's family and parents this weekend. The museum was excellent, and improved on by the enthusiasm of children. I also got to accompany a child under the age of 5 on the really awesome playground. Afterwards, we did the hike around the interpretive trail and took some pictures of Cactus flowers, then met up at a splash pad in town by the giant killer dinosaur.

Mountain Rainbow

Is it a good sign that my Lotto Max ticket wasn't a waste of money? Is there gold at the end of the rainbow? Is there anywhere else that it can be storming and quite that blue skied at the same time?

Well, you can't complain about a rainbow at any rate.... it's its own kind of gold.

Yellow Lady's-Slipper

I've been very spoilt this year with Orchids - this is the last of the big ones, I think, that are found around here. It was fading a bit - but still an impressive bit of natural architecture.

Cypripedium parviflorum - and a cool fact courtesy of "Plants of the Rocky Mountains" - they depend on fungi in the soil to survive, which is coincidentally why they often die when unwise folks try to transplant them to their gardens. Without the fungus, they just can't make a go of it - so please - leave the flowers where they belong. (Silently shouted to the Arnica Bouquet Lady)

Castle Mountain

A brief stop on the return trip, I snapped a quick picture of this impressive mountain - which I shot from a general store near the Castle Mountain Campground - but otherwise, the name is just an educated guess.

3500 km and I still find bunchberry

Secretly, bunchberry is one of my favourite forest plants. Unlike most other forest wildflowers, bunchberry flowers well into the summer, rather than a quick showy burst in May or June. It even thrives in the dark and acidic-soiled coniferous stands. It is not colourful, fancy or graceful, but it is cheerful, abundant and produces a spray of bright red berrys to brighten the forest floor in August and sometimes September.  Even better I've seen it grow in the Maritimes, Ontario and now out West.... making it an easy to recognize plant all across Canada.

The Canyon Primeival

Speaking of dinosaurs, I almost expect to find one grazing in this deep and ancient canyon - there is something about canyons carved though layers of rock spanning millions of years in age that really brings the concept of geological time into sharp relief. Add a green, moist, and shady trail, and its hard not to imagine yourself years and years into the past.

Speaking of dinosaurs, the beeosaurus, my favourite kind of dinosaur, has reached the mighty age of 2. I hope he is munching on his greens and maybe some birthday cakefruit.

Bones to the Earth

Something about this fallen tree, half-buried by moss, reminded me of a skelaton returning to the earth - there was something spine-like about it and the way the moss has grown on and around left me with an impression of something decaying slowly - something more mobile than a tree - maybe a dinosaur.

Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel

Gee... it sure looks a lot like a Chipmunk - but it does not have stripes on its face therefore, it is a specimen of Spermophilus lateralis, or the golden mantled ground squirrel. They are in the same family as chipmunks and likewise charming.

Ink Pots

These are "cool springs" where water about 4 C bubbles up from below.... The picture really doesn't do the real thing justice though.

Johnson Canyon

The trick to Johnson Canyon is arriving before the crowds. So, at the crack of dawn, everything ready to go the night before, we headed for the stunning, but slightly too popular Johnson Canyon. When we hiked out to the Ink Pots we enountered 4 people heading in the oposite direction from us and 4 people heading in the same direction as us. By the time we left, we passed 80 people heading for the Ink Pots and 330 people between Johnson Canyon Resort and the Upper Falls. Still, I've seen it busier.

The ink pots are beautiful, set in movie set country, a wide scrubby valley surrounded by stunning peaks. I remember fondly my last (first) hike there about 10 years ago with family. We stopped to paint, I don't recall that I painted anything worthwhile, but it was a pleasant day.

One-Sided Wintergreen

Orthilia secunda - seems a funny name for 1 sided wintergreen, but still an intensely alien looking plant. Today, I was saddened to see so many people picking the Arnica in the park. People just are good at seeing consequences some days. I wonder how many will be left by this evening.