Weekend Photos: Kananaskis Country

-

I'm off again to get more trail time and, with luck, some great photos of one of my special places, the Grand Canyon. Meanwhile, you can enjoy these initial shots from my September trip to the Canadian Rockies.

We started our trip (the real stuff, not the long drive from Seattle) in the Kananaskis Country, a collection of Provincial Parks east of Banff, but still hanging out in some spectacular mountains. Here are a few highlights from the first few days.

For those who like logistics, I was traveling with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. They rented a camper, which gave us a warm place to sit and eat on often chilly (and once or twice wet) days, and provided suitable sleeping accommodations when we were at Lake Louise hard-sided campground later, where tents are not permitted. My little car gave us mobility.

On first arriving, I did a quick hike up King Creek Ridge, an excessively steep hike that reminded me that I was no longer at sea level.

View SW from the ridge

Kananaskis Lakes--we will be camping down there.


The next morning we drove 20 minutes to hike a short way to Elbow Lake for morning reflections.





We followed that up with another short walk at Upper Kananaskis Lake.


By the third day we were ready for a more challenging outing, the 9-mile hike to Frozen Lake via Elk Pass.

Approaching Mt. Fox. Frozen Lake lies at the base of the cirque.

Frozen Lake

On this hike, we also got reassurance that we were going to find what we'd come for: larches turning color. Larches are the only deciduous conifer, and grow in relatively northern areas where it behooves them to ditch their needles (leaves) ahead of the cold winter.

The next morning we started with a sunrise hike to nearby Marl Lake, where a short walk was amply rewarded with fantastic reflections.




We followed that up with a somewhat longer hike to the Ptarmigan Basin.

Larches again!

Anemone bloom very early, but their dried flower heads remain all season.

Territory recently occupied by an entirely vanished glacier.

The waterfall pouring from the middle of the moraine makes me think ice does remain under the rubble.


Our hikes were done by lunchtime, or soon after, so we decided to take a little road trip into Canmore, via the unpaved but scenic route 742. I spotted a lot of hikes along there that need doing.


Even before we left the pavement, we also spotted some bighorn sheep.

More reflections in Spillway Lake.

That's it for this segment--and it'll be a few weeks before I'm back with the stunning larches and peaks from Banff National Park. Meanwhile, enjoy a few short stories I've taken from the archives to repost over the next couple of weeks.



Now available for preorder!


Amazon Paperback--coming soon

Kindle

Universal Buy Link (not available for preorder in all stores


©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2024
 As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated. 


Don't miss a post--Follow us!





Comments

  1. DMSOctober 19, 2024 at 9:28 AM

    Just wow! I can't get over these stunning photos. I am obsessed with reflections and you really captured some amazing ones. Such beautiful hikes and views. Sounds like a fabulous trip. Safe travels!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Let us know what you think! We love to hear from our readers!

Popular Posts

Non-fiction Audiobook Review: Falter, by Bill McKibben

-
Image
Important stuff, but hard to hear. Title: Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? Author: Bill McKibben. Ready by Olivery Wyman Publication Info: Macmillan Audio 2019. 11 hours. Hardback by Henry Holt & Co., 291 pages. Source: Library Blurb: (Goodreads): Thirty years ago Bill McKibben offered one of the earliest warnings about climate change. Now he broadens the warning: the entire human game, he suggests, has begun to play itself out. Bill McKibben’s groundbreaking book The End of Nature -- issued in dozens of languages and long regarded as a classic -- was the first book to alert us to global warming. But the danger is broader than that: even as climate change shrinks the space where our civilization can exist, new technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics threaten to bleach away the variety of human experience. Falter tells the story of these converging trends and of the ideological fervor that keeps us from bringing them under control. And t
Read more

#WEP--The Scream

-
Image
WEP challenges are FREE and open to all. On the 1st   of the challenge month, there will be a   get-your-thinking-caps   on post. The badge will include the dates of the challenge and the winner’s   prizes. The InLinkz sign up will open on the third Wednesday and close 3 days later. It will contain no news, just the sign up. Participants link up with their DLs (Direct Links to their entry).  Learn all about it here .    My entry this time is based on an actual incident. Mom and my brothers will recognize it. My apologies to them for the non-trivial liberties I took with history and their personalities. We are now also meant to provide a tag line for our stories, so here's mine: What terrors lurk in the root cellar?     The Scream The house we lived in that year wasn’t much. The wind blew in everywhere you could imagine a draft, and some places you couldn’t. The old enclosed porch we used as a root cellar was worse. It wasn’t just the wind that could get in through the chinks a
Read more

#WEP: December Flash Fiction Challenge

-
Image
This December challenge wraps up the year of artistic inspiration from some great works of art. The WEP is open to all, following the simple rules: 1. SUBMIT your name to the list below on December 1 thru the 15th . Add your link (URL) 2. POST your entry, put WEP is in the TITLE along with The Narcissus badge within your entry. 3. STATE feedback preferences and word count at the end of your entry. 4. READ other entries, giving feedback if requested. 5. SHARE THE CHALLENGE on social media. Tweets are ready on the WEP blog. PLEASE NOTE: ENTRIES CLOSE Dec. 15th @ midnight (NY Time - check WEP blog clock) ALL GENRES WELCOME except erotica - 1,000 words maximum My story for this month's challenge is maybe cheating a little--I didn't write it for the challenge, but I decided that the common understanding of Narcissus and narcissism fits well enough, even if the story doesn't relate to the painting. I wrote this while trekking in Nepal last month, highlighting a character w
Read more