Last week I enjoyed a short hike around my local haunt, West Bragg Creek. There were so many wildflowers there that I was determined to return with the macro lens and capture the details of a few at least.
With my friend Cecil back from his pan-European tour we decided to meet up at West Bragg and have an afternoon hike. We wandered for several hours shooting the plants, chatting and enjoying the great outdoors. We found a good number of images along the trail and it was difficult to choose a dozen for the blog, but I like the selection below starting with this huge thistle. The gallery has captions to identify the species.
6 Comments
We've had a lovely relaxing weekend with our friends Stuart and Fi from the UK dropping in for a couple of nights at the start of their Canadian holiday. After waving them off this morning I decided to head to the mountains and make the most of the sunny skies.
I opted for the short drive to the Elbow Valley and a spring favourite of mine, Jumpingpound Mountain. At this time of year this easy hike is always full of wildflowers and is a perfect hike for hot, wind free days. To make things more interesting I decided on a non-stop ascent today, don't get me wrong I wasn't sprinting up, but I maintained a reasonable pace and covered the ground from the truck to the summit in just under an hour. At 7.2 km (4.4 miles) round trip it's not a long hike but there's 417 m (1368 feet) of continuous ascent so it's still a nice leg stretcher. As I got to the top of the ridge I could see the wildflowers in red, yellow and blue spread all across the open meadows, it was a beautiful sight and well worth what little effort is required to get there. Those seeking driving directions and map to the trailhead can click here for a full write up of a spring hike up here with Sarah in 2016. The gallery below is just a few shots from today, there's no captions just a small collection for the memories. Regular readers of the blog will know that West Bragg Creek is an area close to home and my 'go to' location for an easy walk during the week. At the weekend there are too many mountain bikes there to enjoy the space so we tend to look elsewhere at weekends.
Another good thing about West Bragg Creek is the huge selection of trails available with over 150 linear kilometers that cross each other at regular intervals. This results in an almost endless selection of routes through the forested hills. Yesterday I made a nice 12 km circuit and avoided the rain showers that blew through. The whole area is awash with wildflowers at the moment and I think it won't be long before I'm back down there with the macro lens for another wander. Until then there's a small captioned gallery below from my short hike yesterday. Threats of cool showers for the afternoon today sounded like good hiking weather, I didn't like the sound of the lightning so I was looking to stay at a low level. The most obvious choice for me is a circuit of upper kananaskis lake.
It's such a beautiful place to be any time of the year it's a lazy decision, but certainly not a lazy hike. There's little ascent it's true, but at a shade over 17 km (10.5 miles) you know you have done it by the end of the trail. I made it just beyond the half way point today before the rain started, but by then I was into the forest on the south side of the lake and somewhat sheltered. Don't get me wrong, I got a good soaking over the final 8 km but it was a gentle soaking and I didn't have to bother with the shower gear, I made the full circuit in my T-shirt. As always it was a great day with Rocky Mountain Sheep with their lambs all over highway 40 and marmots, ground squirrels and mice darting throughout the forest. I've made this hike many times now so there's just a few shots below with captions from today. Anyone wanting to see a full detailed report with trailhead parking information and maps can see an earlier trip by clicking here. I had a slow year for summits last year and didn't intend to do many this year, deciding instead to go for longer/lower routes with less of the hard ascent work. With that in mind I set out today to make the 17 km (10 mile) circuit of upper kananaskis lake.
As I drove along highway 40 I noticed that there were no vehicles at all in the parking area for the G8 summit. It's a straightforward mountain only about 7 km (4.3 miles) round trip, with some grunt work to ascend almost 1000 m ( 3200 feet) and a good workout on a hot calm day like today. I couldn't resist having the mountain to myself so made a swift U-turn and parked off road beside the trailhead. I confess I really felt it today, the heat was oppressive and there wasn't a breath of wind even at the summit. On the descent I sat on a flat rock in a mountain stream, removed my boots and planted my feet in the freezing cold water. I then filled my hat and put it on again and sunk my hands and wrists into the icy stream. I placed my two remaining drink bottles in the flow to cool and sat for some time basking in the effect. After only 5 or 10 minutes I was back on the trail drinking freezing cold water and striding out feeling fully refreshed. It's incredible how much the heat impacts our abilities. I've made this ascent numerous times so didn't bother with a full write up for today, but if you are interested you'll find a full description with information on parking and a more detailed description of the ascent by clicking here or checking out the Canada hiking section of the site. I really enjoyed the day and perhaps I'l make a few more this year after all. I spent some time today writing up our prairie trip, it's incredible how much you can fit in a few days and still feel like you have had the most restful holiday. We ended our trip with visits to the centre block of Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, the Great Sand Hills and Drumheller.
It was another great birthday break that leaves us ready for the next with an eye on September and Sarahs birthday. You can see the full write up by clicking here or by looking on our Canada page where all our trips can be found. There are plenty of images and text in the full write up including far more from the Great Sand Hills shown below. |
AuthorWe arrived in Calgary, Canada on 29th December 2011 to continue our journey. This blog is intended to keep our family and friends informed whilst we explore Canada.You can use the RSS feed below to stay updated. Categories
All
Archives
January 2024
The Shaman, West Texas
|