WABASSO WONDER

Hope you aren't tiring of lake landscapes. I'm certainly enjoying them. This photo is of Wabasso Lake in Jasper National Park. I get a real sense of "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh" when I look at it. Which is the point of this exercise. Have a great day!

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©Kiinsey Barnard Photography

PYRAMID AND PATRICIA

Early morning sun kisses Pyramid mountain in Jasper National Park.


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©Kinsey Barnard Photography

NOTHING MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN THE BOW

Bow Lake, in Banff National Park, is unquestionably one of the most beautiful lakes in all the world. The melting glaciers give it color beyond imagining and it changes all the time depending on lighting conditions.

©Kinsey Barnard Photography

PS: Christmas is coming so here is a gift idea under $20. Choose five note cards and tie them in a packet with a pretty satin ribbon. Your gift will be unique and personal.

Southern Alberta - Part 2

So, off we went we went to explore the Allison Creek area. This drive takes you on a dirt and gravel road up along Old Man River, which apparently is a good one for river rafting. Unfortunately, the road left the river before we knew it and mom never got a picture of it.



This road also turned out to be a good one for wildflowers. We came across a huge filed of these pink flowers on long stocks. Of course, mom slammed on the brakes to takes some photos. There I am alone in the car on a road in the middle of nowhere and along come these huge dump trucks that start dumping right where I am and the next thing I know This huge piece of heavy equipment is headed right for me! Yikes!



We continued the loop and it was a long one. At the summit we came across a firefighting out post and naturally mom stopped to blabber and take a couple of photos which already published over at Simply Photos if you'd care to see them.



We finally did find Chinook Lake. It's a pretty little lake not far from the highway and right beneath Crowsnest Mountain. This photo was taken on Thursday and ....




This photo was taken on Friday. During the night a big storm blew in and dumped a pot load of snow on the mountain peaks. The sunrise that morning was spectacular! Please see Rocky Mountain Morning . This was the shot that almost got away. Mom took it in her PJ's!


That pretty much sums up our second trip to southern Alberta. It was another great one and I recommend exploring around in this area if you ever get the cahnce. Some very beautiful scenery around these parts.

Until next time.

©Kinsey Barnard Photography

Ho! Ho! Ho! It's Back to Alberta We Go! Part 1

Well, off we went like a herd of turtles. You may recall we were up there a couple of weeks ago and had to return early on account of I was off my feed. So, we packed up Clementine, hooked up Shadow and back to Crowsnest Pass we went. We ended up at an RV park in Blairmore called the Lost Lemon. Wow! Was it a lemon. Worst RV park we ever stayed at. People were so crammed into this place the awning of one unit touched another. Usually, I like to park myself outside while mom does her work but not here. I couldn't get in Clem fast enough. Mom needs electricity for all her equipment and there are not a lot of choices in this area. If you can live with just electricity we later found a really nice provincial park at Lundbreck.



Not only is the park way nicer but get a load of these falls! They are called the Lundbreck Falls and are on the Crowsnest River.



Back to mom's favorite old saw about clouds and silver linings, the wildflowers this go around were really great. They were all over the place. This particular bloom we found on Miner's Path just up the road in Coleman. It's a nice little path that ends at a small waterfall. You can see more of the wildflowers we saw at mom's Simply Photos Blog




We did a whole lot of driving around this trip mostly because mom kept missing turns an getting lost but the thing about it is we learned a lot. You can really find stuff when you're lost! For instance, Albertans have a great sense of humor as can be seen from this ranch sign. And, let me tell you, they had some beautiful asses out in the pasture! I woulda chased anyone of them!



And, at least here in southern Alberta, Montanans have a whole lot in common with Albertans. It's the same western flavor. This is truly cattle country. And, awesomely beautiful. Mom really loves it! Course, when mom was a little girl she dreamed of being Annie Oakley while other little girls dreamed of Barbie. Don't tell her I said so but I think she turned out more like Calamity Jane! :)

Stay tuned for part two. Mom finally finds Chinook Lake and Old Man River. No kidding, it's really called Old Man River!

©Kinsey Barnard Photography

Waterton Wildflower Festival

Surprise! Surprise! We are on the road again! We just decided to pack our bags and head over to Waterton, Alberta. Didn't arrive until late afternoon and it wasn't until we got here that we found out it was the annual wildflower festival. When we got here there were very few people and very few wildflowers.


Wednesday we took the hike up to Bertha Lake. It's not far, just a little under 5 klicks, but it's mostly straight up. No problem for moi but I noticed you know who doing some huffing and puffing. We were in the snow by the time we got to the lake so there wasn't much you could do once you got there. Mom thought the most scenic thing about this hike was this view of Waterton Lake. In the afternoon we went over to check out the buffalo at the Bison Paddock. Bison Photos


Thursday we took a drive up to Pincher Creek just to see the countryside. It's quite rural and pretty. Being on the east side of the rockies, the plains stretch out before you as far as the eye can see. Lots of cattle ranching and some of the most beautiful bulls we've seen.



One things for sure there is a lot of water running around in Waterton Park. The late spring has put the wildflowers back a couple of weeks but there is water runing out of these mountains everywhere. Mom spent the afternoon taking photos of the new fawns around town and I took a siesta. Fawn Photos



From a wildflower point of view we haven't seen a lot. Yesterday it was looking like they were finally starting to bloom. Then last night a big storm blew in so who knows what we'll find today.

That pretty much sums up our week. It was a stellar one for sure. Hope yours was too!

Geraldine & Horseshoe Lakes

September 8, 2007

Well, for crying out loud! There wasn’t a lot of sleep going on around here last night. About two o’clock this morning the heater blower came on and all it was blowing was freezing cold air. Not that cold air bother’s me so much. Mom got up and started trying to figure out what the heck was going on. I could hear her mumbling about the heater being broken. She finally drug out the old manual and discovered that when the temperature goes below freezing outside the electric heater doesn’t work and you have to switch to gas. I sure wish she would get this stuff figured out. I need my beauty sleep! Finally, at about 2:30 it was lights out again.

After the evenings follies we didn’t get off to a very early start. When we did head out it was to the Geraldine Lakes. The trail is down near Athabasca Falls on 93A. The trailhead is about 5 miles in on a single track, dirt road. The first Geraldine Lake is about 1.5 miles up the mountain. It really wasn’t worth the climb. There is a big waterfall at the far end. We tried to get to it but threw in the towel after scrambling over boulders for a time and concluding we were never going to get close enough to for any kid of a photo. Mom read in a hiking book that the Geraldine Lakes beyond are pretty cool but it was more scrambling up the mountain over rocks and boulders so we decided to pass. Well, mom decided, I woulda done it! As it was, mom took a pretty good flier coming down the mountain. She slipped on a wet tree root and planted her behind right in the mud! She did take a bunch of photos of native plants. She loves plants and stuff you find in the forest.

Our next stop was Horseshoe Lake. The lake is only about a five-minute walk from the highway but it’s quite pretty. It was kind funny really because we had just slogged up this muddy trail to the first Geraldine for not much of a site and here was this very beautiful lake practically on the road. Of course, there isn’t much serenity here for that very reason. Apparently, lots of people come to this lake to jump off the rocks. Yikes! I wouldn’t like that. I like cold but I’m not all that fussy about water. Humans sure can be nutty!

We headed back to the campground. I stayed outside and held court on the picnic table. I don’t know what mom was doing probably some editing. After awhile some elk came wandering by and I made quite the ruckus and had to come in. That was the end of my day.

Until next time ....

JASPER, ATHABASCA & THE VALLEY OF THE FIVE LAKES

September 7, 2007

Well, we finally had a morning without mishap. The only problem was it was raining and the mountains were shrouded in clouds. We took off at 7:00 am anyway. Our first idea was to go to Edith Clavell Meadow. Unfortunately, the higher we went the more rain and clouds we ran into. We went as far as the hostel, turned around and went back down the mountain. Turns out dogs can’t go there right now anyway as they are doing some kind of Caribou reclamation project. They didn’t want my kind disturbing them. It seems wolves are caribou natural predators and dogs remind them of wolves. That being the case, imagine the impression I would make! That’s ok. We respect that sort of thing totally.

We headed on down 93A and came across a big bull elk fording the
Athabasca River. Thanks to poor lighting conditions, and me, mom didn’t get any keeper photographs. She misses more shots thanks to my irrational exuberance. As soon as she rolled down the window I tried to jump out while making a pretty impressive racket. I don’t mean to do it. I just can’t seem to control myself when I see wildlife. I just want to get after it and completely forget my manners.

A little farther down the road the same thing happened again only this time it was a pair of wolves, one tawny and one black. The tawny was huge and wore a radio collar. The black was much smaller and I couldn’t tell if it had a collar or not. Anyway, I repeated my performance trying to jump out the window and screeching my lungs out. I thought mom was going to strangle me. The thing is, I’m usually in a crate but Shadow is too small so I’m just in the backseat. As soon as a window goes down I’m there. I know mom’s windmill of a mind is working overtime on a solution. I hope it isn’t too awful. I really am sorry but I seriously can’t help myself. Anyway, I thought these guys might be cousins or something. I wanted to get their attention!

We continued on down 93A. Mom was not a happy camper. We stopped at Athabasca Falls. The place was crawling with tourists and it was raining. I got left in the car while mom went to check it out. Bummer.



We then headed back north on the Icefields Parkway (93) and stopped at a spot where they launch white water rafts on the Athabasca River. We walked along the riverbank for about an hour. Mom took some photos of mushrooms and stuff and a little animal mom later identified it as a pine marten. After that we called it a morning. Went back to the campground, ate lunch and took a siesta.

Around two thirty we hit 93 South again. It was still mostly cloudy. We headed for The Valley of the Five Lakes. This is a really neat place to hike. We got rained on some but we also had some sunny moments. The trail is well traveled but since we were there later in the day there were not very many people around. The five lakes, which apparently don’t have names just numbers, are crystal clear and some have that incredible green/blue/turquoise color. We spent about three hours hiking around these lakes and I think mom may have gotten one or two photographs that met her standards. This was especially good, as she gets a little cranky when she doesn’t get any photos that light her candle, so to speak. ☺

That’s about it for this day. Hope the weather is better tomorrow.

Until next time ...

Lakota Sunrise

©Kinsey Barnard

LAKE LOUISE TO JASPER

Bow Lake

September 06, 2007

We got up bright and early to be on our way to Jasper. But, Shadow did it to us again. This time the battery was dead. At first, mom thought it was because she had left the key in the unlocked position, even though she had disconnected everything else. We looked all over the park for help but no one was awake. We finally found one big bus with some lights on and knocked. A lady appeared in her robe. We were very sorry to disturb her. In the brief conversation it dawned on mom that there was nothing wrong with Clementine so we could drive to a gas station, which we did. Only problem was they didn’t do anything but sell gas. They sent us off to an auto mechanic but when we got there we found it had gone out of business. We spied some kind of Canadian government office and went in. They weren’t allowed to jump batteries but let us use the phone to call AAA. The nearest tow company was in Banff so we waited around for an hour and a half. It took the guy exactly 20 seconds to start Shadow with a portable battery charger. Sheesh! We should have one of those things. We were finally off at 10:30. That little adventure cost us about two hours.

After mom got done beating herself up for being so stupid she realized that probably the reason the battery went dead was because we hadn’t driven Shadow for several weeks and then we hooked that braking thing up and it just sapped what was left of the juice. It may explain the trouble we had yesterday. The battery was just giving up.

It’s a beautiful drive up the up the Ice Fields Parkway to Jasper. Many say it's the most beautiful drive in the world and I certainly wouldn't argue. But, it was cloudy and rainy most all of the way. We made a quick stop at Bow Lake and an even quicker stop at the Columbia Ice Fields. That old glacier is getting very tired looking and is not the least bit photogenic. We stopped long enough to start Shadow and let her run ten minutes just in case.


We pulled in to the Whistler campground in Jasper at about 2:30 pm. Thank goodness we had reservations because the place was sold out except for dry camping sites. We got a really nice spot. Mom got us all set up in about an hour and we took off for a hike. We drove up 16 to the Maligne Lake turnoff and went to the “sixth bridge” trail which is at the confluence of the Athabasca and Maligne rivers. There are number of pretty little trails to follow in this general area. We took #7, which follows the Maligne.

After a couple of hours of walking we called it a day. Before going to our campsite we went to check out the other side of the campground and found a great big old bull elk and a couple of cows. Mom, naturally, pulled out her trusty Nikon and fired off a few shots!

That was our day, this day. Looking forward to tomorrow. I know I’m going to get to hike!

Until next time….

Lakota Sunrise

©KinseyBarnard

BANFF, JASPER, YOHO, KOOTENAY, THE CANADIAN ROCKIES

WE ARE BACK! And, what a cool adventure we had. We hiked in Jasper, Banff, Kootenay and Yoho National Parks. We made new friends all along the way. Mom held me up with her photography the whole time but I'll bet she got some great photographs for you to see and the photography IS what it's all about. But, crikey, she gets wound up in it. I've never seen anyone get so lost behind a little black box. I'd best be counting my blessings. If it weren't for her obsession I wouldn't get to see nearly as much. :)

As promised I kept a daily journal so I could tell you about our journey. Starting tomorrow I will be posting those entries probably about one every other day. I like to be able to link you to photographs of the things I'm talking about. You know what they say, "A picture's worth a thousand words". Mom has her work cut out for her. I'm pretty sure she took at least a kajillion.

Until tomorrow ......

©Kinsey Barnard

BON VOYAGE CANADA HERE WE COME!

Hey, hey, hey! We are on our way!

Our next big adventure begins in just a couple of hours. Clementine is packed, Shadow is attached and mom is racing around like a banchee!

I'm not really sure how long we will be away. Mom always has a definite launch date but the returns are kinda iffy. My guess is that we will be gone around two weeks. Since we won't have internet access in Canada I won't be posting again until our return. But, not to worry. I will be keeping a daily diary and will regale you with tales from the road upon our return. :)

Scott our friend and neighbor will be looking after things here at the ranch. That's him in the photo with me. Thank you Scott!

Well, I'm just too excited to sit here another minute! I'm gonna go get under mom's feet. She always loves that when she's trying to get ready for a departure. :)

Until next time.......

©Kinsey Barnard