National Bison Range-10-02-09

Headed straight for the Bison Range. The Range is one of my favorite places. When I got there I checked in at the center and saw a sign saying "Free Today". Made no never mind to me. I always have a park pass. I certainly have gotten my money's worth out of it this year. I think I've been to about seven or eight national parks this year.

I soon found out the reason for the sign. No buffalo viewing today as they were moving the herd and they were out of bounds. Good grief, I've been turned back everywhere I have gone this trip. But, as I walked back to Clem I hear an elk bugle and knew all was not lost. I soon found the old boy wandering along Mission Creek

Bull Elk

A little further down the creek I found a troop of white tail deer.

White Tail Buck

The other animal that you will see a lot of on this range are pronghorn. Pronghorn are the only antelope we have on this continent and they are the second fastest land mammal. Only the cheetah is faster. They are really fun to watch. You can't believe how fast they are and they can turn on a dime.


Pronghorn Buck

This little fella didn't have much of a rack but he did have a harem.


Pronghorn Does

This one cracks me up!

Smiling Pronghorn

She looks like she's smiling doesn't she? It also looks like the picture has been Photo Shopped. It hasn't been. I don't use Photo Shop. Probably the only photographer on the planet who doesn't. What I think is going on here is when pronghorn are uncertain they blow air through their mouths. It puffs up their cheeks and parts their lips.

This is My Favorite Pronghorn Image

The trick, at least for me, in shooting wildlife is to capture them in a landscape setting. I bill myself as a nature and wildlife photographer but what I really am is a landscape photographer who gets lucky enough now and again to find a beautiful wild thing in the landscape. Such moments are not easy to come by.

Timing in life is everything and whilst I'm certain I took some nice shots of stock quality I have my doubts that I took any that will find their way into the limited edition portfolio.

Ansel Adams said that if he got 12-15 photographs it was a very good year. That's about my rate. I probably take four or five thousand photos each year which is nothing in the digital age. But, I still practice the same economy of shooting I did when I was shooting $15 Velvia. Oh, maybe I am a little less careful but not much. I don't believe in firing for effect just because it's free. When I find a shot I like I generally take a couple of backup shots from different angles. Nine times out of ten the first shot is THE shot.

By my definition, photographs are few and far between. Pictures are as common as dirt.

On the way out I saw the Bull elk again. He saw me too.

Bull Elk

There are great views of the Mission Mountains. I was looking at their backside when we were at Holland Lake

Mission Creek is also quite picturesque.

Mission Creek

I did see a little fall color. Little being the operative word.

A Little Fall Color


©Kinsey Barnard

Florence, Loon Lake, Perpetua, Heceta, Yachats .....

Ok, my bad! I haven't been keeping up with






blogging! But, that's what happens when you're having too much fun.

We've done a lot of hiking and you know that makes me very happy. I can never get enough of that!

Sunday afternoon we wandered around the Port of Siuslaw which is in Florence. We also window shopped in "Old Town" which was fun cuz everyone had to make a fuss over me! Dang, if I'm not the handsomest fellow! :)

Since I last checked in we have been to Loon Lake, not very pretty in winter. The Dean Creek elk wildlife viewing place on the road over to Roseburg. I gotta say, the elk over here look like midgets compared to the ones we have in Montana. The funniest thing I saw was a seagull sitting on the sign that said "Watchable Wildlife". :)

Yesterday was the best. We were gone all day. We started out driving up the coast. Made a quick stop at Heceta Head but I wasn't even allowed out of the car so I guess there wasn't anything happening there. We continued on up to Cape Perpetua. Spent practically the whole time there. There are trails everywhere and we tried most of them. There are some really cool ones that go high up the mountain on the east side of 101 and have way good views of the ocean below.

Mom also spent a lot of time trying to photograph waves. Sounds like a stupid thing to do to me but, oh well. She musta taken a gazillion photos trying to get the "perfect" wave. How nutty is that? It must be hard though cuz she kept cussin and snapping! I thought she was going to wear that camera out! Me I was having fun watching those great big waves crash on the rocks and gettin in that foamy stuff they leave on the shore. There was also a blow hole that was really spouting. First time it went off I nearly jumped out of my skin!

From Perpetua we continued on up the coast to Yachats. It's a quaint little coastal town. We wondered around there for awhile and then headed back down the coast. We stopped in again at Heceta Head. Seems like we go in there every time we pass by. I have no idea why. Must be something mom is trying to capture.

Anyway, by the time we got back to Clementine it was nearly dark so we called it a day!

© Kinsey Barnard

Yoho National Park - Takakkaw Fall - Emerald Lake

Today we drove over to Yoho National Park. The first stop was at the spiral tunnels. These tunnels were designed to slow trains descending the Rockies. You can't eally see much at viewing stop unless a train is actually coming down the mountain. We didn't time it right so there wasn't much to see.

We then headed for Takakkaw Falls. The road up to the falls is interesting. At one curve, the hairpin is so tight if you're driving anything bigger that a compact car you literally have to stop and backup in order to get around it. Of course, our little Shadow zipped right around.

Takakkaw Falls are pretty big. Mom fiddled around for a couple of hours trying to get some kind of shot but wasn't able to get anything worth a hoot. She decided we needed to come back in the late afternoon if she was to have a shot at a shot, if you know what I mean. On the way back down the mountain we stopped to watch some elk doing their mating ritual and from there we headed on over to Emerald Lake. There is a very pretty Lodge on this lake and you can buy a sandwich if you want. On the way over to Emerald mom spotted a cow elk standing in the Emerald River. It was a photo to die for. It was also a photo we didn't get. Just as mom got into position the elk walked off. Drat! I hate it when this happens. After Emerald Lake we went back to Lake Louise for lunch and to wait for afternoon light.

At about 4:00pm we headed back to Takakkaw Falls. Mom gave it the old college try but she still wasn't able to come up with anything to put in her gallery. Just so's you can see it's here on the left. It was almost dark when mom finally gave up and packed up. As we drove back down a mountain rose up before us in the near dark. Mom got all excited because she thought it was so beautiful. For pity sakes girl, a mountains is a mountain. But oh no not to my mom. She stopped the car and set up right in the middle of the road. Thank goodness we were the only ones left up there because there is no shoulder and the road is plenty narrow. She got her photo of Cathedral Mountain and it turned out to be a stunner!

With that the day was done and so were we!

LAKOTA SUNRISE

©Kinsey Barnard

Pyramid Mountain, Patricia & Pyramid Lakes, Big Horns & Elk

Before I get back to our Canadian story I have to tell you, true to her word, mom did take me for a walk along the Tobacco River and the fall colors were just awesome. The walk was a gift to both of us!



September 10, 2007

We started the day at Patricia Lake. This little lake and Pyramid Lake are very close to Jasper township. Looks to me like a place where local people would come to play, swimming and canoeing and such. But, the thing about Patricia is the view of Pyramid Mountain. Pyramid looks pretty much like its namesake. It provides an impressive backdrop for Jasper. Patricia sits smack dab in front of it. Mom could tell there was a photo op here. The mountain is reflected in the lake and early calm water could produce a stunning photograph. We were just a little too late for this day but made a date with ourselves to return first thing tomorrow morning.

From Patricia we continued on to Pyramid Lake, which is only a stones throw further down the road. There looks to be a very nice lodge on this lake, which is also pretty but does not have the same view of the mountain as Patricia.

By this time I was getting rambunctious for a walk so we went to the end of the tarmac road and took off down and a closed dirt road that ran along the lake. For no particular reason we took one of the many side trails that went down to the waters edge. While I was sniffing all the glorious odors we heard what sounded like a fish jump. But, mom thought it sounded like too heavy a splash for a fish. Course, she could have been very wrong about that because just a few minutes earlier at Patricia a fisherman had told us the rainbow trout in these parts get really big. He said the record taken from Maligne Lake was twenty-two pounds! Now, that’s a lot of trout! But mom was right, on this occasion, because as we stood there looking out over the lake a beautiful loon popped up right in front of us. Make this photograph as big as you can. What's going on with the water is very interesting.

We continued on up the road but after awhile the road turned away from the lake and we turned back. When we got back to the parking area it was just a short stroll down to where you can walk out to Pyramid Island. This is a very pretty little island that has a footbridge to reach it and very nice views. I point these things out because I think you might be interested. Personally, I could give a fig. My nose was in overdrive. There were so many incredible aromas. So many smells to chase, so little time. Soon we headed back to the RV Park for lunch and a siesta.

Late this afternoon we headed out to see if mom could get some shots of mountain goats or big horn sheep. They are known to hang on the cliffs out along highway 16 north of Jasper. We didn't find any goats but we did find some Big Horns but ewes only. On the way we stopped to wander along the Miette River and made a stop at the Palisades (pictured) interpretive site.

At Palisades we took off for a little walk and very shortly ran into a gal that said she had come across a bull elk if we cared to photograph it. Well, it was back to the car for me. Mom changed camera lenses because she assumed she would need her telephoto. As mom tells it, it turned out to be the wrong assumption. Apparently, she nearly fell over the thing as he was sitting in the shadows right along the trail. He could have cared less about her presence and wasn’t in the least inclined to move from his repose. There wasn’t much in the way of a photograph either. The shorter lens would have been just fine! Better in fact.

That pretty much took care of this day.

©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