British Columbia Day Trip 01-27-12

One of the benefits of living where I do is my proximity to British Columbia. It takes me about five minutes to get there.

Friday I was suffering a little cabin fever so I decided to drive up to BC to see what I might see. One thing for certain, the Kootenay Rockies were looking awesomely beautiful. I stopped by the Kootenay River near Kikomun Provincial Park. If you are in to camping this is a great little park. I've not ever seen it crowded in ten years and unless it's a national holiday I practically have the place to myself. The park is closed for the winter so I just drove on down to the river. At this point the river is frozen and covered with snow so not much to see except for breathtaking vistas of the Kootenay Rockies.

From there I headed up to the Bull River, the Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep Project and the Kootenay Trout Hatchery. I stopped first at the Project which is right on the Bull River. The Bull was frozen over as well and there wasn't a sheep in sight.

Just across the road is the Kootenay Trout Hatchery. I love this place. It's open year round although it's a bit quiet at this time of year.

What keeps me coming back are the grounds which are really beautiful. Just to the west of the hatchery building is a small creek which is home to a number of birds, primarily mallard ducks. I'd not been to the hatchery at this time of year and was surprised and amazed at the number of mallards present. I'll bet there was half a thousand. I thought ducks flew south for the winter. Obviously, some of these had but this was as far south as they cared to go.

These are very wild and wary birds. The instant they got wind of me some started to take to the air. As soon as I started shooting the rest rose up in squadrons. I was using my Nikon D300 and whilst many positive things can be said about it shutter noise isn't one of them. The thing sounds like a gatling gun as it fires off 6 frames per second.

As I was leaving the hatchery what did I spy in the road ahead? The whole bloody flock of big horn sheep including the rams which, despite having hiked the project 50 times I had never laid eyes on. The rams were looking in very good condition. But, the one thing I noticed was that there were not very many lambs given the number of ewes. I have no idea what is normal but it did strike me as odd.

Below are some photos of the things that I saw on my trip to BC.

Snow covered Kootenay Rockies with the snow covered Kootenay River in the Foreground

Mallards taking flight at the trout hatchery

Below is one of my favorite photographs taken of a trout at the Kootenay Trout Hatchery

Big Horn ram

Big Horn rams

©Kinsey Barnard

Kootenay Trout Hatchery

I took a little wander up into B.C. and stopped by the Kootenay Trout Hatchery. The drive up was really lovely as we are still getting snow and the Kootenay Rockies were gleaming with fresh fallen snow and pastures are turning into green velvet carpets.

Kootenay Rockies

I always stop in at the hatchery any time I'm in the area because it's a very nice little campus and there's no telling what you might see.

The Kootenay Trout Hatchery raises approximately 2 million trout, kokanee salmon, char and white sturgeon annually and provides research facilities for biologists. Lakes throughout British Columbia are stocked with these rainbow, brook and cutthroat trout to enhance recreational fishing opportunities. White sturgeon are also raised here as part of conservation programs for the Columbia and Kootenay Rivers.

At the entrance to the hatchery there is a moat with trout swimming in it. Some of them are REALLY big. This was  the first time I've been that the water wasn't clear,  algae was floating on the surface. Clearly temps are rising.

Inside the facility is chock full of displays and information.  The photo below is of  young brook trout in a display aquarium. The trout were lovely but the fascinating thing, to me, about this photo is that it was taken practically in the dark without a flash. Oh, the marvels of digital technology. The camera I was using has a max ISO of 3200 which is what made this image possible.

Your tour is self guided which I like. The main room in the facility is what they call the "trough" room. It's kind of like a trout nursery, each of these troughs has thousands of tiny fish swarming in them.

But, the main reason I always stop in is because you never know what wildlife you may find on the grounds outside. There is a lovely pond on the west side of the facility that form time to time will have a variety of birds. This particular day all there were only a few mallards paddling around but I have seen osprey, heron, eagles and hawks. I was there smack dab in the middle of the day which isn't prime time for viewing or photographing wildlife. This because I spent the morning over at Kikiomun Provinvcial Park. I'm still working on the images I collected at the park. Still, I always like watching the ducks. I just never tire of observing wildlife.

Mallard in Flight

The grounds are lovely even if for just a stroll and a picnic and there are some very nice aspen standing about. I was able to make this image of lichen on aspen which struck me as extraordinary.


Lichen on Aspen by Kinsey Barnard

If you're in the area and want to check it out, the hatchery is located just a few miles off highway 3 on Wardner/Fort Steele Road bewteen Fernie and Cranbrook. It's open 365 days a year eight to four.

©Kinsey Barnard Photography

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Kootenay River and the Rocky Mountain Sheep Project B.C.

Deer and Big Horn Sheep - Images by Kinsey Barnard

Its looking more and more like spring is already here and winter isn’t coming back. I was at my desk this morning when I heard “Yaak, yaak yaak!” I looked out the window and there on the pond was a mallard! Seems a little early for him but there you have it.

I made my first 2010 foray into British Columbia on Wednesday. First stop Kikomun Provincial Park. I thought maybe I could sneak in even though it doesn’t officially open until May 1 but the gate was locked.

I headed for Kikomun Bridge and the Kootenay River. As an aside, in the U.S. the river’s name is spelled Kootenai. At this location the river was still mostly frozen over but in other places it’s completely open and flowing free.

Kootenay River Ice Image

I learned something this week about Canada. We all know it is a sparsely populated country. But, for some reason it had never registered how sparsely. The entire country has fewer than 34 million souls. That’s less than California, which has around 37 million. And Canada is a very big country ranking number four in land mass in the world. Because this is so I can just stop right on the bridge and fool around as much as I want and not be in anyone's way.

What I observed from the bridge was a bald eagle and his eagless sitting on the ice. It looked like they had just finished a fish breakfast. You also get a fabulous view of the Canadian Rockies from this location. Unfortunately, a smoky veil hung over them, as it is now open burn season.

Bald Eagle and eagless Image

Next I wanted to check out the Rocky Mountain Sheep Project and the Bull River. On the way I thought I saw something interesting down the bank on the shore of the Kootenay. I unloaded Koty and we searched for a way down the bluff. I did find something interesting and this is what I found, a Kootenay Illusion.

Kootenay Illusion

Kootenay Illusion will go into my limited edition collection.



Koty found something interesting too, the little rotter! We had had to cross a railroad track to get to the river. A poor elk had fallen prey to a cowcatcher and was rotting on the tracks. Before I knew it Koty had one shoulder down in it. That’s my boy!

Koty Explores Kootenay Ice

The Rocky Mountain Sheep Project is a great place to hike and catch a glimpse of wildlife, most likely Mountain Sheep. The Project is right on the Bull River. In the spring after the water settles down from the runoff this river is the most beautiful glacial colors you’ve ever seen.

Bull River Image

We hiked in the Project for a couple of hours and never saw anything but a couple of black tail deer. It will be different in the spring. The whole sheep herd will come to the meadow and it’s quite a beautiful sight.

From the trails you can get great views of the west side of the Kootenay Rockies. The snow pack looks a little light for this time of year, not surprising considering the mildness of the winter.

Kootenay Rockies Image

Back at the ranch I was greeted by about 25 mule deer in various states of repose around the house. After speaking with the welcoming committee it was time to kick back and watch the sun set.

Dancing Deer Sunset



©Kinsey Barnard