Avalanche

In the foreground is Lake Louise, in the background is Mount Lefroy.  What looks to be a waterfall is actually an avalanche.  We heard and saw several at a distance today.

Mac's

Mac's is a chain of convenience stores in Canada.  I think Jared would buy his sandwiches at Mac's if he lived in Calgary.

Falafel, Donair, Shawarma

Mobile street stall set up on Stephens Avenue, Calgary.  I haven't bought a donair there yet but imagine they are yummy.

Bunny Rabbit

I photographed this baby bunny beside the sidewalk on the way to work this morning.

Prince of Wales

A view of the Prince of Wales hotel from the marina at Waterton.  Waterton National Park is on the Canadian / USA border and the boat in the foreground travels between Waterton and the ranger station at Goat Haunt, Montana.

Striped Coral Root

An orchid that lives in the rockies.  I had to get really low to take this shot.  It is no more than a foot tall.

Springtime in Waterton - Fox and kits

This vixen was having trouble controlling her kits.  They were a pretty rambunctious bunch.  She snapped and yipped to move them along.  I counted 5 kits.

Springtime in Waterton - Doe and fawn

This young fawn was still wobbly.  There are a lot of mule deer in Waterton townsite where these two were.  We also saw some ewes with lambs on a very steep mountain side from a trail but they were a good ways off and I didn't have a telephoto with me.

Enjoying the Wild Flower Festival

A black bear (who happens to be more cinnamon colored) enjoying the Waterton Wild Flower Festival.  The bears really like dandelions and all of them I saw were eating them.

Wild Violet

A portrait of a wild violet in Waterton National Park.  Compare the creamy blur and the simple background here to the mess in the orchid picture I posted previously.

Waterton

We spent the last four days in Waterton National Park where they are having a wild flower festival.  There are classes on identifying flowers, walks to see the flowers, classes on photographing the flowers, and about everything else on the flowers.

This is a view of the town of Waterton from the Bears Hump.

Moose Mountain

Moose Mountain summit can be seen over the saddle and up the ridge from this round cairn which is located on the Dome.  It was a beautiful warm sunny day today and the snow is melting.  The sky was brilliant blue but I thought the shot looked better in Black and White.  Moose Mountain was the location for the film Brokeback Mountain.

Peyto Lake

It was dreary weather with light snow when this was taken - even so, the color the lake is known for is still evident.  Since this is one of the more scenic spots in the Canadian Rockies, I need to go back when the sun is out.  The glacier is well up the valley to the left and out of sight in this photo.

Along the Icefield Parkway...

the bears are out.  This fellow found some tender new grass to chow on.

Columbia Icefields

The top photo with the busses on their way to the tourist drop-off gives an idea of scale.  The bus shown on location in the bottom photo is actually on about 1000' feet of ice.  It seems kind of touristy, but you can take a guided walk if you prefer, and it isn't really possible to comprehend it until getting out on it.  One of the more striking things to me is the morraine on the sides which is clearly evident in the lower left of the top picture.  You can drink the melt water...

Lake Louise

This is Lake Louise as seen from the Little Beehive. The water really is that blue, and is caused by very fine particles scraped by the glacier and in suspension. The glacier water drains into the head of the lake through the brown delta just visible in the lower center. For comparison, you can just see Mirror Lake near the lower right third (just to the left of the lower part of the pine tree) which is a pale kind of clear pea green and is not glacier fed.

Lake Louise, looking towards the chateau and Hwy 1 as seen from the path to the Little Beehive.

Black Bear near the Ice Fields Parkway

We saw three black bears and a grizzly off the Ice Fields Parkway today.  The grizzly had two cubs and was in fairly dense brush so no pictures (I was smart enough not to go in after her).  This black bear was the best picture I got - at least partially because I didn't set my camera correctly for some of the shots.

Note to self:  make sure your camera is in the f/8 range and shutter speed is at least 1/300...

Fallen Tree

Trees that fall in cold water lakes can last a very long time so I don't know how long this one has been here.  It was cold and messy today with a fair amount of rain at times.  Here at Vermillion Lake I did see a beaver, a bald eagle, a herd of elk, and for the first time an elk calf as dusk fell.  Teresa and David saw a grizzly just over into British Columbia but I didn't really stop due to the bear jam that seemed to be forming.

Lake Minnewanka

Mountain Whitefish

Dave with one of several mountain whitefish caught on a small nymph in Lake Minnewanka.  He also caught the only lake trout.  We were fishing from a boat with a guide.  In the meantime, I photographed a bald eagle (pretty far in the distance though) and an avalanche (also pretty far in the distance and not that large to begin with).  The weather was variable with everything from a little rain and some hail to sunshine.

Rundle from Tunnel Mountain

Here is another view from a while back when there was more ice and the golf course was still brown.

A shot of Cascade Ponds near this one shot last winter.

Elbow River

This mule deer was coming down the river as we stood watching on a pedestrian bridge.  A dog started barking and startled her.  She sprang across the river and easily cleared 5 feet vertically to gain the bank on the other side.