A watery Sunday ramble

I have to admit me and Sean didn't completely think the idea through. Two retired guys, thinking about going on a photo ramble and consulting their calendars and respective partners. Picking last Sunday for a variety of reasons that seemed good to them, probably most prominently that it didn't look like rain. Of which there's been a lot of lately.

We started at Big Hill Spring's provincial park. There have been previous visits, here, here, and here. There may be other visits, or photos from these visits in other blog posts. Finding them is an exercise for the student.

There were only a few cars in the parking lot when we arrived, though our visit mostly overlapped with a group that included several small children. However, all were well behaved, and when I say that, I mean they stayed out of the places we wanted to take photos from.

To make a long story short, because I know you come here to see the photos, that was the last empty parking lot we saw that day. We bypassed Cochrane and headed out 1A. Neither of us had been out that way in a long time and wanted to see if there were interesting vistas or access to the Bow River. We stopped at two places along Ghost Reservoir. There was parking, just barely, and the place was aswarm with people dealing with their watercraft. There were a couple of photos, but nothing to get excited about. 

Heading west from there we saw a lot of signs saying, Stoney Nation, no trespassing, no hunting, and a couple other no's. Fair enough. We kept going, slowly cruising through a full parking lot underneath Yamnuska. We stopped at Gap Lake and found the parking lot so full there were people parked everywhere a car would fit, with complete disregard for the no parking signs. It struck me that having a medical episode at the far end of the parking lot wouldn't be a good idea. We got in and out, slowly, patiently. There is river access near Exshaw, and even some interesting looking driftwood. However, getting the right composition for it means wading into the Bow River, which I wasn't really up for. 

Going through Canmore and up the road leading to the Ha Ling peak parking lot was another exercise in patience. All the parking lots were full, with people parked in places clearly signed for no parking, and people walking along the twisty turny road. Somehow they've turned the water off in the inlet to Grassi Lake and doing construction. We debated heading down towards Spray Lakes, but ended up going back into town for lunch. 

Traffic in Canmore itself was a complete gong show, but that's to be expected this time of year. If we had thought it through more carefully, we would have picked a weekday. Like today, it's beautiful out, if on the smoking hot end of things. That seems to be our summer so far, rain or smoking hot. Linda is working hard to make sure the plants that don't get rain, get some water, and if we go a few days without rain, everything gets a drink. The lawn sort of oscillates between lush and jungle. Most years by mid-August it's dry and brown.

In one sense it's nice to see people out enjoying the great outdoors, because that's what it's for, and why they bought all the toys. But there certainly are a lot of them and not enough parking. I wouldn't be surprised if Canmore puts in some traffic restrictions on the 3 Sisters Parkway uphill from the Nordic Centre, like they did for a while down in Waterton, and at Maligne Lake.

But the photos, I hear you saying. We want the photos! All right already. Well, no, first a reminder that our brain does not see water like the camera does. Not even close. The camera can see it lots of different ways depending on the settings. I like trying to show the texture of water as it flows over rocks or down a waterfall, aiming more for the misty end of things rather than milky.

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Of the Day

Driftwood (NZ)

Film

Linda, well sort of. You'll have to trust me on this. That little dot way down the beach is her.

Newfoundland

So there's a story here. Well, near Chance Cove, actually. We stayed in a lovely AirBnB, and the host gifted us a photo very similar to this. We were out for a hike and discovered the place she had taken the photo. Just as I scrambled to the exact spot, a boat roared into the cove on the left. He zoomed around a bit, and back into the little grotto. I waited. And waited. Eventually he left, and I waited for the waves to settle. Damned if he didn't appear on the other side and do more of it. I waited. Then he threw the anchor overboard and broke out the fishing rods. I gave up and took the photo and headed home. It was about a 20 walk, and just as I was walking up to our house I saw that very same boat zooming into the harbour. There was some bad language, but I wasn't about to walk back and try again.

Polar bears

Why ever didn't I publish this, and maybe I did

90 days, or so ago

Flower

Landscape

Dino related