Mr. and Mrs. GeoK enjoyed a 3 hour stroll this morning, pausing frequently to take photographs of many interesting sights. Here are some of our favourites:

We’ve been wondering where the herd of elk is that likes to range around Three Sisters Creek in the winter. Today we discovered about 50 animals foraging on a couple of holes on the unfinished Three Sisters golf course. The bull was placid, only looking up from his grazing when our crampons crunched into icy patches.

Coal mining was a big thing in Canmore around a hundred years ago. There are at least a couple of sealed-off mine entrances near the Three Sisters Parkway. Today we found this old building from the same era – maybe the manager’s office / house?

After leaving the old mining building, we walked along a narrow path that seemed like it was at the bottom of a trench. An old power line(?) still crosses above the trail, complete with some sort of insulators.

Mr. GeoK’s close up of one of the attachments to the old power(?) line

As we walked through the woods down towards the Bow River, we photographed several types of lichen, including this foliose lichen.

…and this tree stump growing multiple lichens…

…and this fallen log growing even more lichens, including tiny mushrooms-shapes.

Once we descended to the banks of the Bow River, Mr. GeoK captured this amazing picture of Grotto Mountain and its reflection.

Finally, as we headed back home, the sun ducked behind the biggest of the Three Sisters, creating a halo effect and illuminating the remnants of a contrail. Beautiful!

Because we stopped so frequently, we covered just over 2 km/hr, for a total of 6.7 km (including an significant backtrack when we couldn’t find a safe spot to cross a tributary of the Bow). We stuck mainly to new-to-us game trails, and came across some great sites for taking pictures and maybe even some new geocache hiding spots. All-in-all, it was a great day to be outdoors, enjoying the sunshine and all that Mother Nature has to show us.