Hiking, biking and other adventures (mostly) in the Canadian Rockies
Street photographers would respond to this month's theme with portraits of fascinating people. For nature/landscape photographers, the transition of summer to fall is rich with everything from flowers, to autumn leaves and blue skies. Add five days of Beakerhead to the mix for a wide range of colourful subjects.
Cooler autumn temperatures and a bit of precipitation finally put out most of the forest fires in BC and Alberta. As the skies cleared and the summer crowds thinned out, we closed out the 2017 conventional hiking season with an up and back hike to the high point along the Iceline Trail in Yoho National Park. The majority of the trail is across barren landscape that was covered by glaciers just a hundred years ago. Pioneering alpine shrubs added touches of warm, fall colour to the rocky terrain - a beautiful contrast to the icy pools of turquoise glacier melt.
While Sunshine is most well-known for skiing, the summer gondola and shuttle bus service make Sunshine Meadows one of the most accessible alpine hiking areas in the Canadian Rockies from late June through late September. For some, its a starting point for backpacking adventures to Mt. Assiniboine or the Egypt/Pharoah Lakes area. For dayhikers like us, prime times to visit Sunshine Meadows are during peak wildflower season (usually towards the end of July) and peak larch viewing season (usually towards the end of September). Our most recent larch season visit was timed just about perfectly and reaffirmed that it's well worth the effort to do at least one golden larch hike each fall.
Calgary's fall season is usually short, with leaves transitioning from green to yellow to the ground within a few weeks. Thanks to a heavy accumulation of snow in mid-September, the fall of 2014 started early and abruptly. Since then the weather's been quite mild. The result? Quite a few trees are still sporting leaves...and some …
We're just back from a restful and relaxing weekend in Canmore. Did a few projects around our place out there, a little geocache maintenance, attended the world premier of a short film we helped fund (check out if you're interested), and enjoyed a walk along the Riverside Trail. The fall colours are fabulous right now. …
Continue reading Photo Essay: Fabulous Fall Colours in Canmore
