Manning Park, June 27, 2010 – Part two

Time to get back to posting the rest of our day trip to Manning Park on June 27th….I’ve adjusted the live writer saving to automatically save postings so that won’t happen again!  Loosing the whole posting because the computer froze up! that is.

So after leaving Rhododendron Flats we decided to head up to the alpine meadows….

The road to the meadows is paved until the look out, then continues on as gravel, very wash boardy I might add, to the meadows.   On this day the gate was still across, blocking access as the road is only opened when completely thawed out and dry.  We parked at the gate and walked up the road.  This being a view off towards the west.

This Chipmunk was out and about and watched us go by…

The road itself, in this case we’re looking back the way we’d come…

Here is a close up of some of that Moss Phlox growing on the bank….remember when we had been here in early June on the way back from our big trip, this same plant was in full flower in the lower level campground.

Beside’s the Phlox there were lots of wildflowers in bloom, this one is called ‘Ball head Water leaf’…

The shrill call alerted us to this obviously nursing mother Yellow Bellied Marmot….she was down in the rocks on the lower side of the road.

Avalanche lilies carpeted the area in spots.  If all conditions fall just right and the road opens right to the meadows at exactly the right time when the Avalanche Lilies are in full bloom, it is a sight to behold….unfortunately, usually by the time the road opens the lilies are over.  We’ve only managed to see them in all  their glory once.

Here is a close up…Avalanche Lilies, by the way, are a favorite food of Black Bears, so always be ‘bear aware’ when you are in areas where they are in flower.

One thinks of Violets as being delicate little flowers but look at these guys growing in a crack in rock and obviously thriving!

From the meadows road we headed back down and over to the Beaver Pond…

Like Rhododendron Flats, this is another road side attraction with a short trail from a parking lot down to the pond itself.  We always check it out because you just never know what you’ll see here.

This Sticky Geranium Flower was growing right beside the trail…

Then we spotted these ducklings…..Goldeneyes for sure…I think Barrow’s Goldeneye…one of the ‘cutest’ of the ducklings.

Here is a closer look ~ the others were buzzing around on the water like little wind up toys!

There’s mom…

She was more concerned about keeping this male Mallard away….this guy is loosing his heads bright green breeding color and going into his ‘eclipse’ plumage.

On the way back to the car we spotted this older duckling….obviously from a different clutch.

By now the day had clouded over and rain threatened but we headed to Strawberry Flats for the last walk of the day…

Strawberry flats is located just off of the road that leads to the ski hill…in winter this trail forms part of the cross country ski trail network and in summer is the starting point for a number of more lengthy hikes.

The area has changed a lot over the years as the trees get larger there are less open areas but even so there is still an abundance of wildflowers…

These ‘Chocolate’ or ‘Checkered’ Lily were a great find this day.

Here a patch of Indian Paintbrush with an understory of Wild Strawberries that gives the are it’s name…

Lots of these Early Blue Violets mixed in with the Strawberries as well.

Here is a shot with the violets, strawberries and one of those Chocolate Lilies.

Heading back to the car, the floor in the denser part of the forest was carpeted with Yellow Violets..

And finally, as we head for home, this Mule Deer was browsing on the fresh leafs.  Thus bringing to a conclusion another day at Manning Park ~ a place that never seems to disappoint.

Spring Trip 2010 – Day 36 – Wasa Lake P.P.

May 27th, it had poured all night and continued to pour as we made breakfast and packed up….the temperature had dropped to 4 degrees and the snow line was creeping down the mountains.  All night, every time the pounding rain had woke me up (being thankful I could still hear it because as long as it made noise it was ‘wet’ and not ‘white’), I’d been thinking about all those poor kids in their tents!

This was the uninviting view of the campsite….

another deer on the road as we made our way out to the main entrance….

and more looks of the soggy scene….showing the creeping snowline…

one final look back – don’t let these pictures deter you – Waterton really is a beautiful place….just not right then!

Headed north to Pincher Creek and then turned west on the Yellowhead highway, heading for the B.C. border as fast as we could go….

a brief stop at the site of the ‘Frank Slide’ to give the dogs a break and to allow for a ‘pit stop’ and then on we went, breathing a huge sigh of relief when we were through the mountains and watched the thermometer climb up into the low ‘double digits’.  It was now a case of where to?  We thought about traveling up the west side of the Rockies, something we hadn’t done in years, or maybe ‘doing’ the Kootneys….one thing for sure, we thought we should check out some of the provincial parks in this area, where we had never stayed before….so found, according to the map, a Norbury Lake P.P. and decided to give it a try.  Now to be fair, the weather was having a ‘hissy’ fit at the time, as we climbed to the park, the temperature dipped down to 5 degrees and it was pouring….found the campground, which turned out to be one of those parks I hate….where the ‘lake’ is on the opposite side of the road from the campground and the ‘park’ part of the lake is just a small strip of beach on a lake that is otherwise completely surrounded in private cabins….so you feel like you are in somebody's back yard all the time.   The campground itself was OK, heavily treed, no doubt pleasant on a hot sunny day, pretty dismal, and totally deserted on this rainy day.  We looked at each other and said ‘no way’.  The road continued on, coming out in the vicinity of Fort Steele where I think there is a private campground but we carried on a little further to Wasa Lake P. P.

and here, again, was another campground on one side of the road, with the ‘lake’ on the other side, completely surrounded (as was the campground) with private cabins.  The campground itself, was very nice, large level sites, clean, with efficient friendly staff….and because of the Ponderosa Pine habitat, more open, and not quite so dismal….so we elected to spend the night.

This shows one of the several roads within the campground.  Park staff told us not to be alarmed if we noticed a fairly heavy police presence in the campground….apparently, the night before there had been a ‘streaker’ in the park.  For several years, this streaker has been seen, once in the spring and again, once in the fall.  So far, they have no pictures of him and haven’t been able to catch him in mid-‘streak’.

Didn’t see any streakers….but there were Mule Deer…..

The campground is ‘tiered’ as it is on a hillside.  At the back of the campground there was a trail that went further up the hillside, so since there was a break in the showers, and felt in need of some fresh air, headed up the trail….

as it climbed, came to this more open area….

Creeping Phlox was growing up here….

and also, Balsam Root….

Petal shape is a bit different from the ones seen the day before in Waterton. 

As for birds….there weren’t many.  Did catch sight on this Red Breasted Nuthatch…..that was about it. 

Tomorrow is another day.

Spring Trip 2010 – Day 35 – Waterton National Park

The morning of May 26th we woke up in Writing on Stone, to sunny skies, but a cold wind and clouds moving in told the story that the predicted change in the weather was on it’s way. 

a final ‘over view’ look from the dump station as Ernie did those chores…..and then we were on the road by 8:30, an early start for us.  Headed west on highway 501 – this quiet, secondary highway has proved, in the past, to be a birder’s delight….

and it certainly started out that way with this sighting of a female Swainson’s Hawk….

who was quickly joined by this male….

Since this is such a rare occurrence to see the two together and to have them stick around while pictures are taken….I’ve thrown in another.  This one really shows the larger size of the female, typical of most species of raptors.

a bit further along we saw an antelope…..and then that was it for anything of interest…..

We’ll post one more picture of the antelope since we won’t be seeing any more of those for the foreseeable future.

Gradually we left the flat country and got into the more rolling hills as we advanced westwards…

and then we started to spot ~ Snow?!

Yes, snow….was this still left from the snow storm that we had waited out at Dinosaur?  Almost a month ago?  We assume it must have been….unless these areas rec’d snow at the same time we were getting it at Cypress Hills….

and then, as we were approaching the foot hills and Waterton National Park – it got just plain wet.

Apologies for the ‘crooked’ picture ~ for some reason, my ‘saved’ Picasa edits….weren’t saved ~ not sure what happened?  have never  run into that before!  Back to the story….we reached Waterton shortly after noon and pulled into the large day use area that is outside of the park gates.  You can see the mountains are still shrouded in dense cloud….

Took a few wildflower pictures….this is ‘Woolley Gromwell’

Saskatoon bushes in full flower…

the ground was a carpet of Wild Strawberries….

this just shows the general area….and the low ‘ceiling’….

just as we were pulling out, caught sight of some brilliant orange ~ this male Baltimore Oriole….  Headed into the park, we figured we’d have to stay at the campground right in town but didn’t want to head to that large ‘parking lot’ style spot until we absolutely had to, so decided to take the drive to Red Rock Canyon, just to use up some time and see what we could see. 

the weather continued to be gray and uninspiring…..

but there were wildflowers….like these Cut leaf Daisies ~ Waterton is famous for it’s wildflowers, in fact has a week long Wildflower Festival in mid June.

the rain wasn’t deterring the Mule Deer from making an appearance either.

And then there was the Balsam Root, in full flower, adding sunshine to another wise dismal day.

a hillside covered in Balsam Root and Saskatoon bushes.

close up of this ‘sunshine’ plant.

Ernie and Shantz seeing what they could see.  The Road to Red Rock Canyon is very narrow and windy, but there are numerous pullouts along the way where you can pull off to explore the roadsides…

speaking of ‘road sides’, this unique wildflower, called ‘Silky Scorpion Weed’ was growing on the bank at one spot along the road.

a closer look at the wildflower….and there is Ernie taking his own pictures, off in the distance…

another spot and it was a combination of Dandelions and Jacob’s Ladder….

and then more of that Low Larkspur…

Think this one might be ‘Tall Larkspur’….pretty intense in colour!

Our favorite campground at Waterton, is Crandell Campground.  We had thought it wouldn’t be open yet, but as we advanced along the Red Rock Canyon Road, we came to a road block where we were advised that the remainder of the road was being worked on and therefore, closed.  This road block was situated right at the turn off to Crandell….and lo and behold, it was open!  So we pulled in ~ wouldn’t have to sit in a parking lot after all!

So here we are, tucked in nicely.  Ernie talked to the campground attendant who assured us that the ‘snow’ wasn’t supposed to arrive until Friday ~ (this was Wed.) so we hoped he was right.  The first time we were at Waterton it was mid-June and we ended up running from a snowstorm then too….

Mule Deer wander freely all over this campground.  After supper went for a bit of a wander ~ there was a drizzle happening at the time, so only took the little Olympus Camera that tucks in under a jacket…

Spotted this Columbian Ground Squirrel at the entrance to it’s den…..this was right beside the main campground road…

Here is a close up look since it posed so nicely!

There were Avalanche Lilies in flower along that same road.  Avalanche Lilies are a favorite food of Black Bears….if the lilies are in flower, it pays to keep an eye out for bears!

there were also some Calypso Orchids….it was raining heavier now….

Tangles of Blue Clematis were everywhere….  By now it was really pouring, so headed back to the camper.  Earlier a number of trucks and vans had pulled in, full of what appeared to be high school students.  Not sure where they had all come from, but they were all in shorts ~ the proceeded to set up numerous tents in the steady downpour.  Fortunately, there were kitchen shelters in the campground….

and to give you an idea of what a pleasant evening it was, I took this through the camper window as I was doing the dishes…..   Tomorrow we’d be saying good bye to Alberta ~ Hello B.C.