Flora & Fauna (More Rockies)

First the flora.  I am amazed that we didn’t take more pictures of Fireweed. It was pretty much everywhere. Big meadows of lavender. It was lovely. Here’s a good example:

Here I am on the Highline Trail at Lake Louise, between the Big Beehive and the Plain of Six Glaciers Teahouse. That’s the Victoria Glacier (the one that sits at the end of Lake Louise) in the background. (08.17.09)

It was especially abundant at Marble Canyon in Kootenay National Park (near Banff), the site of a fire in 2003 which burned 170 square km in 40 days.

Fireweed makes great fodder for foreground photographers (like myself). This is an unknown Kootenay mountain with Kootenay Fireweed in the foreground. (08.16.09)

I am learning how to use the macro function of my “new” (used) camera. Our old Konica-Minolta is much better for macro, but I carry the other camera. Most of my macro shots, sadly, are wonderfully-focused pictures of earth or grass with a blurry blob of colour in the foreground. But this PhotoScape gives you an idea of some of the wonders we encountered in the Rockies.

 

And now, the fauna. By far the greatest abundance of wildlife took the form of elk. We actually became “elk snobs” and drove around the “animal jams” that roadside elk sightings caused.

I think we saw even more big horn sheep. There were herds of them on the road to Maligne Lake in Jasper, and herds of them on the road up to Mount Norquay in Banff. We also became “sheep snobs,” no matter how cute the little ones were!

 We encountered the note in the upper left at the trailhead before we set out on our Stanley Glacier hike in Kootenay National Park two days after the date of the note. Yes, I was a little nervous on that hike, especially since we were the first people on the trail, and the trail was lined in Bear Berry (see chipmunk shot upper right of the lay-out below).

We saw the guy in the large shot on the right of the above lay-out on our way into Moraine Lake (08.18.09).  Not quite sure what he is. There was a hiker on the trail above him, so I was thinking this particular “animal jam” was because of a dog. But he had a big, fluffy tail. Could he be a fox???

The little guy under the fox(?) in the above lay-out is a pica, little rodents a little larger than a mouse. They look and move around like bunnies (boing-boing-boing) but have little round Mickey Mouse ears.  This one is again from the Stanley Glacier trail. There’s another one below, next to the moose from the Mt. Edith Cavell moraine pile.

The bear pictures (above and below) were taken from the car. The fuzzy thing on the other side of the moose (below) is a coyote Rich saw at dusk (thus the poor exposure). The osprey (above and below) make their nest on the bridge at Castle Junction in Banff.

And the moose? He was hanging on the wall over the fireplace at the Meatball Lounge in the Ptarmigan Inn in Banff (where we went for internet). I took his picture because it was looking like he was most likely the only moose I was going to see…

Almost…

We saw this guy in Moose Meadows in the Bow Valley Parkway. He was on a sign. Somebody already took his picture, and we took a picture of their picture. Sorry. You can imagine my disappointment.

Look for more scenery coming…