Nature's Best Photography: 2007 Award Winners [PICS]

Those into photography will love these shots. I can only dream of being able to capture such sights through a lens....

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Sulphur Springs -- November 18, 2007

Elbow Valley - Sulphur Springs loop: Trail Particulars - Take Highway 66 to the Station Flats parking lot/trailhead. Use the same trailhead as Diamond T, but turn left (south) at the fork at the beginning of the trail. Follow this trail until you reach a junction - this is the Sulphur Springs loop (part of the loop is shared with the Elbow Valley trail).


I was a little shocked to realize that even after extensive hiking all over the Elbow Valley, N and I had never actually done the Sulphur Springs loop. Even though the wind was roaring through the valley, and there were likely more trees down all over the place, we wanted to get this new trail hiked as soon as possible.

The nice thing about starting early is that we usually have the trails to ourselves. Lately, though, the other bonus has been seeing the sun rise as we drive to the trailhead. I swear, one of these days, we're going to get caught meeting at the trailhead with no sun! Anyway, I got to catch some early morning sun coming through the trees:



We also happened upon this little treat along the trail, obviously long abandoned, but still perfectly intact:



Sulphur Springs is described as a roller coaster and crosses the Moose Mountain access road twice, so we'd expected a lot of hills and a few vistas. This was shortly after our first crossing of the Moose Mountain access road, and only a fraction of the vista we were eventually able to see. Moose Mountain is just beyond the range in the foreground:



Taking a quick look behind us, again right after we'd crossed the Moose Mountain road. And yes, it was as cold as it looks, and it was ridiculously windy, but it was so worth it:



For a good portion of the hike, the path was clear, or only had minor obstructions, but once we started heading downhill towards the shared Elbow Valley part of the trail, things began to look a lot different. The evidence of multiple wind storm was all around us. At one point we walked through what we called a "tree graveyard", where it seemed there were more fallen trees than standing ones.

This particular part of the trail took some very careful navigation. This is all on the trail directly in front of us... the rest of the area looked pretty much exactly the same:



I can't imagine how long it's going to take to just clear the trail, let alone clean up what's fallen.... if they ever do.

Ford Knoll -- November 11, 2007

Only 3 days after the Diamond T hike mentioned in the previous post, N and I drove out to Ford Knoll for a quick hike. By the time we got to the campground, the roads were pretty sketchy. This was the long weekend and the day of the crazy winds in Elbow Valley.

We literally seemed to have the place to ourselves since the campground was closed and the rock blocked. It was a peaceful, windy, fun hike -- finally getting to hike in the snow, but it was still wasn't too cold.

Ford Knoll has a number of different ways to complete the loop, the longest stretches close to the Nihani Ridge turnoff. We opted not to take that route though when we said the "Bear in Area" sign posted to a tree. It looked old, but one can never been too safe...

Otherwise, a beautiful day for hiking.

Diamond T -- November 8, 2007

Diamond T less that three weeks ago. Can you believe how green it looks?

Johnston's Canyon -- October 31, 2007

Johnston's Canyon's popularity and proximity to Banff makes it nearly impossible to get to during the summer. Even on weekdays, the large parking area overflows with every type of car and the highway is usually lined with parked vehicles for at least a kilometer. Summer weekends -- I don't even want to think about it. For the Ink Pots, there's always the option to drive a little further down the highway, park at the Moose Meadows trailhead and hike in from there, but you miss the views of the canyon itself.

With all of this is mind, N and I figured a late-fall trek to Johnston's Canyon and beyond to the Ink Pots would be a nice diversion, since we'd missed getting out there all summer long.

Directions to the Johnston's Canyon trailhead are here.

My previous hikes in Johnston Canyon this season had both been in the spring, once in April, and before that in February. Both times there had been plenty of snow deep in the canyon, most of the falls were still frozen over and we did not venture beyond the Lower falls due to icy catwalks.

Happily, the entrance to the canyon was free of snow:



And look, running water! These mini-falls are on the way to the Lower falls. You can see part of the catwalk along the canyon walls on the rockface in the background:



As always, the deeper you get into the canyon, the more ice and snow you see. These logs were resting in the pool at the bottom of the Lower falls:



We were able to venture beyond the Lower falls, and from here everything had just a touch of ice. We passed a small creek beside the paved trail, and found the creek water just in the process of starting the freeze:




Yet the cliffs above the canyon were still covered in damp green moss:



One of the smaller falls between the Upper and Lower falls. Check out how it's just beginning to form ice on the surface:



At the end of the official trail, the catwalk descends right into the canyon at the base of the Upper falls. It ends right beside a giant orange rockface that is actually covered with a type of algae. And yes, this was just freezing over as well. There's some sort of cave at the top:



The Upper falls from the bottom. It's not frozen over, but it looks pretty cold to me:

.

Another shot of the algae wall freezing over:



From here there is a view from the top of the Upper falls, and then the Johnston's Canyon part of the hike ends. The path turns to a typical dirt trail and it's about a 4k hike to the Ink Pots, natural, coloured pools of water that collect near the river.

I originally did the Ink Pots hike one summer day many years ago. It was crowded and the "pools" were a disappointment because if they had a natural colour, it was the colour of mud.

This hike was much better. We had the trail to ourselves until we got to the, and even then, only a couple of other hikers were there. And the pools? Wow:




The valley itself was beautiful:



From here the trail continues on for hours. It's another 2k or so to a backcountry campground, and from there the trail forks into many backcountry options including Mystic Pass or Luellen Lake.

But, it was Halloween and N and I had other things to do, so we headed back through Johnston's Canyon and back out to civilization.

Warnings

It's the time of year when warnings are everywhere, so I thought I'd pass a couple along:

The Kananaskis Country website has posted a cougar warning for the Canmore/Bow Valley Provincial Park area, particularly the Peaks of Grassi and Quarry Lake areas.

It's also not a bad idea to check out the avalanche warnings before heading out on any trail.

Finally, the Banff National Park website has some excellent warnings about hiking, skiing or boarding in the backcountry this time of year.

Wind storm in Elbow Valley, take two

According to trail reports from the Kananaskis web site , high winds blasted through Elbow Valley on November 13 -- the second time this week.

N and her hubby were hiking Fullerton Loop today and found the third bridge was blocked by a fallen tree:



Crews are removing trees as quickly as they can, but be careful until they've had a chance to get to them all.