TALES OF OUR TRAVELS AND OUR LOVE OF ADVENTURE

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Kananaskis Country

Saturday, June 18
Today we saw the sun! Knowing that it was supposed to be dreary again tomorrow, we decided to get out of the trailer and explore Kananaskis Country. This is the beautiful mountain valley to the south of us, through which flows the Kananaskis River. For those of you who are followers of the Winter Olympics, the alpine skiing events were held here when Calgary hosted the Winter Olympics in 1988.

Our first side trip was up a gravel road to Sibbald Meadows Pond, where Don looked at it for its fishing possibilities.




I thought those signs were interesting. This is what we Texans call "cattle guards."




Coming down from Sibbald Meadows we had this view of the Kananaskis Valley.




This is Wedge Pond. We stopped here for a couple of hours so Don could try to catch some arctic grayling.




There are paths throughout the valley for bikers and hikers, and there are plenty of benches for stopping and resting. Many of them have markers such as this one.







Right in front of me was this little ground squirrel. I'm very pleased with the zoom on my new camera.




Don fished for about an hour and a half, and though he spotted several fish rolling on the surface, he didn't catch any.


We headed further up the canyon, and saw a sigh that warned of Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep on the road. These guys are shedding theirncoats and look a bit ragged, but I didn't care!
















As we continued up the valley, I noticed the folded strata in the mountains. I love geologic features like this.







We reached our destination, the Upper and Lower Kananaskis Lakes. Between the two lakes is a picnic area/viewpoint, where we decided to stop for a picnic lunch.




I'm glad we didn't need to use the facilities! This one had a sign on it that said it had been damaged due to frost heave. The large tank underneath had been forced out of the ground.




This is the view we enjoyed during our lunch today.




And this is the view we enjoyed as we headed back down the valley.

It started to rain as we went back to the campground, but since we had most of the day rain-free, that's okay.

We had French Quarter Potatoes again, with some tomato salad, and I'm writing blog posts and watching news while Don is napping next to me in the recliner.

Tomorrow: Canmore, the museum, a small pond in town, and Starbucks (to use their WiFi).


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