Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: falls

Four days ago, on 10 August 2017, I finally did a drive that I had never done before. I'm always hearing or reading about Sheep River Provincial Park, but it was not until maybe a couple of weeks ago, that I got round to looking on Google to see exactly where it is. I found that maybe the first half of the drive, as far as Turner Valley, I had done before, which helped. The drive west from Turner Valley to just past the Sheep River falls was all new, so I "drove" the whole length on Google Earth to see what it was like, before I actually went there.. The whole distance from home and back was 195 km, so it was a much shorter trip than when I drove all the way south to the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre (511 km), on 3 August. I was hoping to see some wildlife and beautiful scenery, but the most important purpose for this trip was simply to make myself do a new drive. I almost didn't go, as I woke up later than I had planned, not feeling the greatest, and didn't leave home till 11:15 am. Glad I pushed myself out the front door, though. The only wildlife I saw was a Mule Deer doe, that I saw in two different places. She was looking for salt along the road and couldn't make up her mind whether to cross the road in front of me or not. I sat in my car and waited, and eventually she did cross and ended up near the passenger side of my car. When I was almost at the very end of this road, I stopped to take a look at the Sheep River Falls. It takes just a short walk from the parking lot to get a view of the falls below. Towards the end of my walk, black clouds rolled in and there was a bit of thunder accompanied by a sprinkling of rain. Short-lived, thankfully. As for scenery, the smoke continues from the British Columbia and Alberta wildfires. This results in poor landscape shots, at least with my little point-and-shoot. I'll be posting just a couple of scenic views, not for their photographic merit, but just to remind myself what the landscape is like.

This morning, I am again posting four more photos taken a few days ago, on 7 June 2017, when a group of eight of us spent a wonderful day exploring Elbow Falls and Forgetmenot Pond, in Kananaskis. We drove west of the city into the eastern edge of the mountains, stopping at three different places, including a stop along the edge of the main highway, where we found beautiful Shooting stars and a few little brown cup fungi. The devastating flood of 2013 destroyed the picnic area and trails at Elbow Falls. It is a very popular area, within easy reach of Calgary. The huge parking lot tends to fill up completely, especially at weekends. This photo shows the top of the falls in the centre of the photo, just as the water starts to plunge down. hikingwithbarry.com/2014/01/01/elbow-falls-flood-kananask... www.albertawow.com/hikes/Elbow_Falls/Elbow_Falls.htm What a great day we had! It was one beautiful find after another, and I think we all must have arrived back home at the end of the day, feeling happy and content. Dorothy and Stephen, as always, you planned a wonderful day for us and you even managed to arrange with the weatherman for beautiful sunshine and warmth, with an occasional welcome slight breeze. I still can't believe how lucky we were, seeing so many interesting things. In fact, I'm finding it difficult to decide what was the highlight for me. The Harlequin Duck, the distant Common Nighthawk flying high overhead, the two Morel mushrooms, the small cluster of beautiful brown jelly cup fungi?? And so on .... Great to spend a day with such a pleasant group of keen, interested people. Thanks so much, Dorothy and Stephen, for such a great day - my favourite kind of day : ) Thank you, also, for the ride and for the donuts you brought along for everyone to enjoy. Nice to end our day with a stop at the Cinnamon Spoon cafe in Bragg Creek, for a very welcome coffee.

What a miserable, wet day we are having today, 10 June 2017. Continuous rain and much cooler. The day after this trip, Thursday, we had a really bad storm, with high winds and torrential rain. Lots of small branches were strewn all over my street and conditions were probably worse in many places. This morning, I am again posting four photos taken three days ago, on 7 June 2017, when I went out for the day with seven friends, to Kananaskis. We drove west of the city into the eastern edge of the mountains, stopping at a few different places, including Forgetmenot Pond and Elbow Falls. The devastating flood of 2013 destroyed the picnic area and trails at Elbow Falls. The area of gravel in the centre distance was deposited where the trees and day use area had been washed away. Elbow Falls is a very popular area, within easy reach of Calgary. The huge parking lot tends to fill up completely, especially at weekends. hikingwithbarry.com/2014/01/01/elbow-falls-flood-kananask... www.albertawow.com/hikes/Elbow_Falls/Elbow_Falls.htm Forgetmenot Pond is actually a man-made pond, left over from the excavation of a gravel pit. The water is crystal clear. It's just a short walk around the pond, but enjoyable to do. The main road this far into Kananaskis only opens in June each year, as a winter gate at Elbow Falls closes in December for the winter months, to protect the wildlife in the area. I found the following 4-minute video on YouTube, taken by Kenneth Lori using a DJI Phantom 3 Professional quadcopter and taken on 16 June 2016. It travels over Forgetmenot Pond and the surrounding river and mountains. youtu.be/fEamf0nDXt4 What a great day we had! It was one beautiful find after another, and I think we all must have arrived back home at the end of the day, feeling happy and content. Dorothy and Stephen, as always, you planned a wonderful day for us and you even managed to arrange with the weatherman for beautiful sunshine and warmth, with an occasional welcome slight breeze. I still can't believe how lucky we were, seeing so many interesting things. In fact, I'm finding it difficult to decide what was the highlight for me. The Harlequin Duck, the distant Common Nighthawk, the dried-up Morel mushrooms, the small cluster of beautiful brown jelly cup fungi?? And so on .... Great to spend a day with such a pleasant group of keen, interested people. Thanks so much, Dorothy and Stephen, for such a great day - my favourite kind of day : ) Thank you, also, for the ride and for the donuts you brought along for everyone to enjoy. Nice to end our day with a stop at the Cinnamon Spoon cafe in Bragg Creek, for a very welcome coffee.

I don't remember the weather forecast saying that we would be getting snow today, 28 October 2016 - I'm sure it only said rain. Anyway, it's snowing again this morning, with a temperature of 0°C (32°F) and windchill -2°C (28°F). Usually, I don't have three long day outings within five days, except during the Christmas Bird Counts, but two days ago, I was lucky enough to go with friends, Shirley and Anne, for a day's outing SW and SE of the city. We had a very early start, 7:00 am, and drove west of the city to start with, driving to the far end of Elbow Falls Trail (Highway 66). While at Elbow Falls, we saw a pair of American Dippers flying from rock to rock. They were vocalizing, too, which I had never heard before. Though there seemed to be very few birds to be seen all day, we were so lucky to see a total of four Moose - two at each of two different locations SW of the city. It is always nice to see a Moose, and to see four in one day was a real treat. The second two were fairly young ones. From Elbow Falls Trail, we drove down through the Millarville area and finally ended up east of High River. We found one of the Great Horned Owls that everyone had been following earlier in the year, along with a nearby little American Tree Sparrow. We did see a few Hawks, including a Rough-legged Hawk on a hay bale and a very dark morph Hawk later in the day. A great day, ladies - thank you so much for inviting me along and thanks so much, Shirley, for driving! Greatly appreciated. So glad we didn't have today's weather instead!