Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: subalpine

Just realized, when I looked at a different photo I took ages ago of the same species, that the flower in today's photo is missing a few parts, lol. Guess I just wasn't thinking carefully, ha. Maybe I had better add the other photo in a comment box below so that you can see what it really looks like! I have only ever seen these plants in a handful of locations. To have the chance to visit Waterton Lakes National Park in June of 2015 was such an absolute treat, but to be able to visit this beautiful region again one month later was just incredible. I think I've only ever been maybe five or so very brief times in the 37 years that I've lived here, so you can imagine my delight to get two chances in one year!! Actually, I signed up for the July trip (17-19 July) first and, though there were some aspects of the three-day trip that I wasn't particularly keen on, I knew this was a wonderful chance to go down south. Then, some time later, friend Sandy asked if I wanted to go down to Waterton in June for the Botany Alberta weekend. So, lucky, lucky me!! It was wonderful to again be surrounded by such magnificent scenery, go on a few pleasantly slow walks with plenty of time to look for, and photograph, wildflowers, insects, and a few birds. Lots of great company with people I already knew and lots of new faces, too. The trip was organized by Nature Calgary. Everyone was free to go wherever they wanted each day, but for the two nights, we stayed at the very basic Canyon Church Camp, off the Red Rock Parkway. Dorm-style cabins (about which I will say nothing, lol!), but they do have showers and even flush toilets at the camp. We were fed so well - lots of variety and good food. We were given two breakfasts and two suppers, plus a packed lunch for the two days. Our thanks go out to the lady (can't remember her name, sorry) who cooked and prepared these meals for us! They were so much enjoyed and greatly appreciated! Our first day, which included the long, 3-hour drive from Calgary, it rained all day long. Thankfully, the remaining two days were beautiful and sunny, and appreciated even more because of the first rainy day. The first day, we drove around Waterton town, calling in at Cameron Falls and then driving to Red Rock Canyon. We did the short walk along both sides of the canyon, in the rain, so it was pretty much useless as far as taking photos was concerned. I was happy to see a Swainson's Thrush there, the first time I had seen one close. On the second day, 18 July, some of us went to Cameron Lake. This is a beautiful lake and I love the small jetty and the colourful canoes lined up. Our walk took us along the right hand side of the lake, through the forest. One of my favourite plants that we saw there was Water Hemlock - though I had seen it before, I had never seen it this close and in such detail. The bees and other insects love it, too, with several insects on many of the flower heads. This attractive plant is one of the most deadly poisonous plants in North America. Two other plants that I was thrilled to see were Pink Monkeyflower and Yellow-flowered Monkeyflower. I had never seen these wildflowers before. Pearly Everlasting, False Helebore, Fringed Grass-of-Parnassus, Foam Flower, and Thimbleberry were just a few of the other plants we found. We were amazed at how many orchids there were - everywhere. Later on the second day, a few of us called in at Red Rock Canyon again and, because it was absolutely packed with people, we decided to do the nearby Blakiston Falls Trail. Along this trail, I was thrilled to see a few Pinedrops plants in flower - I had only ever seen them once before (at Cypress Hills), and they were in seed. Thanks so much, Debbie, for the heads-up about these plants that you had found earlier! We also saw a couple of Prince's Pine plants along this trail - a first for me. They look rather like Pink Pyrola, so could easily be overlooked. Later, in the evening on this day, our leader, Andrew Hart, took us to look at a wetland for Sandhill Cranes. He knew they can be seen there and, with the help of a spotting scope, he found a total of 7 seen from two lookouts. Barely visible with the naked eye, they were so far away. I just managed to get a 48x zoomed shot that was kind of fit to post : ) Andrew had also timed it so that we could drive along Chief Mountain Parkway afterwards, stop at the lookout and watch the sunset over the mountain peaks. The following morning, our last, some of us visited Cameron Lake again and then walked along the very short Akamina Lake trail (only 1 km return) that starts from the Cameron Lake parking lot. A beautiful little trail, where we found two Bear Grass plants still in flower, but well past their prime. Also watched a rather skinny deer making her way along the edge of the lake. A lovely walk to end our stay in Waterton Lakes National Park. Thanks so much, Darlene, for letting us do this, knowing that we needed to start on the three-hour drive north to Calgary. Thank you SO much, too, for driving three of us to and from Calgary and around the park some of the time, too. To say that we appreciated it is a huge understatement!! Our thanks, too, to Andrew for organizing this trip so brilliantly! A great time was had by all.

Macro photo of this small, native plant taken on Plateau Mountain, Kananaskis, on July 2nd. "Sibbaldia procumbens is a species of flowering plant in the rose family known by the common name creeping sibbaldia .... It grows on tundra and in alpine climates where snow remains year-round, and on subalpine mountain slopes. This is a low, mat-forming perennial herb producing clumps of herbage in rocky, gravelly substrate .... The flower has usually five pointed green bractlets, five wider pointed green sepals, and five tiny yellowish petals each about a millimeter long." From Wikipedia.

I ended up with about three almost identical photos of this particular flower - these were the only photos of Glacier Lilies that came out on our day of botanizing at Arethusa Cirque on July 30th, ha. Val, I'm so glad you took a step and partly blocked the sun - obviously made the difference! Other common names include Yellow Avalanche Lily and Dogtooth Fawn Lily. Grows in subalpine mountain meadows, slopes, and clearings. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythronium_grandiflorum Somehow, I can't find the list of 400+ items that I had added values to, ready to give to Customs when my 12 boxes arrive from England. I have searched and searched but just cannot find the file, so now, of course, I have had to start again from scratch!! Arghh!!!! This new list doesn't seem to have saved, either, but now I think I know what I'm doing "wrong". I opened a Word Document attached to a friend's e-mail, added all the guessed values and saved the document. Maybe you can't change and save a document attached to someone's e-mail? So, now I have saved the list to a document in Word. Really don't feel like doing this a third time!! My apologies to those of you who have asked me all sorts of questions and I just haven't got back to you! Also, of course, to all those of you who think that maybe I have dropped off the edge of the planet. I really am still here, just finding it difficult to cope with all the things that have to be seen to as soon as possible - I'm not doing a very good job of getting any of them done, especially during this busiest time of the year.

I was hoping to choose a few of my photos from yesterday's day trip into British Columbia ready to post today, but I overslept till about 10:30 a.m. (less than an hour ago) and so still haven't gone through them : ) Took this photo of a Glacier Lily seedpod during a hike several of us went on to Arethusa Cirque, in Kananaskis, on July 30th. I thought it was a rather elegant seedpod.

Don't worry, it's not your eyes, just a rather blurry of a flower that I don't normally get the chance to see! I wanted to show why this beautiful, tiny wildflower got its name : ) This was seen on Plateau Mountain, way south of Calgary, on 31st July.