Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Kananaskis Lakes

Friends organized a wonderful day out for eight of us yesterday, walking the Sarrail Falls Trail along the edge of Upper Kananaskis Lake, in the Rocky Mountains. Our aim was to find anything that grew, flew or crawled - anything beautiful : ) My favourite kind of day! I rarely get into the mountains, so a day like this is a huge treat. As you can see from my photo, the weather was absolutely perfect, though it did get rather too hot later on in the day. It was supposed to get up to 30C, but I don't know what the temperature ended up being. Trouble is, at these temperatures, our igloos are beginning to melt fast, lol! Thanks so much, Dorothy and Stephen, for another wonderful day and thanks so much for doing the driving! (Oops, almost forgot to mention the second stop, at Elpoca - just a short walk, or should I say climb, up a scree slope (loose, very sharp pieces of rock) overlooking a beautiful stream with small waterfalls. However, I got just a short distance and then was unable to get around a bend where footing was maybe 4" wide and too high for me to get down to the ground below. Nothing to hold on to, but moss, ha. Then came the problem of how to turn around on that narrow edge so that I could go back to where I started, to join a couple of others who knew it was not a climb they wanted to try. Thanks, David, for trying your best to help!

This photo was taken standing on a small, wooden bridge on the Sarrail Falls trail. Right behind me, the falls immediately flow into the Kananaskis Lake. This was such a delightful hike that led through a mossy forest, following the shoreline of the lake. We only went as far as these falls, but I would love to have gone further. We returned to the parking lot, ate lunch down by the lake, and then went on the steeper Mt. Everest trail, from where we had beautiful views over both Upper and Lower Kananaskis Lakes. A most enjoyable day as far as company, weather and scenery were concerned.

Just what is needed after a day of hiking! This was just a "single" - so glad I didn't ask for a "double"! Don't you just love someone who asks "Would anyone like to stop at ? and get an ice cream?"? This day, our stop was at the Boulton Creek Trading Post. Of course, I then felt desperately thirsty for the whole journey back to Calgary, ha! Enjoyed on August 7th, after hiking the Sarrail Falls trail and the Mt. Everest trail at Kananaskis Lakes, Kananaskis.

There are so many wildflowers that I just don't have a photo of, or at least a half-decent photo, lol. Sometimes, I think I neeed to start from scratch, beginning with plants that I see reasonably often when out on a walk. An exciting thought, as that would be enought to last me the rest of my days, ha! Anyway, this is a macro photo of a few of the very small flowers (1 cm in diameter) that are on the stem of a Greenish-flowered Wintergreen. Less easy to spot than the more common Common Pink Wintergreen with its very small pink flowers. Taken on the Mt. Everest trail at Kananaskis Lakes on August 7th.. The name of this trail makes it sound far worse than it really is, lol! www.em.ca/garden/native/nat_Pyrola chlorantha.html

This is the spectacular view that we had before us while eating our lunch down near the shore at Kananaskis Lakes on August 7th. We had just walked through the forest behind us, following the shore line as far as the Sarrail Falls, and after lunch, we hiked the Mt. Everest trail (off to the right of my photo).

These tiny floral bells are so difficult (for me) to photograph (macro), but they are so pretty : ) We saw these on the Mt. Everest trail at Kananaskis Lakes, Kananaskis, on August 7th. This species is also known as Western Featherbells and Bronze Bells. The small flowers hang along the top part of the nodding stem and are bronzy yellow to green spotted with purple, with the tips of the petals curling back. Bells are six-parted and 1 cm long. Grows in moist meadows, banks of shady streams, at low to subalpine elevations. It is a poisonous member of the Lily Family (Liliaceae).

One of the many spectacular views seen from the Mt. Everest trail, looking out over the Upper Kananaskis Lake, I believe. Taken on August 7th.

This is a very tiny wild Orchid and proved to be very difficult to photograph, lol. Seen on the Sarrail Falls trail, Kananaskis, at Kananaskis Lakes on August 7th. This is a native, woodland species, only a few inches tall, and not easily seen. Each flower is only 3/16 inch across and the plant blooms June-August. The flowers are pale green to purplish-brown in color, with the lip divided for more than half its length into 2 linear lobes with a pair of horn-like teeth at the base. There are two varieties, one with pale green flowers and the other with purplish-green flowers (as in my macro photo). I think my photo shows Listera cordata var. nephrophylla forma rubescens.

These Golden-mantled Ground Squirrels are the cutest litle things, but they move so fast. I managed to get just this one, almost sharp image : ) Photographed at Kananaskis Lakes, in Kananaskis Country, on August 7th. A typical adult ranges from 23–30 cm (9–12 inches) in length. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden-mantled_ground_squirrel