Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: 170 km south of Calgary

This is where I spent 31 May 2013, with a small group of friends, doing the May Species Count for the Whaleback. This location is about 170 km south of Calgary, down towards Pincher Creek. I'm adding photos taken on that trip to a Set of photos that, up till today, contained images taken on the Small Whaleback on 10 July 2011. Yesterday, we covered the southern end of the Whaleback. As you can see from today's image, the whole area is made up of endless hills, with the Rocky Mountains off to theright of the photo, quite close in this very southern part of Alberta. This huge boulder was a beauty, covered in lichen, and several Fragile Ferns growing in on of the large cracks. It rained or drizzled all day, so I had to battle water spots in the camera lens as well as low light and wind. Many of my photos are not really as sharp as I would have liked, but I am so glad that I went. The Balsamroot, which we don't get further north, closer to Calgary, was just beautiful. A closer look at these plants revealed all the damage done to their leaves - we saw a couple of tiny, green, hairy caterpillars in the centre of one flower, but I'm not sure if these were two of the culprits. It was a good day, great company, a few interesting finds and glorious scenery to thoroughly enjoy. Andrew, I hope your back isn't too painful today - such a great pity that you had to miss out on just about everything. Thanks so much, Sandy, for the drive there and back - much appreciated, as always. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another image from our wet, wet day on 31 May 2013, doing the May Species Count at the Whaleback. This beautiful area of rolling hills is 170 miles south of Calgary. The yellow Balsamroot was spectacular. This is a plant that only grows further south, so it was a real treat to have the chance to see it that day. Little did we know that all the wet days we'd had recently were building up to the devastation of the "Flood of the Century" in Calgary and the rest of southern Alberta this past week. Incredible YOUTUBE VIDEO OF CALGARY FLOODS from Global News: youtu.be/bRS8YfVlt3Y ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------