Even though the national parks get all the publicity in Canada, this country is filled with majestic provencial parks that are much like the state parks in the United States.
No admission fees are charged at the provencial parks, so we are free to wander the wonders of the mint-green-glacial-melt waters of the Sheep River.
We took a hike from the Junction Creek parking lot that took us up into the mountains for a bird's-eye view of the Sheep River.
Our loop hike on this cloudy day took us to Whiskey Lake on a plateau high above the river.
Unlike the turquoise lakes we often see in the mountains, this one is more like the color of, well, whiskey.
As we look down over the forests of this provencial park, we see that the pines are very healthy here. It doesn't look like the scourge of pine beetle infestation has become a problem in Kananski Country.
Everything is so green, probably because of the unusual amount of rain that Canada has received this spring and summer. We had to walk around some mud puddles on our hike. But we know that one very large cat made prints right through the mud.
Unlike the crowds we have heard about at Banff National Park, we didn't see another soul on this hike today. We really like K Country!
Denisa is always amazed by the wonders of the beautiful wildflowers that grow here in the mountains. We aren't familiar with these new specimens on the trail today.
We're pretty sure that the bloom of this wildflower has a place in a Dr. Seuss book somewhere.
We have also noticed the wild strawberry plants with their little white flower blooms. In a sunny spot near the river, we found our first ripe patch. This is our very first Canadian hiking snack!
After spending time on the mountain, we made our way back down to Sheep River Falls. You might notice that we are wearing long sleeves all day. With high temperatures in the 60s and low 70s, it is very comfortable hiking weather for July!
Our trip today also took us through Bluerock Wildland Provencial Park. It looks like the wild animals are roaming the bluerocks, as part of this hike was closed. The fine print explains that a bear made a kill on the hillside, so he was hanging around for the last couple days to clean up the carion.
We were allowed to hike this part of the trail, to catch glimpses of the Sheep River making its way down the canyon.
That sunlit meadow behind Denisa is one of the best winter-grazing areas for the mountain sheep. That's because the Chinook winds off the mountains consistently keep it cleared from snow. But the sheep are so comfortable in this wildland park that they are staying throughout the year, overgrazing that particular meadow. We saw several rangers collecting samples in the meadow today, after we read signs that explained the problems with managing wildlife in this park.
In our day around the Bluerock and Sheep River parks, we got a few pictures of the resident wildlife. Curiously, we saw no mountain sheep today. But we did catch this king bird with its colorful wing tips,
and this Colombian ground squirrel that was chattering at us for coming so close to her home.
We've been looking for bears, and we finally found one--but very far away. This guy was grazing from side to side on the open grassy mountain-side. His blurry silhouette was all we could see from our spot far below. But it was fun to watch him with the binoculars as he zig-zagged across the meadow.
Our day of hiking and exploring came to an end as we pointed our car back towards Longview. Last night we didn't get home until 9:00 and we had no option but to cook supper at that late hour. Tonight, we stopped in the little town of Black Diamond and ate at a food truck set up beside the barber shop truck in the grocery store parking lot. Welcome to the little towns of Kananaski country, where the Asian cooks seem to look a little like Italian pizza bakers.
We found no sheep at Sheep River, but we sure found other wonders today!
That's for sharing part of my country I didn't know existed! Well I knew of Kananaskis but I've never been there. It's gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous photos! We loved our visit to the Canadian Rockies in 2010. That colorful bird is a cedar waxwing, sometimes seen right here in Weatherberry!
ReplyDelete