It's Contagious

We took a break from driving and stopped into Lundbreck Falls Provincial Recreation Area. There beside the Falls we decided it was time we proved we were actually on this road trip. Perhaps we had to prove it to ourselves. But when I looked at the images after I thought they could have been taken at a waterfall somewhere along the Niagara Escarpment in Ontario. So did we really leave the province?

Ron & Lori at Lundbreck Falls, AB

Lundbreck Falls is a pleasant stop on the Crowsnest River.

Lundbreck Falls, AB

After the photo we continued on our way and stopped into Peter Lougheed Provincial Park in Kananaskis Country for a couple of nights. This isn’t Ontario anymore Toto!

Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, AB

There Ron would get to do what he loves best – take a beautiful mountain reflection in a calm lake.

Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, AB

I don’t often pick up the camera but he looked so happy (yet tired) that I had to document him shooting. Then I just joined him shooting.

Ron at Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, AB

Ron at Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, AB

Ron at Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, AB

Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, AB

It was a fun shoot!

Waterton Lakes National Park and Happy Anniversary!

Ron could call me a nag. He could but he doesn’t (okay not usually). One of the things I might nag Ron about is to take more “dry” photographs. You see Ron considers himself foremost a landscape photographer and his favourite type of a landscape photograph would include a reflection. This means a lake or some other body of water is required and makes the photo “wet”. So his idea of a beautiful landscape in the Rocky Mountains in Waterton Lakes National Park would be a mountain vista with a perfect reflection in a lake. And why wouldn’t it be? Reflections can be beautiful. But on this visit Waterton Lake would not be calm enough for that perfect reflection so Ron would settle for other wet landscapes with just a little colour reflected in the water.

Waterton Lakes National Park

Waterton Lakes National Park

Red Rock Canyon, Waterton National Park

Sometimes though just to please me Ron will also take pictures that include no lakes, waterfalls or wetlands – not even puddles. At Waterton National Park he did just that and the results were a beautiful anniversary gift don’t you think?

Bellevue Hill, Waterton National Park

Plains Bison, Waterton National Park

Happy Anniversary to you too Ron!

Prairie Crocus

Abandoned

Abandoned, discarded, no-longer used – that’s what so much of rural Saskatchewan seems to be – a run-down, even ramshackle, building standing alone in a prairie or grain field. But all those discarded buildings or objects can make for interesting pictures.

Old Saskatchewan Homestead

Stone Foundation Remains

This church looked in good condition from the distance. It beckoned to us sitting up there on its hill all alone (yes Saskatchewan has rolling hills). Once we were closer though you could see that the door was boarded up and its paint job was a little worn. But otherwise it looked good from the outside. A plaque indicates the church closed in the 1950's and was built in 1925. So not used long.

Old Saskatchewan Church

In the Dirt Hills we toured the Claybank Brick Plant. It produced bricks from 1914-1989.

Claybank Brick Plant National Historic Site

The brickworks is now a National Historic Site and a Saskatchewan Provincial Heritage Property. It can still produce bricks but many of the wooden buildings looked like the wooden roof would come off in the next big wind - and wind is something Saskatchewan seems to have plenty of. Even the kilns looked rough.

Claybank Brick Plant Kilns

I hope they can get the plant repaired before it is beyond saving. It was an interesting tour.

Of course Saskatchewan has plenty of abandoned grain elevators.

Spring Valley Grain Elevator

What shocked us the most though, is that one of our favourite grain elevators to photograph is gone. Not even a pile of rubble is left where the last Wood Mountain grain elevator once stood. This is what it looked like the last time we photographed it.

Wood Mountain Grain Elevator

Grain elevators have been called lighthouses of the prairies. But this landmark is now gone and that makes me sad.

Visit Ron's blog posting "Endangered" to read more about our visit to Southern Saskatchewan and Grasslands National Park.

Don’t worry Mom!

Black Bear Cub

This bear cub was photographed from the car. We couldn’t even see the Mother bear so we weren’t in any danger (and neither was the bear). In fact we spotted the bear already up the tree as we were driving by. We were in Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba looking for wildlife. This park never disappoints. Mostly, we found White-tailed Deer.

White-tailed Deer Fawn

White-tailed Deer Buck

But this park has lots of wildlife, such as grouse, owls, coyotes, moose, elk and an enclosure for Plains Bison. The enclosure is a big fenced in area of trees and prairie. You drive into it over cattle or Texas gate, which is basically a bridge of rounded poles instead of planks. The poles or metal tubes are spaced far enough apart that a bison’s hoof could slip between poles. So they don’t want to walk over it but a car can easily pass over it. But don’t get out of your car! These are still wild animals even if inside a big enclosed area. Most of the herd was trying to stay cool in the trees. This big bull came out to see what Ron was up to when Ron was trying to photograph a bird by the gate.

Plains Bison Bull

He seemed unimpressed with Ron!

We also enjoyed the landscape and wildflowers in the park.

Riding Mountain Biosphere Reserve, MB

Black-eyed Susan Wildflowers

Sleeping Giant Provincial Park Ontario

We continued along the north shore of Lake Superior to Sleeping Giant Provincial Park at Thunder Bay. It was hot and buggy so after checking in for the night we hit the beach on Marie Louise Lake to cool off. Back at our campsite a young skunk kept teasing Ron by wandering around the shadows of the surrounding woods.

Young Striped Skunk

The next morning after applying some bug spray, we hiked out to the Sea Lion rock formation on the shores of Lake Superior.

Sea Lion Rock Formation

It was a nice hike in spite of the bugs.

Life Changes

From Manitoulin Island we continued on to Lake Superior Provincial Park. There we would try to relax by swimming and reading and yes some photography.

Rabbit Blanket Lake, Lake Superior Provincial Park, ON

But mostly we were just trying to get our heads around being on the road. Photographic road trips are never easy – living out of a van especially. But this year because of the health situation of various family members it seemed even harder to get started. We weren’t certain we even wanted to leave the province. The Yukon just seemed too far away,

It was especially hard leaving my Mom on Manitoulin. She had put her name on a waiting list for the nearest nursing home. It has become just too hard for her living alone in the country. It is what she wants but it is a big change for my entire family. Mom has lived in her house since she and my Dad built it in the 1950’s. She has even lived her entire life in the same small community (less a 6-month stint living in St. Catherines when she was a WWII bomb-girl). No, it won’t be an easy change for anyone. But it was her decision. Her strength determination and resilience are always an inspiration to me.

Manitoulin Elm Trees

Trying to Cool Off

It has been a hot summer in Ontario. Toronto was sweltering. Even by the lake in the Scarborough Bluffs we thought we might melt. So we packed up the van trying not to sweat on our stuff too much and got out of town a day early. We ended up camped at Sturgeon Bay Provincial Park in Pointe au Baril on Georgian Bay. It was a couple of degrees cooler by Lake Huron and of course we could swim.

Sturgeon Bay, ON

By 5:30 the next morning we were off again to Manitoulin Island. There we would spend a few days with my 92-year-old mother and attend her art show.

Of course Ron always finds photo subjects on the Island.

Misery Bay Provincial Park, ON

Female Goldenrod Crab Spider

Misery Bay Provincial Park

Misery Bay Provincial Park is a wonderful park on Manitoulin Island that protects rare Alvar habitat.

Misery Bay, ON

Doreen Bailey, a staunch advocate of Misery Bay and one of the founders of the Friends of Misery Bay Provincial Park died this spring (April 2016). But Doreen’s legacy is everywhere you look at Misery Bay. Because of her there is a road into the park and an Interpretation Centre.

Misery Bay Interpretation Centre

Doreen was Ron's and my personal tour guide the first time we visited the park back in the 1990’s. She was the one that really showed us a pavement alvar explaining its features and vegetation, and what is special at Misery Bay. She showed us our first Ram’s Head Lady’s Slipper – a rare orchid.

Ram's Head Lady's Slipper

She also introduced us to Lakeside Daisy, a Canadian Threatened species, which is so plentiful in Misery Bay and Manitoulin’s south shore that on the island it is called Manitoulin Gold.

Manitoulin Gold

Doreen was an avid birder so she also taught us a lot about birds and birding as we explored various types of alvars together.

Doreen’s passing is more personal to me than her championing of the park and the passing on of her love and knowledge of nature. She was also my brother-in-law’s sister, my Mother’s friend and the only public school principal I would ever have. She has taught me a lot. She will be missed but remembered fondly