Kootenay Plains,Alberta Rocky Mountains

[cohan]

Cohan,
Enjoyed your impressions very much - nevertheless I began to shiver -
endless rain here and much warmer than in Alberta!
Gerd

and now much much colder than it was then! in fact, here  it looks more or less like the mountain tops did at that time: all white with snow blowing! the temperature will be dropping during the day today, with a low of -21C tonight, high of -18C tomorrow--and still colder the next day, with a low of -33.....

[cohan]

next stop is just a short distance up the road--still alongside the lake/reservoir, but a little pull off behind a bit of hill--the road at this point passes through a cut out in the rock..
there is more to this spot than you realise from the highway, which i guess is why we never stopped here before, definitely i will be back there in summer...
i assume the rock is not exactly in a natural state here--the reservoir/lake is on one side, and the road just behind on the other, so likely there was some amount of scraping, re-arranging, and probably gravelling for the roadway into this spot;
its a brutally exposed spot, so though its far below tree line, there were some very low plants huddling behind rocks or in depressions..

[cohan]

still at site 3,
a few pics of the plants (and visitors!);
pic 1 my friend walking across the limestone--gives you a good idea of the stone texture; plants are in sheltered spots  or in little pockets of soil right on the stone
pic 2 me--trying not to freeze or blow into the lake! it looks innocent enough in the pics, with the sun shining, but it was near the freezing point with a fierce wind that made it much colder, and footing a bit tricky even on minor slopes..
pic 3 Arctostaphylos
ubiquitous from low foothills biome up into the mountains; i think this is the evergreen uva-ursi, there are other(another?) species at high altitudes which are deciduous
pics 4,5 Dryas
i think this is D octopetala--far tinier leaves than D drummondii which is much more common at this lowish altitude (12-1300m?)-in fact,i have never seen it except much much higher, but my experience is not that extensive; i will look for this plant in the summer; there was one seedhead, which seemed much finer and whiter than those of drummondii, but i was too cold to have the presence of mind to photograph it...lol..