Alberta Wanderings 2010

[cohan]

Such inspiring scenery.... I love it!

thanks, maggi--you know i often think i'd love to live somewhere around treeline--love those 'bare' rocky vistas, green valleys and majestic slopes--in summer! then i remember the 10 months of winter 

Oh, Cohan, you've reached the age of sense ......that strange time when we can have notions about things but realise that the grass may not always be greener!
One of the next stages is when you think it might be good to live nearer the hospital!!

lol--i have obliquely considered that angle during fantasies about moving to certain warm climate locales..... but i could work with a good shaman 

[Maggi Young]

......but i could work with a good shaman

 THAT'S the spirit!

[cohan]

a shaman might have something to say about this next stop:
full album:
http://picasaweb.google.ca/cactuscactus/AlbertaRockyMountainsJune262010L#

pic 1 a high ridge overlooking the road far below, there are two roadside pullouts for drivers to stop and admire the massive change in elevation on the highway that they are about to descend or have just climbed..
(this is the part that evokes shamans) there  always seems to be a raven or two  in the trees just below the parking area, surveying the vast vista a below (maybe hoping for tourist handouts too)..
pics 2,3 besides the views, there are of course plants
pic 4--colonising species in the gravel banks along the road, including this
pic 5 aster which i saw in flower last year ( purple/lilac flowers just like many asters here, but a low mat), but was too early for this time.. and
pic 6 Erigeron compositus ? similar to one i have from a lower elevation, seems to have reduced ray flowers; i was interested to see the long flowering stems, making me feel less bad about the long stems on mine--i guess its just the way this species is, i needn't worry about a sunnier spot!

for the first time i also went off the road/parking area into a wooded section behind, following the sound of a waterfall; i wasn't brave enough to go too near the damp rocky edge with the furious torrent crashing through narrow channels behind! but i managed to see a couple of nice flowers, even if i had to make do with zoom photos--not always enough to get good images of white flowers on dark backgrounds!
pics 7,8 Anemone parviflora ?
pic 9 Dryas octopetala a crappy shot, but interesting to see this coloniser growing in a thin layer of humus in a  shallow depression on solid rock

[Maggi Young]

Love the torrent shot!

[cohan]

thanks--i probably could have got a better shot, but i wasn't nervy enough...lol--i don't have even a smidgeon of that 'danger=thrill' gene! calculated risks only, and there must be a payoff that justifies the risk...

[Maggi Young]

Hmmmm....

'danger=thrill' gene

.... otherwise known as the 'lack of sense of self-preservation gene' 

Yup, some risks are just not sensible..... you got a great shot and are still here to show it to us.... works for me 

[cohan]

thanks given to the inventor of the zoom lens!

[cohan]

second last set! one day in the mountains, over a month of edit and post  
the last stretch of the Icefields Parkway before turning back onto the David Thompson Highway for home..

full album, larger pics:
http://picasaweb.google.ca/cactuscactus/AlbertaRockyMountainsJune262010M#

[cohan]

 homestretch!
pic 1 through the stop (bathroom only, too pricey!) at saskatchewan river crossing,
pic 2 back onto highway 11/david thompson highway which goes through the kootenay plains,
pic 3 a brief stop along the shores of Abraham lake, where there are a few nice, if common, plants on the limestone outcrops above the reservoir
pics 4,5 Packera cana
pic 6 last of the mountains,
pic 7 and on home through the seemingly endless forest of the foothills biome
pic 8 last view of the mountains, just outside of rocky mountain house, 30km from home (ok, we have almost the same view on our road....)

[Ragged Robin]

one day in the mountains, over a month of edit and post

But worth all the toil for this wonderful record of your trip you have shared 

Coming late to this latest expedition I was grateful for your reminder and have spent a happy time following your trial from gentle woodland to rugged peak.  Spectacular shots of mountains with cloudscapes are your speciality and none disappointed, each one topping the one before.  But above all I love the way you treat native plants even 'weeds' with the same respect as the higher eschelens of alpine plant life 

Some great shots: Rubus arcticus, Salix pods, Viola Candensis, Lotus Corniculatus, Viccinium with moss-lichen-CU
Plus Hedysaram and the Dryas octopetula - and the purple clothed mountainside - all caught my eye
The whole landscape has such a lot of character, no view the same, and I look forward to another day in your Rocky Mountains, thanks Cohan 

[cohan]

thanks for the kind words, robin
'mixed sun and clouds' is my favourite forecast for landscape photos
i do treasure every native plant, and even have a softspot for some of the foreign invaders-those that aren't displacing too many natives, or are simply scattered about rather than trying to take over whole fields and meadows!

next to post: i'm now way behind on pics from bicycle and foot botanising  closer to home, and i have found a fair number of species new to me this year, so i am excited about those too just tuesday i finally did a ride on a road not to far away that has a sandy rocky hillside with a few plants quite different than other places around here..

[Stephenb]

pic 9 Dryas octopetala a crappy shot, but interesting to see this coloniser growing in a thin layer of humus in a  shallow depression on solid rock

I planted Dryas in soil about 20 years ago - it has subsequently completely colonised a rocky outcrop next to the original site,  creating its own soil in the process, and disappeared from its original site (the outcrop can be seen in the picture below of the Dryas seed heads,; Renga renga lily in the pot).

Have enjoyed your pictures - hope you get time soon to sort your pictures from your local trips...

[Maggi Young]

Stephen.... I would be awfully grateful for some seed off your smart Norwegian Dryas.... if I might be so bold as to ask??

[Stephenb]

Stephen.... I would be awfully grateful for some seed off your smart Norwegian Dryas.... if I might be so bold as to ask??

I'll have to check when I get home (the picture isn't from this year), but I presume there are some seed heads to harvest. However, I think it may be a garden hybrid (don't remember where I got it from)....

[cohan]

pic 9 Dryas octopetala a crappy shot, but interesting to see this coloniser growing in a thin layer of humus in a  shallow depression on solid rock

I planted Dryas in soil about 20 years ago - it has subsequently completely colonised a rocky outcrop next to the original site,  creating its own soil in the process, and disappeared from its original site (the outcrop can be seen in the picture below of the Dryas seed heads,; Renga renga lily in the pot).

Have enjoyed your pictures - hope you get time soon to sort your pictures from your local trips...

thanks stephen; local pics soon
up near the glacier, i noticed the dryas created crunchy mats of dead leaves, which i guess gives new soil for them and other plants; i had a couple of cuttings of D drummondii a couple of years ago which were very slow to take in my rock garden, but one piece has survived and finally started to grow this year..
maggi--any tips on sowing dryas seed? does it keep?