Remembrance Day

When Jon and I got up on Sunday morning, it was snowing heavily.  We made some breakfast and had a pretty leisurely morning.  We watched the deer out in the yard, feeding on the oats I had put out for them.  The snow accumulated to about 4 inches before we really got mobile.  We eventually got our camera gear loaded into the truck and headed out.  We drove through a few snow squalls as we headed west and highway conditions were not great.  By the time we got up the valley to Abraham Lake the sky was starting to break and the snow tapered off.  Much to my surprise the lake was extremely calm with hardly a ripple on the water.  This was one of those rare occasions when Windy Point did not live up to its name.  We stopped at the Mt. Michener viewpoint near Windy Point and photographed a herd of bighorn sheep.  I set up the big camera and took a couple of shots of the clouds swirling around Mt. Michener and the sun trying to break through.  It was pleasantly mild with the temperature up near zero.  The fact that the sun was coming out, and there was no wind, made for a really enjoyable day.  

Later we headed further up the valley and made a stop at the Siffleur trailhead.  We walked down to the river and did some shooting on the gravel bars.  I took a shot of Ex Coelis Mountain with some sand patterns in the foreground.  Also a detail shot of some driftwood on the beach.

Still later we continued up the valley and made a stop at Whirlpool Point.  We wandered down near the river and took some shorts of the gnarled and windswept Limber Pines.  These trees have so much character and visual interest.  They are one of my favorties, as much so as the Cottonwoods of the badlands.

By this time the light was starting to fade so we packed up our gear and made the drive back to the cottage.  There had been very little snow up along the Kootenay Plains and near Abraham Lake but as we got further east back into the Nordegg area there remained quite a bit of snow.   It had quit coming down shortly after we left the cottage, judging by our tracks.  But is seems that it didn't melt much at all during the day.

We settled down in the cottage and got the fire going.  We got some supper on the go and then ended up sitting around visiting until the wee hours.  Jon tied into some red wine and I had more than my fair share of beer.  We would both awake to that infamous Nordegg headache the next morning.