Crowsnest Pass - Day Four

We got up early on the morning of Monday June 3rd.  After breakfast we tidyed up and packed all of our gear and checked out of the rental house.  We made another stop at the Greenhill mine site and spent a little more time photographing here.  I had missed the opportunity to get to the compressor building when we stopped here the first time, so I got back to shoot it this time around.  After an hour or so here, we headed down the valley to a spot between Blairmore and Frank.  Here there was a flooded area near the railway line and the Crowsnest River where there were a number of dead trees with stark, bleached trunks and limbs, mostly still standing.  We wandered around down here for a bit and took some photographs.  While we were wandering around two CP freight trains blasted by us... one of grain cars and the second of oil tankers.  We were standing on the edge of the tracks, just beyond the gravel ballast when these two behemoths rattled by.  There was a cold sulphur spring gushing out of the base of Turtle Mountain and draining into the nearby Crowsnest River.  This seemed to have created the marshy area where these flooded dead trees now stood.  We photographed here for awhile and by about 9:30 or so, Arturo and Sharon met up with us.  Arturo is admittedly not a morning person and struggled to get up and out with the cameras throughout this trip.  He has no issues with staying up into the wee hours.  Fortunately I am able to do both....

By mid morning the light was quite favorable and by this point, the smoke from the forest fires was gone.  We headed back over to Frank Slide and tried to re-photograph this area under more favorable lighting conditions.  Still later we headed over to the town of Bellevue, thinking that some of the old historic buildings there might be in favorable light as well.  There really was only one old cafe that was photographically interesting to me and I shot it with the big camera before we eventually moved down the road once again.  We returned to the Monarch Tipple, and with much better light than a few days earlier, we spent some time shooting here.  This would be our last stop of the day and we spent some time here before eventually hitting the road for home.  It was nearly a six hour drive back to Edmonton and it was with somewhat heavy hearts that we had to pack up and leave.  We did make a stop for a late lunch in Okotoks and had one last opportunity for us all to visit a bit before we made the final push back home.  It was mid evening before we got back to my house and everyone unloaded their gear and set off in their own directions.  An end to the beginnings of our historic documentary project and a great weekend of friendship, photography and camaraderie.  I look forward to getting out with this group again to continue on our project.