A Couple Days in East Coulee

On September 7th I headed down to East Coulee.  I didn't get out of the city until mid afternoon, so it was early evening before I arrived.  The light was looking really nice on the badlands and it was a gorgeous, warm summer evening.  After dropping of my food and gear at the shop, I went for a walk around town.  The mosquitoes and black flies were really bad, particularly down near the river, so I didn't stay outside all that long.

On the drive down I noticed that the area west of Red Deer and south of Stettler was really dry.  All of the potholes and sloughs were dry and the crops were really stunted.  This has been a common issue through much of the prairies since that heat wave in early July.  I haven't been witness to it first hand as the areas that I usually travel, around Wetaskiwin, Ponoka, Rimbey and Rocky Mountain House have received closer to normal amounts of rain.

I wandered over to the old timber bridge.  I've photographed here many times in the past and the deck of the bridge is now badly deteriorating.  The railroad installed a chain link fence at either end a couple of years ago and sometime this year the one at the north end was further secured.

I turned in fairly early on Tuesday evening as my friend Frank was not around, and I didn't have a lot to do.  I got a fairly early start on Wednesday, and headed out with my camera.  Unfortunately the skies were partly overcast and it was quiet breezy.  

I started out downstream and crossed the river at Dorothy.  I drove up into the hills overlooking town and explored there for a little.  I spooked a big jackrabbit out from under a clump of sage.  I was surprised to find that there was some prairie crocus and blazingstar blooming.  These wildflowers typically bloom in spring, but this weird hot and dry weather, plus the smoky conditions, have everything mixed up.

I stopped at a grove of cottonwoods along the river and did a few setups with the 4x5.  Further on I also hiked up into the hills and photographed some large sandstone boulders.  Later in the afternoon I headed back to East Coulee and met up with Frank at the shop.  We had an evening fire out in the yard and sat around and visited.  Frank's wife Chris also joined us.

On Thursday morning, a little groggy from the beers the night before, I slept in a bit.  I decided to winterize my travel trailer, which I normally store in the shop.  There is a chance the shop space may be needed this fall, and the trailer might have to go outside for bit.  By about noon I packed up and headed back to Edmonton.  It was quite hazy all day on Thursday and I'm not sure if was just dust from the harvest, or if smoke from the forest fires in BC had rolled in again.  Perhaps it was a bit of both.  In any event I never did end up taking any photographs on Thursday.