Windy Point

I slept in a bit on the morning of Thursday May 7th, after getting word around 5:30AM that Hailey was safe and sound in Austria.  Later in the morning I had a shower, coffee and some breakfast.  It was mostly sunny, and reasonably warm, so I decided to head out with my camera for a while.  I had intended to do this on Wednesday evening, but I was too tired after splitting all the wood, and it clouded over and sprinkled a little anyway.

I headed over to Windy Point on Abraham Lake.  On the way I saw two different groups of wild horses.  There was a group of 13 blacks with two young foals, near the Trunk Road.  Further west at the Bighorn Reserve there was another small group.  I also saw several deer, a grouse and two different herds of Bighorn Sheep.

On this day Windy Point did NOT live up to it's name.  Most of the time it is extremely windy here, with white caps on the reservoir, and winds so strong you have to hold onto the door of your vehicle with both hands when getting in and out.  This time around there was barely a whisper of breeze.  The reservoir was mostly flat like glass, with only a few light ripples from time to time when the breeze picked up.  The skies were beautiful with a mix of clouds and the temperature peaked at about 18C.  There was a herd of Bighorn Sheep around and on two different occasions they wandered in to some large format photographs that I had composed.  I shot here for a couple of hours with the view camera, and it was very peaceful.  A couple of other groups of people came and went but for the most part it was just dead quiet.

The water level in the reservoir is very low at this time of year.  It will likely drop just a little further before the mountain run off starts in another month of so.  Then the dam will be closed and the water level will rise through the summer months.  By fall it will once again be full, right into the trees and right up to the highway.

Later I headed back over to the cottage and tackled a couple of chores.  I repaired the feeder that I use for the deer, and then later still applied a little watercolor to the line wash drawing that I am working on.  A very calm and relaxing day to say the least.