Back to Dry Haven

Despite the fact that the forecast was calling for snow, cold and clouds in central Alberta, the weather out at Nordegg on November 6th was spectacular.  I understand it was fairly miserable back in Edmonton, but that the snow did not materialize.  Out here in the mountains, it was sunny and the temperature peaked at +11C.  I even saw a couple of guys playing a round of golf in town.

Margarit and I decided to take another walk along Dry Haven Creek.  Much of the ice and snow that we saw a couple of days prior was disappearing as a result of the sun and mild temperatures.  But we found some cool ice formations along the creek.  And, with virtually no snow left, the gravel bars were all exposed.  Margarit spent a couple hours looking for cool rocks, and found a few.  I spent the time visually exploring the ice formations with my view camera.  It was a great afternoon...!

Even Closer

We are running out of apples to feed them, but the deer are getting even more accustomed to us.  I was able to walk to within about 4 feet of a large doe.  Margarit got just about as close.  They're starting to get a little skittish as the rut is on, and the bucks are not only chasing the does around, but also trying to chase the yearlings away.  This will be the last little treat for them as the apples are almost gone.  After we leave Nordegg in the coming days, there will be no more treats.

Crescent Falls

After our stop at Dry Haven Creek, we decided to take a drive up to Crescent Falls.  The falls are on the Bighorn River, about 6km off the David Thompson Highway.  The campsite and recreation area up at the falls were closed for all of last year for upgrading, and re-opened this summer.  Neither Margarit nor I had been back up there since the renovations.

The parking area up by the falls has been enlarged, and there are picnic tables and new washrooms.  There is a new walking trail that leads from the parking area, down through the forest, to the day use area by the falls.  The steep road down to the day use area from the upper parking area was closed to traffic for the season.  In years past you needed to ford a small creek with your vehicle in order to get to the campsite, down by the river.  A new bridge has been put in.  And there is a spectacular new viewing platform down in the canyon below the upper falls, and just above the lower falls.  It is an elaborate steel structure was multiple staircases and platforms along the way.  I suppose it kind of spoils the view looking down into the canyon, but it affords some spectacular views from within the canyon.

It was quite cool and chilly when we were in the shade, and near the humidity of the falls, which was most of the time.  But when we were in the sun, it was very pleasant.  We spent some time here, and I took a couple of photographs with my view camera.

When we got back to the cottage in the late afternoon we dug out the BBQ and grilled some steaks and salmon.  After dinner we got together with our neighbors Rob and Brenda and visited for a couple hours.

Dry Haven

On Tuesday November 4th Margarit and I went out for a short drive.  It was sunny and mild, with almost no wind.  Our first stop was at Dry Haven Creek.  Margarit had never been here before and was really impressed with the secluded little campsite.  There was a skiff of snow remaining in the shady areas, from the light dusting we got on November 1st.  It is obvious that fall is in the air, as the creek is beginning to freeze.  We took a short stroll down along the creek and enjoyed the early afternoon together.

The Next Beer Parlour Project Road Trip

On Friday November 21st the Beer Parlour Project team will be visiting the tavern of the Carbon Valley Hotel, in Carbon, Alberta.  Carbon is a small town 40km west of Drumheller.  The team will be arriving in the late afternoon, and staying into the evening.  We will be out with the big view camera taking photographs, as well as conducting interviews.  If you are in the area please feel welcome stop in and join us.  We are particularly interested in meeting long time residents of the area that can tell us about the history of the establishment.

Then the next day, Saturday November 22nd, we will be visiting the Last Chance Saloon in Wayne, Alberta.  Wayne is about 15km southeast of Drumheller and the trip there includes a drive up the Rosebud River valley on the Eleven Bridges Road.  This is a popular hotspot with the tourist crowd over the summer months.  We are hoping to get the locals out to share their stories about life in the area, hence the late season visit.  All are welcome to stop by and join the team for this event as well.

Back Yard Deer

On Halloween, Margarit and I headed out to Nordegg.  The kids and the dog all stayed behind in the city.  With the teachers strike over, Helena had to return to school.  And the other kids have their jobs and other commitments to deal with.  We brought along some Halloween treats, but there were no ghosts and goblins out trick or treating.  Almost no one was out in our end of the subdivision, so almost all of the houses were dark.  The few young kids that reside in the area must have found better spoils elsewhere.  We also left some treats at home for the girls to hand out, and understand that they saw about 40 kids.

There are a lot of deer around at this time of year in the subdivision.  With most of the weekenders gone for the season, it is a lot quieter.  Hunting season is on, so perhaps that drives them into our area, where hunting is not permitted.  We saw nine antlerless deer in our yard, all at the same time, and have seen at least three different bucks.  They are very tame, and come right up to the windows of the cottage and stare at us.

We have a large apple tree in our yard back in the city and it produced a huge crop this year.  Margarit must have picked and gathered at least 40 large grocery bags full of apples, and there are still some left on the tree.  We used a bunch of them, and gave lots away.  All of the bruised and damaged ones we brought out to the cottage, and allowed the deer to indulge.  Of course this is one of the main reasons why so many of them hang around.  Margarit and I were each able to approach to within about six feet of them, and they are becoming very tame... and spoiled.

Once the apples were gone, I took my bird feeder and put it up on top of my wood pile.  I put some nuts in it as there have been some Whiskeyjacks coming around.  But, the deer figured out that there was more food available, and crawled right up on top of the wood pile to get to the nuts.  I'll have to find some other way to feed the birds.

We got a skiff of snow overnight on November 1st but within a day it was pretty much gone.  It was nothing like the big dump we got on Thanksgiving, when Helena and I were out.  Night time temperatures have dropped as low as -10, and during the day it has only been getting up into single digits... maybe 6 or 7 at most.  But fall is such a wonderful time of year and it is gloriously quiet to spend a few days and relax.

BP35.0 - The Smokers

This scan is from the recently processed batch of Ilford HP5+ 4" x 5".  This is one of the sheets in that batch that was exposed at 320iso and given normal development.  That was, 7:35 minutes in 510 Pyro 1:100 at 24C.

In the days of my youth everyone smoked... every where...!  Bars in particular, but also restaurants, on planes and buses... everywhere.  Nowadays smokers are second class citizens and are forced to go outside to indulge in their nasty habit.  I smoked when I was young, like almost everyone did.  But I gave it up on a bet in 2000 and haven't touched it since.

This shot was taken on the Beer Parlour Project outing number BP35.0 back in August.  We visited the Wabamun Hotel, just a day after our project was filmed at the Andrew Hotel by CTV News.  There was a good turnout at Wabamun and we enjoyed our evening there.  Guest photographer Byron Robb from Calgary joined us on this one.  This is a very typical scene at many of the hotels we visit.  A group of patrons heading outside for a smoke break......

David Thompson Country Calendar - November Image

This is the image I selected for the November page of my 2025 David Thompson Country calendar.  This little inlet extends off of Abraham Lake, and is connected by a culvert under Highway 11.  In the late summer, when the reservoir is filled to capacity, this inlet fills up right into the trees.  Then over the fall and winter months, as the water in the reservoir is released, the water level recedes, and with it, the ice collapses.  It makes for a rather interesting image and something not normally seen in nature.

Dinosaur Provincial Park - Sage Shadow

This is the second of the two sheets of Ilford HP5+ that I processed immediately after my return from the Fall Photo Weekend.  I was drawn to the long shadows that this little sage plant was casting onto the outwash of textured clay.  A small little detail that many would pass over, but somehow it caught my eye.

I exposed this sheet of HP5 at 320 iso and gave it normal development.  I shot this with my Ebony view camera and a slightly long 200mm lens.  A number 8 Yellow filter boosted contrast slightly and created some separation in the clay.  The exposure was for 1/30 of a second at F25.0.

Dinosaur Provincial Park - Rills

Shortly after returning home from the Fall Photo Weekend, I processed a batch of Ilford HP5+ sheet film.  Mostly this was stuff from various Beer Parlour Project outings.  Some of the sheets were exposed at 320 iso while some of the portraits from the Beer Parlour Project were shot at 1250 iso.  I developed the film in 510 Pyro Developer, 1:100, at 24C.  The normally exposed stuff, at 320 iso, was developed for 7:35 minutes.  The underexposed stuff, at 1250 iso, was pushed and developed for 40:00 minutes.  I will get around to posting some of those images in the coming days and weeks.

I threw two sheets from the recent Monochome Guild trip in with this batch.  One of them was this shot, taken while hiking along the Badlands Trail in Dinosaur Provincial Park.  This was taken on October 21st at about 1:30 in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony view camera and a slightly wide 125mm lens.  A number 25 Red Filter boosted contrast even further than what it already was with the low, clear autumn light.  The exposure was for 1/15 second at F20.0.  I quite like the way this one turned out.

November Calendar Image

This is the image I selected for the November 2025 page of my Fine Art Monochrome calendar.  I am now just getting to work on my 2026 calendar...!  This shot was taken on the Monochrome Guild Fall Photo Weekend back in 2023.  At that time a number of the Guild members headed up to Jasper for a few days of photography.  This is prior to the big forest fire that wiped out part of the townsite a couple years back.

This shot was taken up by Medicine Lake.  That is the Colin Range in the background, with a dusting of fresh snow.  There was a fire in this area several years ago, but this is not the one that did all the damage recently.  This one is the Excelsior Creek fire and it burned mostly in the back country and down to the west side of Medicine Lake and the Maligne River.

Fall Photo Weekend 2025 - The Drive Home

On the morning of Friday October 24th we had a brief visit with Frank and the guys over at the shop.  Then we packed up all of our gear and checked out of the AirBnB.  We hit the road for home in the late morning.  The forecast was calling for this to be the warmest day of the week, with a high temperature of about 20C.  I don't know if it made it quite that high...?  It certainly didn't feel like it.  It was overcast, and through the entire day we barely saw the sun.  And there was a stiff breeze that was rather cold.

It was an uneventful drive home.  We stopped briefly and Trochu and found that the Yale Hotel remains closed.  New owners took over a couple of years back and had hopes of re-opening the place, but it never really got off the ground.  We did take a few snapshots of the old Trochu Motors building in town before moving on.  When we got back to the city we dropped off Arturo and his place, and then Helena and I headed home.  The conclusion of another successful Fall Photo Weekend...!

Fall Photo Weekend 2025 - Winding Down

After our day out photographing on October 22nd, the Monochrome Guild gang headed over to the newly re-opened Rosedale Hotel.  Helena was able to join us, as although it is kind of like a bar, it is operated as a restaurant.  They specialize in burgers and BBQ dishes.  I had a BBQ Brisket sandwich, Helena had some brisket poutine, and the other guys had burgers and chicken.  It was really good, and I hope to be able to return for Beer Parlour Project outing in the not too distant future.

Later that evening Helena and I went out for a walk around East Coulee.  The sky was totally clear and with the limited light pollution we could clearly see the Big Dipper and the Milky Way.  It was nice to see that the locally famous Stop Sign is still in place beside the now abandoned Hotel.

On Thursday the 23rd we had plans to take a drive up the valley to Horse Thief Canyon.  We got part way there and my truck broke down.  I could not get it to go into park.  I pulled over to the side of the road and turned it off, hoping it would reset it itself.  But it did not, and with the transmission not in park, the truck would not start.  I ended up having to call AMA for a tow truck and get the truck taken in to Badlands Chrysler in Drumheller.  When the tow truck driver came out he crawled under the truck and had a look.  It turned out a rock had got jammed in the transmission linkage and when I tried to force it into park, the cable came loose.  He was able to manually put the truck in gear so that I could drive it up onto the deck of the tow truck.  The guys at the Dodge dealership in Drumheller were really good and took a look at the truck shortly after it got towed in.  They were able to reconnect the cable and send us back on our way, with only a small repair bill.  But this wasted a good part of the day and we really didn't have much chance for shooting.

As soon as the problem was diagnosed, I sent the other three guys on their way so that they could at least salvage part of the afternoon.  Later, when the truck was ready, Helena and I ended up doing the road trip that we had originally planned for the day.  This was a much abbreviated version, as it was mid afternoon before we were back on the road.  But we managed to get up to Horse Thief Canyon, and later took the Bleriot Ferry across the river and returned to town.  We made a couple of stops for Helena to explore and look for rocks and she found a nice hadrosaur vertebra.

Later that evening, back at the house, we all got together for a rather late dinner.  This was our second and last BBQ of the trip and we used up most of our remaining groceries.  After dinner we visited for a while, and then packed up most of our stuff.  We were scheduled to hit the road for home the next morning.

Fall Photo Weekend 2025 - Sharples

After we finished shooting all the old abandoned vehicles, we headed across country to Sharples.  Sharples never was a town.  It was just a rail siding with a grain elevator.  The elevator still stands, but rumour has it, it is supposed to be demolished.  We heard that story earlier this year, and checked it out back in July.  Apparently a non-profit group has taken over the old rail line as a walking trail.  There was talk of the elevator being a safety hazard, and there was a desire to tear it down.  As of October that has not happened, and we were able to photograph the majestic old structure in beautiful fall light.

The rumour is a little suspect, as the cost to demolish this building is not insignificant.  It seems to me that if a non-profit had that much money, they would put it towards something else.  My colleague Chris from the Beer Parlour Project did some research and could not find anything that confirmed the rumour.  So, for now at least we will continue to enjoy the old building.

Fall Photo Weekend 2025 - Rosebud Valley

After our morning out exploring, Helena, Gord and I returned to the rental house in East Coulee.  We picked up Arturo and Nigel and headed out for the afternoon.  By this point in the day, the chill was gone at it was another beautiful afternoon.  We headed over to the Rosebud River Valley.  I had been to this location before, and knew exactly how to get to it.  There was a paving crew working on a nearby road, and that hampered our access a little, but we were able to get in to the site.  

The four photographers spent a couple of hours photographing the six old vehicles abandoned on this property.  Helena wandered around on the roadway and up in the hills, looking for cool rocks.  In the phone snapshot of Arturo standing by the old van and barn, you can see Helena in the background, partway up the hill.

After shooting here for a while, we packed up our gear, and with some daylight hours still remaining, we continued on to our next destination.