Muleshoe

Muleshoe is a scenic stopping point along Highway 1A  through Banff National Park. It provides substantial parking, a picnic area and access to the Bow River below and the slopes of Mount Cory above it. The latter is where fellow photographer, Stew Hamilton and I targeted our photographic efforts on this visit. It’s an ambitious trek up the lower slopes of Mount Cory, but like many challenging endeavours, the reward is worth it. In this case, following a 1.6 km (1 mile) ascent up a steep slope we were pretty close to photographic heaven, with spectacular views in all directions. Our hike took us to a level about 300 metres (1,000 ft) above the parking area. Let the photographs show you what we enjoyed.

This first picture was taken near the apex of my ascent, looking almost due west toward the Massive Range and Pilot Mountain with it’s summit enveloped in the cloud. It was a good day for light with considerable cloud cover but ample openings to allow sunlight to get through. You can see the beautiful patterns of light and shadow on the terrain.

Just a little further below this viewpoint, I captured this glimpse of Castle Mountain, 22 km (13.7 miles) down the Bow Valley to the northwest. The abundant wildflowers contributed to a nice foreground to this scene.

I continued to photograph as we descended back to the valley floor. In this instance, I took some pictures through a stand of trees ravaged by an earlier fire. That’s the Bow River winding through the Muleshoe area, backgrounded by the Massive Range. The gap in the range reveals Mount Bourgeau in the distance.

This image, taken a little further down the slope captures the Muleshoe area with the Bow River prominent and a glimpse of Highway 1A threading through the aspen groves in the middle of the scene. In another 2-1/2 months those aspens will be aglow with the golden hues of autumn.

My final image is similar to many previous ones, but I’ve saved it until the end. It’s my favourite of the day. It offers a good view of Mount Bourgeau and it nicely portrays the alpine meadows we traversed on our descent. If you look really closely, you’ll see some bright red flowers amid the monochrome tones of the grass. I couldn’t resist allowing the Indian Paintbrush to show through.

We concluded our day with some wandering around below the highway. The water in the Bow River is quite high at this time of the year, so we couldn’t gain good access to river scenes. We called it a day, satisfied with our experience. I look forward to September when  I hope to return to capture the brilliant colours of autumn.