This past week I participated in what is becoming an annual ritual, a photo shoot at Muleshoe, a favourite site located in Banff National Park, along the Bow Valley Parkway, just west of the Town of Banff. This excursion involves a bit of physical challenge, a steep uphill hike to a great location. It’s well worth it, the views from there are stunning.
Four of us undertook this year’s adventure, Stewart Hamilton, Bob Bear, Hugh Williamson and myself. We enjoyed great weather, an exhilerating hike and some very pleasing pictures as an outcome.
One of the reasons we chose to go at this time was the expectation of wildflowers in bloom. We were not disappointed. My first picture for today features a beautiful flower which I believe is called the Alpine Lousewort. (Please let me know if I have this wrong, I’m sure this flower wouldn’t mind being called something different!)
This scene was photographed from a point near the apex of our ascent, looking across the Bow Valley at the Massive Range of mountains.
Among the most common wildflowers is the Indian Paintbrush. The challenge was to find the most photogenic of them among the thousands of choices. ( Of course, you can never know if you’ve succeeded.)
One of my preferred areas at Muleshoe is near the apex of our hike, where I captured this scene of wildflowers on a steep slope, on the west side of the ridge.
Near the end of our hike, at the base of the slope we ascended is a beautiful stand of aspen trees. It looks spectacular from any vantage point, but particularly so in Autumn, from above. You can take a glimpse here for some autumn scenes taken last there September…https://www.shotsbypeter.com/blog/?p=12024
My last picture is my favourite for the day, a scene taken from the same location as Massive Range Across the Valley, but with a slightly different perspective and presented here in black and white. I converted this from the original colour version because I anticipated that the contrasting brights and shadows on the slopes across the valley would make this a very captivating scene.
