Summer Morning

Along the Bow

Summer has finally arrived. Yesterday morning, I arose early anticipating good light conditions for photography. I walked down to a large meadow not far from home, just in time for the sun cresting Grotto Mountain on the opposite side of the Bow River. The sun itself was largely obscured by a large cloud formation; but, the effect was magic. Wind was shaping the formation, creating a very dynamic scene. The sun provided great backlighting to highlight the clouds’ shadows. One could say, the sun “exploded into the scene!”.

I circled the large meadow, salivating over the possibilities to photograph the abundance of wildflowers in full bloom. I endeavoured to photograph the surrounding mountains, including as much wildflower colour as possible. This next picture features the Fairholme Range of mountains, bounding the northeast side of the Bow River.

I didn’t include any mountains in this scene, but I reasoned that the cyan coloured water of this pond is a good alternative. I found a good place to take the picture, with some beautiful flowers in the foreground. The pond itself looks much better than it smells. The pond captures drainage from a nearby, closed coal mine. The water absorbs sulphur compounds from remaining coal seams, contributing the characteristic “rotten egg” aroma to the pond. Fortunately the aroma does not detract from the merits of the image.

This photograph was taken from behind a grassy hillock, looking upward to nearby mountains. On the left are the Canmore Wall, Miners’ Peak and Ha Ling Peak, all part of the Ehagay Nakoda Massif. To the far right is the east end of Mount Rundle, usually referred to as EEOR.

Canmore’s landmark, the Three Sisters is a mountain with three peaks, labelled “Big Sister”, “Middle Sister” and “Little Sister” in descending order of height (left to right). I didn’t name them, I just report them!

That sums it up. I hope you’ve enjoyed some the beautiful landscapes that define the nature of our town. I assure you the photographs cannot do them justice.