Canmore, AB
Earlier this week, July 17th to be specific, I had the opportunity to spend the day with two longtime friends, Bob and Stewart taking photographs. The day began at 9:30, when Bob and I embarked on the Montane Traverse, a 7.1-km loop trail near Canmore. Generally considered a moderately challenging route, it takes an average of 2 h 29 min to complete, assuming you don’t stop repeatedly to take photographs.
This trail is presumably named for its location and purpose. Montane forests are found at high altitudes, but not high enough for growth to be so limited that trees can’t take root there. When there’s a timberline or forest line on a mountain, that’s typically the highest part of a montane forest. The trail does indeed traverse the montane.
For some time, I’ve wanted to do some woodland photography. This hike fit the bill particularly.
This first photograph shows a section of the trail, near its beginning, our starting point.
Later on I got what I was looking for, a nice stand of aspen trees bordering the trail. This particular location was largely bereft of wildflowers, but I was not disappointed. Flowers would come later.
This next section of the trail provided all the wildflowers I could hope for, primarily the brilliant red, Castilleja, commonly known as paintbrush, Indian paintbrush, or prairie-fire. It’s a genus of about 200 species of plants native to the west of the Americas from Alaska south to the Andes.
With the abundant rain we experienced this spring, grasses and flowers are flourishing in the montane forest. Here we see some mauve and yellow flora amid the thick grass, at the edge of another stand of aspen trees.
Today’s last shot features another section of the traverse, photographed early in our trek. This one was the first one I took. I spent quite a bit of time on this one, paying attention to the beautiful but photographically challenging light and shadow. It was time well spent, preparing for the light conditions to follow.
We left the forest around noontime. We didn’t photograph everything, but I’m content with the opportunity I had to do some woodland photography.