Sunshine Meadows

As it’s name suggests, Sunshine Meadows is a high alpine meadow, located about 10 km west of the Town of Banff. It’s elevation varies but it’s in the range of 2,300 m (7,545 ft). The area serves as a ski resort (Sunshine Village) in winter. You may be able to see the telltale signs of a ski resort in some of the pictures, ski lifts and ski runs carved out of some of the lower, forested areas. Most of the skiable terrain is above the tree line. It’s a beautiful site, surrounded by mountain peaks and covered with lush plant life in summer, most notably colourful wildflowers. The Meadows is a vast area , stretching 15 km along the Continental Divide. The Divide separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain into the Atlantic Ocean (including those that drain into the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea), and along its northernmost reaches, those river systems that drain into the Arctic Ocean. In this part of the Rockies, the Divide also serves as the provincial boundary between British Columbia and Alberta.

I visited Sunshine Meadow earlier this week as a participant in a field trip with the Canmore Camera Club. We did a 7 km hike through the area, taking photographs as we went along. It was a beautiful day, very warm and sunny. We began our trek at the ski lodge, hiking through a forested area before reaching an open meadow and the Monarch Viewpoint, pictured here. The peak to the left of the frame is The Monarch.

Looking northward from the same area, I captured the next two photographs, the first featuring Mount Bourgeau in the centre.

The second scene, in the same vicinity shows an interesting pattern of boulders, littered across the meadow in the foreground. I was facing east to include the Goats Eye ski area on the west side of Eagle Mountain.

The next section of the hike was across open meadow, decorated with wildflowers in full bloom. It may be surprising that it’s mid-August and many of the flowers are at their peak. At this elevation, everything happens later. The same flowers, down on the floor of the Bow Valley have long passed their “best by” dates. Not surprisingly, this area will have snow within a month and a half. Skiing will take over by late November. Following are some examples of the flora to be found in the high mountain meadows at this time of the year, included as a slideshow. Click right to advance; left to reverse direction.

 

The most prominent and most colourful flower to be found at this particular time is the fireweed. It appears in some of the later scenes I’ve included in this post. While I was in this same location I observed some very interesting rock formations. I’ve included the following two, looking eastward in the direction of the ski area.

One of the great scenes I saw in the course of the hike was a view toward the southwest, as we approached the descending trail to Rock Isle Lake. It was a little challenging to photograph with the sun high in the sky and located in the direction I was shooting, but well worth the effort. I like the layered, shadowed appearance of the mountains extending into the distance, while at the same time the foreground is clearly discernible. (This photograph needed a little help from Photoshop to get the contrast between the foreground and background properly balanced.)

We soon began  our descent to Rock Isle Lake, on a lower level of the meadows. The path downward is very scenic and features a flash of colour, the brilliant pink fireweed and the azure blue lake. That’s Simpson Ridge visible in the background.

Here’s the lake.

On the final leg of our journey, returning to the lodge, I was able to capture two scenes that I think best portray the meadows. This first example shows a hillock in the foreground, resplendent with fireweed and anemone flowers. It’s shaded by some cloud cover above and the background is brightly illuminated. You see the south end of Mount Howard Douglas on the right, known to skiers as the “Divide” or the “Brewster”. It’s one of the two major ski areas at Sunshine.

My final photograph for today is my favourite. Entitled “Home Stretch”,  it shows the WaWa Bowl on the left. Just below is  the Sunshine Lodge, obscured in this photo by the hill in the foreground. Again, we see Mount Bourgeau in the centre of the scene and the “Divide” to the right.

I thoroughly enjoyed my day and appreciated the opportunity to see this familiar terrain from a totally different perspective, summer time!