Friday 29 July 2011

The overloaded Ark of Kananaskis

We finally saw a grizzly bear and it was absolutely amazing!

BORING ALERT, READ THE NEXT PARAGRAPH AT YOUR OWN RISK: We were staying in old style trappers tents at a campground in Kananskis, although the tents were nice it was over priced and under resourced. There was no sink to wash up in and no tap apart from a big hose for filling up big RV water tanks and we weren't allowed to use it for washing up either (I know, I know the Rwandan refugees don't know how good they have it).  The lady at the front desk attempted to convince us that no campgrounds in the whole of Canada had sinks for washing up in due to food scraps attracting bears, "we are just crazy like that" she said suggesting it was a national quirk, rather than crapness on their part..... this was disproved 2 days later in a backcountry campsite only accessible by fire road but still with two sinks.  We asked what she suggested we should do about washing up, funnily enough she said we could rent a washing up bowl from them! I know this is quite boring but it really got us annoyed, anyway if it is wildlife you want Kananaskis is not a bad place to go.

Kananaskis valley is in the foothills of the Rockies near Banff.  We saw so much wildlife here.  Our first grizzly was grazing in a meadow beside the road, it turned and  looked at us (we were in the car) then slowly walked back to the safety of the woodland edge, it reminded Ralph of a gorilla because of the front loaded body shape.  No time to get a picture.

This is also where we spotted Pikas for the first time, they may well be the cutest animals alive! A hamster in grey pajamas running over boulders shouting EEEKKK!


Wildlife bridges cross the motorway every 25km. The trans-Canada highway goes straight through Banff and Yoho national parks, the entire length of which is fenced off to wildlife. There were also a number of wildlife tunnels, we heard that the bridges are only used by wildlife after they have been established for 5 years. Although some wildlife are using the bridges it seems unlikely that some limited access does not effect the ecology in some way - I am keen to look up the science on it.


White tailed deer with antlers in velvet -Peter Lougheed Prov. park


Spot the ground squirrels, there were 7 popped up in a row at one point


We walked up and round the Ptarmigan cirque from Highwood Pass in search of Pikas and found one eeking among the rocks

Moments before a big thunder storm



I may be having some sort of seizure here or something, Fi is finding it funny though


there be Pikas in them there hills

Alpine flowers - mountain avens


On Ptarmigan cirque


Female big horn sheep extreme close up - someone had obviously fed these sheep at some point


Dad - the mountain behind me is Mt Rae

Trappers tent



Wildflowers in the Kananaskis valley just south of Banff

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