Canmore - in the shadow of Ha Ling Peak

Ann McRae

My family and I spent the Sept. long weekend with friends in Canmore, Alberta. We wanted to do some hiking, but started out the weekend by challenging Ha Ling Peak. The folklore about this peak is that a railway worker bet someone $5 in the late 1800s that he could summit and leave a flag there in under 10 hours roundtrip. He won the bet, as apparently he made the trip in 6 hours, from the town.
The climb is about 3 km form the parking lot, with a gain of 700m, or from 1700m above sea level to 2400m above sea level. Most people doing this climb do so to see how quickly they can get to the top. My fitness level was not up to the trip and I quickly asked to be left behind. Most of the trip is on a path through heavy forest, so I took it as an opportunity to photograph the forest floor and study shape and texture.


Occassionally there were breaks in the forest, allowing for vistas like this:


I took the time to observe and enjoy the shapes, colors and textures of the mundane: tree trunks, deadfall, moss:






And finally as I emerged from the tree line, more vistas:


Right about here, I met up with the 10 others from my group, and turned around. They all made it to the top, and I justified missing photo ops by knowing it was mid day and really harsh light!

TBC

ann

Ann McRae

The next morning, we walked to downtown for latte. I realized how much Ha Ling dominates eastern Canmore. The walk along the Bow river provided me with a few photo ops too:





That afternoon we did the Grassi Lakes hike - also along the same ridge as Ha Ling. Looking back toward the town of Canmore from the trail:



Grassi Lakes are really beautiful, shallow little ponds. This hike was extremely crowded and it was really hard to get a shot without extra people in it. The lakes had a funky, irridescent algea bloom going on too:


The next morning, I got up early enough to go looking for photo ops on my own - without the timeline of multiple interests to interfere in the photography.










Hope you enjoyed the visit!!!

ann

System

Thanks for sharing. I am in love with the Canadian Rockies. From Nelson to Banff to Revelstoke every February we trek from all over the US to enjoy some of the most pristine backcountry skiing on earth. My avatar pic is from a dreamlike week in 2004 cat skiing at Retallack where we wallowed in 5 feet of untracked snow that fell during our stay.

David_S85

Hi Ann!

Looks like you had a wonderful trip. Thanks for sharing the beautiful views.

quark

My favorite is #2 in the second post. Excellent color and a truly beautiful place.

Scott_Quier

Ann,

This series is an unmitigated success. I love all the shots. The four below are my favorites (couldn't narrow it down to just one!)

Thanks so much for sharing.

Ann McRae

Hi truth. Back country skiing is just too adventurous for me.

Thanks for stopping by.

ann

Ann McRae

Hey, David
It was a nice weekend. We leave Monday on a much bigger adventure - hoping to come back with many, many photos.

cheers

ann

Ann McRae

Thanks, quark.

IT is a pretty special place, thats for sure.

ann

Ann McRae

Thank You Scott. My favorites are the first and last of your choices, plus the Nordic Center with the flag out front.

ann

Ann McRae

And I redid the pano I have of the resevoir. Fixed the exposure so that the right side is not overexposed. Here it is:

Dee

Beautiful photos
I'm glad you stayed behind and were able to spend time looking around to discover some nice secret things to photograph.

I never liked hiking -- like driving down a road. One misses too much.

davev

These are all great shots Ann.

The pano turned out great.

Scott_Quier

davev wrote:

These are all great shots Ann.

The pano turned out great.

The pano did turn out very nicely.