This morning, we woke up to -5 C. It was our plan to head out to
Kananaskis to do one of the many day hikes in the area. It seemed like a
good idea with a sunny day and +10C forecast. It all looked good until
we started into the mountains behind Canmore. It was overcast, cold and
looked like it wasn't going to get much better. We pushed on along
beside Spray Lakes (below). It's a great little scenic drive along a
well graded gravel road. (The new car was great, by the way).
You will have seen many shots in previous blog site entries of lakes with mirror reflections of mountains. This one fits the description, but with a difference. It didn't come out too bad.
Thanks to the high altitude of the Spray lakes trail, the cold is so much more severe and it showed its face today. The overcast weather turned to snow and the smaller lakes along the trail had started to freeze over. This one is called Mud Lake, and has a nice thin crust of ice across most of the surface and a light dusting of snow from the last day or so.
You may be able to see the white streaks of snow in the photo. It's somewhat different to last weekend's fantastic weather.
Here's a different lake that was just starting to freeze over. Looks cold doesn't it?!
All along the road to the Kananaskis Lakes, the signs of winter were obvious. Freeze burnt grasses dusted in snow, white mountain peaks and waterways beginning to choke with ice build up.
Spillway Lake
In the Rockies, even the man-made waterways are capable of a nice photo. This one is the river that runs away from the foot of the Lower Kananaskis lake dam. Unfortunately the overcast conditions prevented the photo showing up the fantastic greens in the river.
We did have a look at Upper Kananaskis Lake but the icey winds and flurries drove us back into the car rapidly.
We make a couple of failed detours into the higher altitudes on the way back where the fresh snow was coating the vegetation. Winter had definitely arrived.
The gloomy skies coupled with the shortened daylight drove us out of the mountains pretty early. Although not a particularly good day for photography, it was an interesting outing to see winter regaining its grip on the mountains. No doubt Calgary's turn will come soon enough.
