This morning we woke up early and headed out to try to find some more animals. We had hoped to drive out along one of the Parkways, but they were still closed. We had no option but to drive out toward the park gate. It's quite a nice drive and we'd had seen the sheep and deer along with elk while driving along it the previous afternoon. Oddly enough, we didn't see any animals except for the deer in the township. That was until I spotted something on other side of lake. It was completely unexpected but it was a pack of either wolves or coyotes. Excitedly I thought they were a pack of wolves but, having studies the photos, I think they were a small family of coyotes. They were the best part of a kilometre away so it is a bit hard to tell.
Bison Paddock
After breakfast We returned to the Bison Paddock on the way to Red Rock Canyon and were lucky enough to see a couple of bulls up reasonably close. We couldn't drive inside the paddock because it was still closed but got close enough from the perimeter road to get a few photos.
Red Rock Canyon
We were hoping the parks people had opened the 2 parkways. To our relief, some were and we set out along the Red Rock Parkway. We didn't see any animals and the meadows were still buried under nearly a foot of snow. We reached the end of the road, Red Rock Canyon.
It was a bit hard to understand the name when it was buried under snow, but we got the idea. There's a short loop walk that runs alongside the canyon. Unfortunately the snow and overcast conditions took the edge off it. It was still interesting enough.
Just when we were about to cross the bridge over the canyon we spotted paw prints.
A grizzly bear had crossed the bridge a within hours of our presence. It had to have been sometime after the snow had stopped because there was no fresh snow in the prints. At a guess it was early that morning.
I'm told the way to tell a grizzly print from a black bear's is the claw marks. The Black bears claws retract. Check out the size comparison with Kerri's foot. I'm not sure that an encounter with this one would have been a good idea.
After the excitement with the bear tracks, we started to hike to
Blackiston Falls on the other side of the valley in the shadow of Mt Anderson (above). The trail was deep in
snow & we kept breaking through the top crust and ending up knee
deep in white stuff. We ended up turning not even half way to the falls
because it was way too dangerous. As it was Kerri nearly twisted her
knee a couple of times.
Cameron Creek
So we hopped back in the car and headed along
the Akamina Parkway beside Cameron Creek (above) hoping to end up a Cameron
Lake. Unfortunately the road closed just before an avalanche zone about
2 kms short of the lake so we turned around and ended up back at
township.
Bertha Falls
We were getting frustrated by this point and executed Plan C. It was a 2.8km hike to Bertha Falls (below). The trail was covered in a foot of snow, but not as bad as the one to Blackiston Falls. By the time we headed back, the trail was slushy and wet. Our shoes we soaked but it was just about worth it.
By the time we arrived back in town, most of the snow had melted off exposing the spring grass. It suddenly dawned on us why we'd seen so many animals down in the township. With the higher elevations still covered in snow and with few humans to hassle them, the grazers had a nice supply of fresh green grass to munch on. A mob of bighorns had set up camp right outside the visitor centre.
Red Rock Canyon
Later in the afternoon we drove out along the Red Rock Parkway hoping to see animals again. It was amazing to see the foot of snow from the morning, completely gone! It became obvious where the canyon got its name.
Returning to town, just before we were about to give up on animal spotting we spotted a deer with it's white tail up in alarm.
On closer inspection we saw two coyotes eating a carcass.We followed one of them a little way along the tree line and beside a pond. Unfortunately we hadn't packed the tripod and the photos ended up a bit fuzzy.
It was fantastic to see these ultimate scavengers up close. The locals (particularly the farmers) hate them, but I happen to think they're great.
