Sheep River Provincial Park is located 106km SW of Calgary in Alberta. Take highways AB-22 and AB-546W, or AB-2A south to Otokoks, then west on AB-7 to Black Diamond and at Turner Valley to AB-546W, leaving 36km.
Sheep River is part of the Bow River watershed, providing drinking water to the towns of Turner Valley, Black Diamond and Okotoks.
The Sheep Falls are located near the Bluerock Campground and the Indian Oils Trail on the Sheep River Road at the western portion of the Park.
The park is open May 15 to November 30th each year which assists the Bighorn Mountain Sheep in maintaining their herd numbers. For the avid outdoors person there is camping, hiking, biking/cycling, fishing, horseback riding, and, of course, photographing birds and spectacular landscapes. For fishing enthusiasts a fishing license is required, and there is a catch and release in effect. This park is home to Cutthroat Trout, Bull Trout and Rainbow Trout. For the hiker often deer, elk, bear and Bighorn Sheep are seen.
For hikers there is information on the trails with Alberta Parks showing the degree of difficulty and more information. Group hiking is essential as this is bear country!
Historically, in 1884 to 1885 John Ware worked for the Quorn Ranch located on the Sheep River.
Winter can be a wonderful time of year for various sporting enthusiasts: ice fishing, skiing, skating, tobogganing, walking in crisp cold air that numbs your nose while the snow crunches and squeaks under your boots. Though sometimes there isn't enough snow for sports. Like today: a bare covering of snow on the ground combined with a windchill. Perhaps kites with toque, two pairs of mitts, down-filled parka, woof scarf and various other wool garments underneath layered with soft cotton (rather than polyester which isn't healthy for you over the longterm). It's not pleasant walking in damp cold with a windchill of -18C (0F). The best thing about coming indoors afterwards is preparing a mug of steaming hot chocolate with a wee bit of cream to top it off.
It has been a very wierd winter so far with snow followed by mild temperatures, rain, then several days of sun and cloud ending in colder temperatures and a wee bit of snow. Yet in places meant to be warmer there has been snow: like in Sypria. Perhaps its the poles shifting every time there's an earthquake--some recent ones, over the last six months, on the west coast have been in the 7 scale. Or some years ago I'd read an article that said the planet was going into a water cycle which would create temperature change. Humans adjust just like nature does. We might complain a little but in the end we just go with the flow. Its much easier to do that in the beginning and avoid the tension.
How's your winter life going?
The photo is one of the waterfalls at the location of Elbow Falls west of Bragg Creek, Alberta.
These beaultiful gardens are near Chilliwack, B.C.
Photo Credit: Stephen Rees CC=nc-nd-flickr.
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
This photo was taken at the Minter Gardens near Chilliwack, B.C.
A nice reminder that spring and summer will soon follow bringing sunshine and warmer temperatures. There's nothing quite like a waterfall in a garden or natural setting to put people at ease. Myself, I'm looking forward to summer and the coming year to get out more and enjoy those thigs that go hand-in-hand with sunshine and balmy days.
Photo Credit: CC=Stephen Rees nc-nd-flickr. CLICK TO ENLARGE
Tangle Falls are located in Jasper National Park, 200m from the Icefields Parkway. They are 10km north of the Wilcox Creek trailhead.
There is a trail that leads from Tangle Falls which is not well marked, but leads up to Wilcox Pass. The hike to Wilcox Pass from the Wilcox Creek campground will be covered in a future post.
[2-click to enlarge]
When Mary Schaffer and her group were coming down from Wilcox Pass to navigate their way past the Sunwapta Gorge, they took the right side of the stream urging their pack horses to find their way down the dense underbrush to the bottom. When they did manage to reach the bottom and crossed the stream they noted other horse tracks had descended at the same location. Later they learned that Bill Peyto, an early outfitter, had found the easiest way was to take the left side of the stream. They named the crooked stream “Tangle Creek” after their descent.
[3-lower section of Tangle Falls - click to enlarge]
Research: Old Indian Trails of the Canadian Rockies by Mary Schaffer (1911), p.56
The Athabasca Falls are located in Jasper National Park, Alberta just off Highway 93. The waterfall itself is only 23 metres high, but it is known for the amount of water that rushes down the narrow gorge. The water in the Athabasca River comes from the meltwater of the glaciers in the Columbia Icefield.
[2-click to enlarge]
In the photo below, the mountain in the background is Mount Kerkeslin at 2984 m (9791 ft), named by James Hector when he traveled up the Athabasca Valley in 1859. At the time the mountain was named, Hector had been hunting a wolverine whose name by local aboriginals is “ker-kes-shu”. The notation had been made in Hector’s journal for the January 22, 1859 and February 14, 1859 entries.
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I have been to these falls many times since childhood on family camping trips and later as an adult. They never fail to fascinate me with the amount of water that goes rushing down through the gorge. Every time I return there are stacks of rocks that are often washed away from the force of the rushing water.
UPDATE: A video depicting very foolish tourists at the Athabasca Falls. I had commented on this in the comment section.
Webster’s Falls are located at the Spencer Gorge/Webster Falls Conservation Area near Hamilton, Ontario, and one of many falls on the Niagara Escarpment. The Bruce Traildescends by staircase into the gorge where the base can be easily reached. The Bruce Trail continues downstream, and for the next half mile Spencer Creek is one cascade after another.
Photo Credit: andreakw CC=nc-nd-flickr. CLICK TO ENLARGE.
The falls, at 30 meters high, are located in the Eugenia Falls Conservation Area of 23 hectares along the Niagara Escarpment. They were discovered in 1852 as a result of a ‘Fools Gold’ rush.
The name for the falls had been suggested by ex-soldiers of the French Army (Crimean War) after Princess Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III.
For more information about the falls and the gorge go here.
[1-Footbridge over Montmorency Falls - click to enlarge]
The falls, at 84 meters (275 ft) high, are the highest in the province of Quebec and 30 m (98 ft) higher than Niagara Falls. The Montmorency River flows into the St. Lawrence River near Île d’Orleans, northeast of Quebec City. The falls were named by Samuel de Champlain in 1613 in honour of Henri II, duc de Montmorency, who served as viceroy of New France from 1620 until 1625.
This waterfall is located in Fundy National Park in New Brunswick in eastern Canada.
The trailhead to the hiking trail to Dickson Falls is located on the road to Wolfepointe with a well-marked sign. A boardwalk section starts the hike along the Dickson River with the trail moving through mixed forest and rocky areas.
For more information on Fundy National Park visit ParksCanada .
For those visitors who ask for a map of these park locations (you know who you are) a google map below will show you the way.
Photo Credit: TimDan2 CC=nc-nd-flickr, google map of Fundy National Park.
Wapta Falls is near the west end gate of Yoho National Park on the Kicking Horse River. From the TransCanada Highway it is an easy half hour hike one way going 7-kilometres round-trip. The Kicking Horse River drops 27 metres at its full height and is 61 metres across. Wapta Falls has the largest volume of water of all waterfalls in Yoho National Park; with the distinction in 1858 of being close to the spot where Kicking Horse Pass explorer James Hector was kicked in the chest while trying to recover a runaway horse. He recovered enough to push on with the expedition which proceeded to make the first recorded passage of what is now known as the Big Hill leading up into the Bow Valley from the present day location of Field. Expedition members aptly named the river The Kicking Horse.
Source: http://www.field.ca/yohonationalpark/waterfalls/ Tales From The Canadian Rockies, Brian Patton (1994)
Kakabeka Falls is on the Kaministiquia River, located beside the village of Kakabeka Falls, 30 km (19 mi) west of the city of Thunder Bay.
The falls have a drop of 40 m (131 ft), cascading into a gorge carved out of the Precambrian Shield by meltwater following the last glacial maximum. It is the second highest waterfall in Ontario after Niagara Falls, and has been consequently nicknamed "the Niagara of the North".
The rock face of the falls and the escarpments along the gorge are composed primarily of unstable shale, and are eroding. These rocks host sensitive flora, and contain some of the oldest fossils in existence, some 1.6 billion years of age. Due to the fragile rock, going into the gorge below the falls is prohibited.
The name "Kakabeka" comes from the Ojibwe word gakaabikaa "waterfall over a cliff". For viewing the falls there are boardwalks and viewing pods that offer safe views of the falls and gorge.
The Legend of Green Mantle is about an Ojibwe chief who upon hearing news of an imminent attack from the Sioux tribe instructs his daughter, Princess Green Mantle, to devise a plan to protect her people. She entered the Sioux camp along the Kaministiquia River and, pretending to be lost, she bargained with them to spare her life if she would bring them to her father's camp. Placed at the head of the canoe, she instead led herself and the Sioux warriors over the falls to their deaths, sparing her tribe from the attack. The legend claims that one can see Green Mantle when looking into the mist of Kakabeka Falls, a monument to the princess that gave her life to save her people. Other versions of the legend say she came across the Sioux herself, and later jumped out of the canoe ahead of the falls and swam to shore, leaving the Sioux to go over the falls, then ran back to the camp to warn her people.
For fishing enthusiasts there are pike and walleye.
For wildlife viewing there are moose, deer and bear, smaller animals such as fox, squirrels and chipmunks, and feathered friends -- grouse and song birds - at this park. In the fall watch for bald eagles over the gorge.
A trail suitable for cycling is the Poplar Point Trail.
[1-The Red River Expedition below Kakabeka Falls by Frances Anne Hopkins circa 1877]
Frances Anne Hopkins, (2 February 1838 – 5 March 1919), daughter of Frederick William Beechey was born in England and had a talent for painting. In 1858 she married a Hudson's Bay Company official Edward Hopkins whose work took him to North America. She accompanied him and travelled extensively by canoe along some of the most important fur trading routes. While travelling, she sketched extensively and thereby recorded an interesting aspect of Canadian history.
Her best-known works are several large paintings made from her sketches. They show voyageurs and their canoes with her husband and herself in with the paddlers.
Hopkins returned to England in 1870 where she lived until her death. Many of her paintings are part of the collection of the National Library and Archives of Canada. In 1988 a stamp was issued featuring one of her paintings and an inset sepia photograph of the artist.
Research: OntarioParks, wikipedia Photo Credits: wikipedia
