Antelope Island 2009 Bison roundup

Upon hearing that the Bison roundup (or buffalo depending on who you talk to... It's a Bison Roundup, but you eat Buffalo Burger.) was today-- we finished our manure mucking chores and headed out to the island, hoping for a chance to ride anywhere we wanted, as happened last year when we got to ride South of the ranch. We just about didn't do it when we found they had changed their policy and required a $25 permit for anyone to ride this weekend. It permitted us to ride anywhere and to actually herd the bison if we wanted. Workman's comp even applied if we were injured because it was a State run event. We found the round up group half way to the Ranch, but the herd was pretty much stationary and the riders were just sitting around. I read in the paper this morning, there were over 200 riders. I also found out that the bison were "very stubborn" and were grazing and drinking at a siesta when we saw them. We also read that three horses were gored by angry animals.

Some of the trailers parked at the ranch...
That didn't look like too much fun, so we went down to the ranch and rode toward Sentry Peak.
The trail was much softer than I remembered--appeared to have been "graded" and widened in most places.
Looking north. This was an attempt at a self-portrait. This was my first ride with my "good" camera. I retired the old one, due to a scratched lens.
We were able to ride a trail that is usually off limits to trail riders and we spied this multi-pointed buck staring at us.
Then a doe...she's just in front of that middle bush.
A nice vista with the Oquirrh mountains in the background.
This trail eventually led to the beach on the other side, but hadn't allowed enough time. It would have been another hour of riding.
I thought these rock formations in the background were interesting.
I love this shot.
More interesting rocks on another trail that is usually off limits.


Can you see Salt Lake City downtown?
This guy missed the round up.
Birds on the Buffalo.
After our ride, we put the horses in the trailer and drove to the west side of island at White Rock Bay. We spied these bison out on the beach. No food, no water...maybe they just like hanging out on the beach like we do.
White Rock Bay.
We grazed the horses for an hour while we waited for the sunset.




Memorable ride, beautiful sunset...yes, I am ready to go back again next week!

Up through Montana

We arrived in Whitefish, Montana in time to visit the Art Festival in the park there. We didn't want to wait around for 5 hours for the fireworks on the lake, so we drove on and found a place to camp in the forest.
The next morning we found a nice waterfall--Martin Falls.

The forest had many of these trees, which I hadn't seen in Utah. Haven't identified it yet. Thinking it may be some kind of cedar.

There was much "bear moss" on the trees. It is a combination of algae and lichens (or something like that) and will not survive in polluted air.

Canmore, Alberta

On our first day in Canmore, we spotted these elk bedded down right next to the freeway. Since it was raining steadily, we chose to take a "tour" of the Ammonite factory, featuring Ammolite, a rare gem found only in Alberta. It was interesting, but a total rip off for $10 as we were only shown the jewelry showroom and the guide read posters that we could have read for free. I had hoped to see the stones actually being polished or set.

No, I did not pick one up for a souvenir. A tiny, barely visible chip was about $40. The larger specimens as shown below ran about $30,000.

One of the more delightful experiences in Canmore was visiting their "Miner days" Art festival held in some Heritage gardens.

This wild bunny was visiting the gardens at the same time.

The average home in Canmore is about $850K. The one below is typical of the larger ones. This one below, I would guess at about that price or even more. Small building lots in the more upscale neighborhoods ran $700K-800K.

Banff National Park, Alberta

It began as a potential "rain all day" kinda day. Our plan was to visit Banff (the city) and visit the hotels, museums, art galleries, maybe drive around a little. As we began the drive and paid our entrance fee (you have to pay the park entrance fee to even visit), we saw the spectacular cloud formations surrounding the mountains and decided to drive the Bow Valley Parkway up toward the Icefields and Lake Louise. We noticed on the map a place called Johnston Canyon with two waterfalls to hike to. I didn't even have my hiking shoes, but we gave it a try. It was amazingly beautiful.
The hiking was aided with catwalks.

The first waterfall was so beautiful and we heard the upper was even more. So, we hiked a total of about 3.7 miles to see both falls.

Lower Johnston Falls. We walked through a little tunnel to get right up close.

The Upper falls.

Mountain Views along the parkway.

Icefields (glaciers)

We visited the famous Lake Louise.

And were more enchanted by the gardens, especially the Iceland Poppies....

....Than the huge hotel.

After lunching at Bill Peyto's Cafe in Lake Louise, we drove to Lake Moraine. It was just beginning to rain, but we grabbed our raingear and headed out on a short hike around the lake. The rain stopped and we had an awesome hike!

The turquoise blue of this lake is particularly striking. Apparently it is caused from tiny mineral particles originating on the glaciers.

Typical forest scene around Lake Moraine...