Thursday, June 15, 2017

Ochre Beds, Paint Pots & Marble Canyon

We drove north, almost to the border with Banff National Park, to hike some trails that are recommended for rainy days. Along the way we passed several trails that are closed because of the presence of bears. We can verify that bears are in the area.

A good sized grizzly.

We're not really that close. We're in the car and using the telephoto lens. I've also cropped the pictures.

Ochre Beds - the First Nations people considered this site sacred and used the red clay in their rock paintings, as well as to decorate their bodies and teepees. 

We continued uphill through forest to another open area which contains...

the Paint Pots.


The Paint Pots were formed when water containing dissolved iron bubbled to the surface.

The iron was deposited in a rim around the springs outlet. There are three small colored pools.

We continued up the trail and had some filtered views of the surrounding mountains.

The trail was fairly muddy but the Canadian Parks provided some wood to get through the worst of it.

Back down through the Ochre Beds and...

across the swollen Vermilion River on a suspension bridge.

Two miles up the road is the trailhead for the path up Marble Canyon.

Formed over the last 10,000 years,...

Marble Canyon is a narrow gorge that extends up Tokumm Creek.

That white patch in the middle of the picture is a chunk of ice and snow. 

At the top of the canyon is a mighty waterfall that drops 130 feet to...

Tokummk Creek swirling below.

We were careful because it was reported that at least three people have fallen to their death on this trail.

We also found two Parks Canada Red Chairs. Frederick is standing behind the chairs because I encouraged him not to sit in them because they were wet from the rain. 

On the way back we encountered a bear on the other side of the road.

I think it may be the same bear as the one in the first two pictures.

We were told that bears like to eat dandelions.

Today's hike:
Length - 3.42 miles
Duration - 2 hours, 7 minutes
Elevation gain - 480 feet


No comments:

Post a Comment