NDR - weekend in Banff (lots of pictures)

Paul Meisenheimer

Paul Meisenheimer

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About a month ago I was in Calgary on business and I had the good fortune to spend the weekend in Banff. One of the folks in the office told me he had been there the week before and had seen some elk on the edge of town so I thought I would see if I could get a few pictures.

It turned out the herd had moved so I went off in search of them in the early morning light. I left my hotel in the dark. It was snowing hard, was very overcast and the driving was terrible as I headed out of town to a ridge where I knew I might see wildlife. Coming around a bend in the road I spotted a couple of cows ahead in an area near a power line cut. I parked on the shoulder, grabbed my pack and started taking pictures.

As I slowly moved forward I realized there were more than a few elk. For the next hour or so I found myself in the middle of a herd of elk that numbered over 100. I never did figure out where it started and ended. The young bulls were calling and sparring all around me and many of the cows were heavy with the next generation of calves.

The pictures are not great. I could blame the light or the lens but the truth is that I am learning to use a DSLR camera after years of snapping shots with a point and shoot. After a month of staring at the pictures I think I am ready to share a few of them.


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On Sunday the weather cleared a bit and I took some scenic pictures.

The town of Banff

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The Bow River

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Johnson Canyon

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The Hoodoos

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"I aint never seen em but they say they touch the sky"
i shall walk with giants someday
i shall hear the clouds as they whisper by me
calling ,calling ,they are
i hear there calls in my sleep

someday

when retirementh comes

thank you very lovely pictures


shermie...
 
The Canadian Rockies are like Electro-Magnets. Beautiful shots, Paul. Your learning curve on that Canon is far superior to mine. Love those snowy elk.
Al
 
Calgary is a nice town and Banff is gorgeous. I am going back in May for work.
I would love to see some elk. I didn't have much time in Banff the last time I was there.
Thanks for the pictures.
 
Very nice Paul! I'm always jealous of the pictures I see of the NW. Love the mountains and would like to live that way some day. Especially like the photos of the bugling bulls. Thanks for posting those.

Ryan
 
I love Ban-F-F(strong on the f)as my dad used to say to get odd looks from the locals. That's the only place I fished the Bow....might as well as had a glass with me so I could get a cool drink. Very few fish that far upstream at that time...the water is too sterile. I don't think the trout population kicks until you get below Cal Gary. But, I did catch a little 4 incher right at the edge of town so I can officially say I've caught fish in the Bow!

Canadian Rockies...what an amazing thing.
 
Jay,

These days a lot of the guides start fishing the Bow near Canmore and all the way down through Calgary. I am supposed to be back at the office in June and thought I would give it a go. I will let you know how I make out.
 
Ryan and Sam, thanks for the comments. I am lucky to get out to the mountains a couple of times a year. It is always nice to combine business and pleasure.
 
Great pics Paul! Ever since seeing the movie "The Last of The Dogmen" I have had a small fascination with Banff. What a truely spectacular place!!!
 
When I was a kid and we went to Banff/Jasper, there was this touristy fur trader shop up by Lake Louise. My brother and I cleaned up on all kinds of skins...ermine, bear, goat, beaver, marmot...all kinds of cool stuff. My dad had to cut us off or we would've had to ship the stuff back parcel post. We had spent several years playing "Deerslayer" and "Last of Mohicans" in the sprawling backyard of our neighborhood to that point. Each character refined to the point of realism that to this day I can cry like Chingachgook after Uncas his son died(brother always played Uncas...neighbor buddy Brian always played the Hawkeye).

Well, after that little trip to the Canadian Rockies it was another story line altogether. My brother(an actor/writer now)was into it so much that he'd look like a mountain man and run around scaring the crap out of other kids in the neighborhood. My uncle had a dummy Springfield M1903 from World War II boot camp that he picked up at a surplus store I'm guessing. Anyway, Ryan not having a Hawken or Kentucky rifle handy carried the bolt action. Maybe not historically accurate but effective none the less. My father owned a liquor store across town and always had a police scanner on in his office. One day there was a call that a "crazy wild man wielding a rifle" was terrorizing a nearby neighborhood which always drew attention as the liquor store had been robbed at gun point a couple times....you see where I'm going with this. Turns out of course that my brother had taken his mountain man realism with the coon skin cap, leather coat, fur leggings to a new level. He was about 9 years old at the time. The police of course did the Hollywood,"Put the gun down and your hands behind your head" etc etc. My brother of course started crying like a 9 year old and the jig was up...I think he actually peed his leggings...I would have hoped he would've at the time anyway. One of the cops figured it out because he knew my dad and took Ryan to the liquor store I think. Anyway, he didn't dress up and scare the crap out of kids too far from home after that. So, the Canadian Rockies had one helluva an impact on Wabash, Indiana...at least one neighborhood one summer!

I still have some of the furs...we added a Wolverine skin later. I have a big patch of black bear from that trip that I use to tie some of my big heavy duty bass bugs now.
 
[font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]"These days a lot of the guides start fishing the Bow near Canmore and all the way down through Calgary. I am supposed to be back at the office in June and thought I would give it a go. I will let you know how I make out."

Paul, as I recall it was a little brookie I caught or a "speckled trout" as a local standing along the bank informed me. In any case, I'd caught quite a few brookies in Michigan so I was scratching my head...it didn't look like any Brook Trout I'd ever seen. I would guess that every beaver pond in the area is crawling with non-native brookies so I guess it makes sense but I always wondered what that little trout was.
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Yes, we often call Brook Trout "specs". And yes, we know that isn't the real name. LOL There are lots to be caught in northern Ontario.

The Bow is best known for the rainbow and brown trout fishing in the area from Calgary south. I recall fishing the Banff area in the early 70's for cutthroat trout and there are many rivers and streams in the area that hold bull trout.

Here are a couple of brook trout photos from past fishing trips. Most folks think of the brook trout as a small creek fish where a 12" fish is a dandy.

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Paul, I think these last shots of the fish could be a harmful to John's health especially if there is still some snow on the ground in Ohio.
Al
 
Paul and I have plans in the works....

Let's just say I have been laying in bed dreaming of 4 pound brook trout and I have cleared a spot on the wall of my office.
 
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