August 13, 2015Kakwa Provincal Park – Part Two

P7310295.jpg
Author: Josée Bergeron

The following is the second part of a guest post by the lovely, adventure seeker Natalie Vogt. Below she describes her recent adventure adventure at Kakwa Provincial Park and shares a plethora of beautiful scenic pictures. To read the first part: click here.

————-

July 28 – August 1: Edgegrain Lake Trip (continued)
On our fourth day, we left Edgegrain Lake and slowly climbed back up the pass. With every step we got many different beautiful perspectives of the landscape below and above. Slowly the lake that we briefly called home shrank beneath us. Near the top of the pass, we spotted a butterfly. With some luck the camp host got a good picture and identified it as Milbert’s tortoise shell butterfly. Butterflies are hard to take pictures of.

On the other side of the pass we finally got to see Sir Alexander in all its glory! Interestingly, Sir Alexander was originally named Kitchi meaning “big” or “great” in Cree and was later named after Alexander Mackenzie the explorer. There is another mountain close by that was instead given the name Kitchi. One day I hope to bring my little nephews and niece to Kakwa to get close and personal to these giant 3D mountains.

Near the bottom of the pass you find “The Guardian” (which we also saw on the way to Edgegrain Lake). The Guardian consists of rocks precariously stacked forming a bust, a very distinctive landmark. My father-in-law was very excited to share The Guardian with us. After we scrambled up and past The Guardian the walking was easy in the alpine. Eventually, we made it back to our campsite around Flat Top. We moved our camp closer to the back of the basin for more shelter and discovered remnants of an old horse campsite. With the gorgeous weather we were then able to take in the peaks that were hidden earlier on.

On our fifth and final day, I was greeted by Sir Alexander first thing in the morning… what a sight! As we climbed out of the small basin toward Flat Top I took a number of plant pictures. I love paintbrushes. They range from bright red to pink to dark purple as well as yellow. The alpine harebells are also lovely. On the old mining road we came across another spruce grouse.

We arrived at Kakwa Lake around 5 pm. We very much enjoyed the shorter day, as we were all very tired. Together with the camp hosts, we ate dinner in a cozy warm cabin. The hosts were very kind and treated us to fresh baked biscuits! That evening we looked at plant, bird, and butterfly identification books hoping to identify and learn more about the creatures we saw on the trip.

August 2 – Mt Kendra 
The last day before leaving, we decided to visit Mt Kendra at the far end of Kakwa Lake from the public cabin. My father-in-law and I biked on the old mining road along the lake while the hosts rowed the host canoe to the end to meet us. To get to the top of Mt Kendra we bushwhacked up 2 km of steep terrain until the alpine. Here there are dust wallows, places where goats repeatedly return to roll in the dirt. You can find their soft hair clinging to surrounding plants and many goat trails. I also took pictures of alpine/Bering chickweed and alpine milk-vetch. On our way back, a big thunderstorm suddenly rolled into the area and we got soaked. It was fitting to end on a similar note to our last trip to Kakwa, with a big thunderstorm leaving us wet and refreshed.

August 3 – Travelling Home
Traveling back home I had mixed emotions. The morning greeted us with a beautiful blue sunny sky. It enticed us to stay longer to enjoy natures’ wonders. But, on the other hand, I missed my husband, my body was tired, I could escape the nightly porcupine disturbances and I really needed to bathe. I will return again to visit Kakwa Provincial Park. Lately I been talking to my husband of potential exciting trips, and I would really like to see a goat.

This last pictures was taken at Bucanan Creek….my only successful butterfly pictures. Does anyone know what kind of butterfly thisis?

Categories:

Recent Posts:

1 Comment

  1. Jeremie

    Beautiful photos. Looks like you had a great time!

    Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *