Light Show

Last night we had a massive thunder storm system go by. I will just say now, I LOVE a good thunder storm, so I was thrilled to see that this one was a big one! I stood at various windows in my house and watched the storm come at us. The lightening was super intense the whole time, there were constant flashes in the cloud during the entire storm. The thunder was a continuous rumble close and distant. I took a (poor) video of the lightening after the storm ad mostly passed us by. I took a few, but this one is the one that I could get to upload!

Treasure

I love books, anyone who knows me even a little would know I love to read. Always have really. I have been called a nerd, bookworm, and other names during my lifetime. Those names don't bother me anymore, though sometime I feel a tiny bit Hermione-ish, when I say, I've read a book/article/blog about that! So it should come as no surprise to anyone, that my heart skipped a beat when I came across these beauties. Out of the blue, and purely by accident.

Three classic books, written by Charles Dickens. Three books being sold altogether! These books are in amazing condition for being over 100 years old, all the pages are there, all the pages are readable! There are even some sweet notations made in the margins by a former owner. Happy day when I made them mine, for a total steal! and happier still when they arrived at my door. They now grace the top of my piano along side my old, old editions of the Book of Mormon, and my Jane Austen's that are not vintage, but sure look like they could be.

I wonder how many books will fit on the Piano?

Rowe Creek

We took another trip up to Waterton before Papa Bear left for another work stint. We wanted to hike to Summit Lake, but decided that we should try something a little less intense, because we were all feeling a little under the weather. We hiked the Rowe Creek Trail, which runs along the north side of Mount Rowe, and leads to? What else, but Rowe Lakes. This hike starts out semi steep, and only gets steeper. While not as consistently steep as say, Bears Hump, it does give you a good cardio work out with a steady uphill climb. Little Bear was able to handle this hike quite well, there were only 2 spots where she remarked on the steepness of the trail. 

The first third or so of the hike in entirely in the trees, with the occasional glimpse of Rowe Creek. The photo above shoes the first time you really see the creek, the water is running quite high and fast still. After you break out of the trees, you will see some spectacular views of the upper elevations of Mount Rowe and Mount Lineham.

This picture was taken just after we broke through the trees, it was a beautiful mountain meadow rising to the north, with a steep valley to the south. The trail at this point runs right along the edge of the valley, and at some points a rocky cliff. Beyond this point we started running in to snow drifts, Which got bigger as we got further along, and made the walking slower, but still manageable. 

This hike a a good one if you prefer a less traveled path, and have some time to stop and just look around. There is some prime Grizzly Bear areas along this hike, though we did not see any. If you are not up for walking the 4km distance to Rowe Lake, this trail allows horses.

After the climb, as we were again, heading to the town site we saw another little Grizzly! He walked right in frount of our car and then along side it, right under my nose! 

Embrace The Camera

Another week gone by! I can hardly believe that it is already most of the way through the second week of Summer! Only 7 weeks left! Time is just a flyin' by. This weeks picture was take on the shoreline of Cameron Lake. We took a hike there on Saturday, and loved it! Enjoy!

Linking up over ---> here 

Cameron Lake

We took another hiking trip up to Waterton Park on Saturday. We decided to go up to Cameron Lake, since we had never been up there, ever, to our recolection. It is a gorgeous fresh water lake, on the east end of Forum Peak, the very southern part of Cameron Lake is actually in the U.S. The photo above you can see a wide view of the lake, and Forum Peak on the end.

Papa Bear and I cannot recall ever going up to Cameron Lake before, so we decided to start our summer hiking season here. We walked the shoreline trail, along the west side of the lake. It is a flat, easy hike that runs right along the edge of the lake. It takes about an hour to walk this out and back trail. While we were there, there was still quite a lot of run off coming down the mountainside, and quite a bit of ice still floating on the lake. We weren't able to make it to the end of the trail because there was the remains of the avalanches that occur in the area most winters.

This is the perfect, quick hike if you are going with young children. We enjoyed our quick trip up to the lake, on the way back down to the town site, we happened upon this little guy! It was our second Grizzly Bear sighting that day!

Hiking

A catching up post! This week we had an extra child staying at our house. It was nice for Little Bear to have someone to hang out with during this first week of summer vacation. I had already decided that we were going to do a lot of hiking and biking this year, and though I wasn't sure about taking 2 children to the wilds to hike by myself, I decided to go anyway. On Tuesday morning after millions of complaints about having to makes beds and pick up toys before we left, we made it out the door. One thing I really like about living where we do is that there is a Nation Park just 40 mins away. Once there, and parked we chose a hike, and this is where we went.

It was the perfect day to be out hiking, not too hot, a little breezy, and you just can't beat that view! We made a day of it, after we hiked we had some lunch. Wandered around one gift shop because I wouldn't have been able to handle both of them in several shops full of breakables when both these kids have to touch everything! Then we went to the candy store where it was really OK to touch everything. We had so much fun, and Little Bear has already made plans for the next time we go!