Between Seasons

It's that time of year in the Rockies when the trail conditions are so all over the map, that it makes it hard to find a place to go that is safe, that you can leave your snowshoes at home and reach a summit with just your hiking boots and icers.  I'm feeling I have had enough snowshoeing this season.   We found the perfect place to go today!  Barrier Lake Lookout!  This was my 6th trip there over the past 10 years and I have a feeling it won't be my last.

Whenever I hike this trail, it's a different experience each time!  Different trail conditions and different folks make it seem new each time.  The trail starts at Barrier Lake which glowed in all its glory today.

Some things remain the same, yet I am still able to find the unique and unusual.  I like to think I have an eye for that.  If you look at the photo with the lightning rod, you will see a fan shaped mountain in the background, that is Mount Yumnuska.  It's on my to-do list!

This area for hiking is not far from Calgary so you are not in the really big mountains but it is far enough away that you can still get that "on top of the world" feeling.  I feel it standing here looking down at the Highway ....  

....and I feel it here!  This was as far as I could go to the edge!  My friend "Sunny D Light" went even closer!  See that big mountain on the right?  That's Mount Baldy which is also on my to-do list!  

After spending a little time at the Prairie View Lookout, we then carried on up the last steep icy slippery stretch to the Barrier Lake Lookout.  This was our lunch time view!  See that dark narrow pointy mountain in the back range more to the left?  Well, that's Ha Ling Peak!  It's on my to-do list as is the one next to it and it's called East End of Rundle.

Most of my photos, I take landscape but today, for some reason, I ended up with lots in the portrait format.  Here are a few.  I guess today there were more things that seemed upright!    

At the end of our ascent, instead of taking the trail back to the dam, we went to the shore of the Lake, played around awhile and then followed it for a distance before climbing up over the rocks to the road.  It just seemed prettier down along the lake side.  We had lots of views today in all directions. It sure makes a difference when you have a clear blue sky!    It was so clear that I could see some of what my future holds in store for me!  So many mountains to climb!