plonq | Back from our short vacation

atara and I just returned home after a 3-day trip up to Riding Mountain national park, with a day-trip to Duck Mountain provincial park, where we spent some quality time with her parents and uncle, filling our annual quota of hiking and fishing.

On one of the evenings, we signed up for an elk-spotting tour. Our knowledgeable, if slightly eclectic, guide took us on a hike to a bear den, then led us up into some reclaimed gravel pits where, in spite of his best bugling efforts, he could not summon any elk from the woods. Once it was obvious that we were not going to get any elk viewing that evening, he led us back to the lake where he began pulling various hides and skulls out of his van for a backup presentation. While I am sure that his lecture was very entertaining and informative, I admit that I missed much of it because I became more interested in the spectacle that was forming over the lake. When you see the picture below, you can probably understand why it caught my attention.

Moonset over Clear Lake

In the roundabout in front of the visitors' centre, there was a little flower garden that was teeming with butterflies. I managed to snap a couple of decent still shots of individual butterflies, but this is one of those times when I really wish my camera could capture motion video.

atara caught some video of them, but she hasn't had a chance to see how the video came out. She will undoubtedly be posting some of her own pictures and videos when she has time.

Duck Mountain had its share of butterflies too. In retrospect I wish that I had shot this one with a slower shutter and tighter aperture. Live and learn.

Sometimes it pays to be short. We hiked around a nameless lake¹ up at Duck Mountain, and I couldn't help but notice that the path was thickly criss-crossed with spider webs. Naturally we sent the tallest people ahead...

¹ I am sure that the lake probably had a name, but I have no clue what it was called.

The lower part of the trail was also pretty thickly grown with mushrooms. The lighting, and lush setting often gave them a very ethereal look. A tiny pipe-smoking leprechaun would not have looked out of place sitting atop one of these mushrooms.

Sometimes we would catch a glimpse of the lake that we were hiking around. It was very pretty.

Here is a random nature shot. It could be at Riding Mountain, or it could be at Duck Mountain. What difference does it really make anyway? It's all just a bunch of trees filled with animals who haven't been properly potty trained.

Upon further reflection, I am pretty sure I took this one at Duck Mountain just before

atara and I split off from the others and took the shorter path back to the car. The others assured us that we missed some pretty spectacular lake views from the path that they took, but we were getting a bit hiked-out by that point.

We hiked this same trail a couple of years ago, in early July rather than late September. The mosquitoes were not nearly as bad this time around.

This is a picture that I shot from almost exactly the same spot on the causeway on a previous trip to the park. Aside from the fact that we had much nicer weather this time up, I like almost everything better about the new photo. The picture is clearer (mostly because I shot the new one in RAW format, and this one in JPG format), but I also like the composition of the new one a lot more. I think that I have refined my photography techniques a bit since I shot this one.

Back to the moon setting over the lake again. You can probably see why it caught my fancy more than the dry narrative of our paid guide. In the foreground is the remnants of a camp fire from a couple who had been occupying this spot before we arrived. I felt a little guilty about that, actually. When our caravan of vehicles arrived, we surely destroyed the ambiance of what was (until then) a secluded, romantic setting. It may be that they were ready to leave anyway.

It seems appropriate to end this little photo dump with another sunset. I think that I have a few more photos that are worth uploading, but this batch will do for now.