Hadley-Ives Family Photographs from 2011 Page 11

One of many lovely roses visitors could admire at Minter Garden when it was in operation (1980-2013).

Lilies such as this one perfumed the air around the Minter Garden.

This cute little cabbage butterfly was feeding on the flower nectar in Minter Garden.

The tiny jewel chapel in Minter Gardens seemed to fit in with the trees and flowers.

Minter Garden had a Chinese pavilion in its Chinese garden section.

A small artificial waterfall flowing amongst moss in Minter Garden.

Landscaping in the Minter Garden.

In Minter Garden some flowers had been arranged into a living Canadian flag.

Caster Oil plant (Ricinus communis ‘Carmencita’) seed pods make a showy statement in a garden, but they are toxic.

A small succulent with yellow flowers (Sempervivum), but I don't know the species. At the University of British Columbia Botanical Garden, which has hundreds of varieties of succulents in the alpine and cactus gardens.

I appreciate the diversity of colors and forms in these flowers along a pathway in the UBC Botanical Garden.

These golden asters with extremely narrow petals attracted my attention as the sunlight shone on some while others were in the shade with indirect light. The late afternoon light was creating interesting color contrasts.

The mountains of southern British Columbia have meadows with many blossoms of pink mountain heather blooming in August.

Bridal Falls is impressive for its height and the width of the rock face covered by the water.

This image gives an impression of the size of Bridal Falls, as you can see people at the base of the falls, and see how small they are in comparison to the massive curtain of water flowing over the rocks.

Some sort of lupine (Lupinus arcticus ?) growing along the Sub-Alpine Loop Trail in E.C. Manning Provincial Park along the Crows Nest Scenic Highway in southern British Columbia.

My mom, Virginia Ives, on the Sub-Alpine Loop Trail in Manning Provincial Park.

The Sub-Alpine Loop Trail heads off across alpine meadows toward distant mountains in Manning Provincial Park.

My dad, Paul Orsay enjoyed hiking the trail in Manning Provincial park. He was nearly 77 years old at the time.

My mom walks through a meadow covered with seed pods of western Pasqueflower (Pulsatilla vulgaris).

An alpine meadow with paintbrush and pasqueflower, with mountains on the horizon in the distance. The road down to the Crows Nest Highway can be seen cut into the side of the slope to the right of center in this view.

The Alpine Meadows parking area and the trails (such as Three Brothers Trail and Sub-Alpine Meadows Loop) are at about 2000 meters (6560 feet) elevation, and Blackwall Peak (about 2050 meters / 6725 feet) is quite nearby.

My mom sits on a stone along Three Brothers Trail with the Big Buck Mountain and Three Brothers Mountain off in the distance behind her. Three Brothers Mountain is only 2,270 meters (7,447 feet) high.

My mom had to squint into the sun as I took this photograph. Directly behind her head is Big Buck Mountain, and the higher mountain looming behind Big Buck is Three Brothers Mountain. The trail from Alpine Meadows goes all the way to the crest of Three Brothers, and one should allow about 7 hours for the round-trip 21.5 km (13.4 miles) hike.

Indian Paintbrush is one of my favorite flowers. I think I like it because I would tend to see it during a vacation in western mountains with my family, so it has happy emotional associations for me.

Natural wildflower gardens that can be found up in the alpine meadows.

Lupine grows at lower elevations as well, but by August you can only find it blooming in the mountains.

This lovely example of wandering fleabane (Erigeron peregrinus) was growing up on the mountain in Manning Provincial Park

The blossom of a Western Pasqueflower (Anemone occidentalis) is almost the same as the eight-petal mountain-avans (Dryas octopetala), but the leaves are different, and of course the pasqueflower has distinctive long hairy seed pods tightly clustered together, whereas Dryas have sparsely clustered feathery seedpods. The pasqueflower seed pods stand out like little pompoms and last longer than the small and short-lived blossoms like the one above.

The yellow salsify blossom is lovely; and this has edible roots, too. The plant is also known as yellow Goat’s Beard. It is not native to North America. It has a puffy silver seed head just like a dandelion.

Here is some mat phlox (Phlox diffusa). This is a common mountain flower to find in dry and rocky areas of the western United States.

It was a remarkable surprise to find Sierra stonecrop (Sedum obtusatum) growing way up here in British Columbia (although, admittedly, we were only a few miles north of the Washington State border). This plant is not generally known to grow north of Oregon. Perhaps its range is expanding.

I suppose this is a Freija Fritillary (Boloria freija) trying out the mat phlox.

I always enjoy finding a Columbia Lily (also known as Oregon Lily or Wild Tiger Lily) in the mountains of the Pacific Coast (and the Sierras, the Cascade, and so forth).

The Columbia lily (Lilium columbianum) can hybridize with other Lilium species, so sometimes it is difficult to tell exactly what you are seeing.

I like the contrast between the bright orange petals with the sunshine on them and the dark shadows behind the lily.

The mountains of southern British Columbia and the Northern Cascades.

Frosty Mountain is somewhat obscured by clouds away to the south from the upper slopes of Blackwall Peak where I took this picture as we stopped on the road coming down from Alpine Meadows parking area.

Sometimes squirrels are a bit darker, like this one.

The Clark’s Nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana) eats seeds out of pine-cones. This one, however, was interested in handouts from humans. It was so tame that it hopped up on an outstretched hand. (We only feed birds at our homes with bird-feeders, and generally we do not feed or handle wild animals, but there was some Canadian person at the Cascade overlook feeding a Columbian ground-squirrel and this Clark’s nutcracker, so we just took photographs)

The Ruffed Grouse and her chicks crossed the road right in front of us as we drove down from Alpine Meadows.

I think this is a female ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus), but if I am wrong, it is probably a small female dusky grouse (Dendragapus obscurus).

This adorable creature is a young Golden-mantled ground squirrel (Callospermophilus lateralis)

A Canadian couple was handing out nuts to this ground squirrel at the Cascades Overlook in Manning Provincial Park.

The golden-mantled ground squirrel has filled its cheeks with nuts distributed by a human.

The peak on the left is Second Brother Mountain, and the peak on the right is Three Brothers Mountain. There is a good trail up to the ridge on top of Three Brothers mountain.

In Manning Park we also stopped for a hike in the Sumallo Grove, and there we were able to see the Sumallo River.

The Sumallo River up in the mountains is clear and shallow, and it provides the forest with the sound of water splashing around rocks. A few hundred meters downstream it merges into the Skagit River.

My mom leans against one of the massive trees in the Sumallo Grove

Forest strolls always give me energy. Here is my mom standing in the Sumallo Grove.

The forests of the Pacific Northwest have many ferns.

This is exactly the sort of path I love to walk along.

The Sumallo Grove in Manning Provincial Park is home to some of the largest trees in this area of British Columbia. There are massive Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata), Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), and Grand Fir (Abies grandis) trees here.

We stopped at Minter Gardens and Bridal Falls on the way back to Vancouver from Manning Provincial Park. These moss-covered trees were growing near Bridal Falls.

Along the way between Vancouver and Manning Park is the small town of Hope, which is just west of the Coquihalla Canyon Provincial Park, where you can walk through old railroad tunnels and look down from the trail into the Nicolum River.

Mom and I walked on the Hope Nicola Valley Trail in Coquihalla Canyon Provincial Park.

Here is my mom standing on one of the bridges over the Nicolum River. The trail through Coquihalla Canyon follows the railroad route through tunnels and over bridges.

The jade-colored Nicolum River has carved the cliffs of the Coquihalla Canyon.

There is something satisfying about looking down into a turbulent river roaring over rocks under cliffs. I often study the water in such situations, and try to determine whether I would be willing to shoot the rapids in a boat, and how I would navigate my way through the rapids if I did so. It is a purely speculative exercise.

Looking down into the Nicolum River, I wonder what sort of trout and salmon might be swimming through the water.