Welcome to our Blog!!!

Welcome to the Grizzly Falls Photography Blog.

Hey!

Welcome to the Grizzly Falls Photography Blog. I have a website created but it just shows the pictures. I wanted to create this blog so I could include you on the adventures I have had taking these pictures. All of our photography is for sale and is available thru our website which is in the process of being updated. You are welcome to have a peek at it if you like. Our site is www.grizzlyfallsphotography.com

Please see categories on the left to see all posts made here. Please feel free to comment on any and all posts. I hope you enjoy seeing what I do in my free time.

If you would like to subscribe to the blog, please click the email link as well.

Enjoy what we have to share with you!

Maligne Canyon Ice Walk

For our 25th anniversary, we decided to go to Jasper for the weekend. We have been going there for our anniversary for the last four years. This year we booked a swanky room with a fireplace and such at the Jasper Park Lodge. We went dog sledding (another post) on the Saturday and on Sunday we did the Maligne Canyon Icewalk. For anyone who has been to Jasper you have probably hiked the Maligne Canyon in the summertime. Its a great walk along the top of the canyon where you get to look down the crevices and cracks to the water below and see the waterfalls along the canyon. Well….the wintertime is a whole different story. You don’t walk along the trails at the top of the canyon, you actually walk along the canyon floor which is made up of ice. The ice is feet and feet deep. It is a really cool feeling to be walking down there and looking up to where we usually walk. The guide told some great stories of ice climbers and how they made it or didn’t make the wall climbing. There have actually been some deaths down there as well.  

Here are some pictures of the canyon in the winter time. Hope you enjoy them.  

The start of the ice walk. The beginning of the canyon.

  

The hole in the ice in a bottomless hole that no one was allowed near. Someone actually fell down there and died so the guide was very adamant that we stay away.

  

The view from below of the view from above.

  

A wall of ice that you could walk underneath

  

The Canyon Floor

  

Ice Walls

  

More Ice Floor

  

The bridge that is used on the trails on the top of the canyon.

  

One of the many ice formations

  

More ice formations

  

Continuing down the river bend would eventually take you back to town.

The Alberta Advantage

So I go to work with my husband one day cause I am not wanting to sit at home. While we are out in the “patch” and he is doing his thing, I decide to wander around with the camera and see what I can find that would be cool to shoot (photograph). There is some really cool stuff out there when you look at it from a photographers’ point of view. Some of these are taken outside and some of them are taken from the truck. I just thought they were different and kind of unique. 

What do you think?? 

The Roadblocks

 

The Wellhead

 

The Weather

 

The Buildings

 

The Equipment

 

The Flare

 

The Snow

 

The Plant Site

The View From Here

A couple of years ago I published a book on our adventures in the mountains where we live. The book has been very popular and is sold in the town we live in as well.

Below is a link you can click on to view the book and if you are so inclined to purchase one, you can do it right from this link thru the Blurb website. It is a full book preview and you can go full screen so you can see first hand where we live and what is out there.

Go have a look and see what we have been up to. I am currently working on another book with a bit of a different twist. The first one was made with tourism in mind for Grande Cache. I think the next one will be kinda of like the best of book. I will let you know when its done.

Enjoy!

The Highway 40 Adventure

 

http://www.blurb.com/books/227041

Fishing in the Queen Charlotte Islands

When you are deciding to go on a vacation, there are many things to consider. Do you go somewhere hot, cold, in Canada, out of Canada, somewhere with beaches, no beaches, lots of trees, blah blah, blah. 

Well…..last year we were invited to go on a fishing trip. When I first heard “fishing trip” I thought, (you gotta be kidding me, fishing). I was not a fan of fishing. Gord wasn’t really either. Then we heard it was ocean fishing in the Queen Charlotte Islands. Now maybe that would be interesting. If anything, the guys could go fishing and I could go shopping. We phoned the lodge and asked if I could just come for the week as a tourist and not do the fishing thing and they were more than happy to accommodate. They must have been chuckling on the other end of the phone. Who comes to the Queen Charlotte’s on a fishing trip and doesn’t go fishing??? 

So we get to Grande Prairie and get all loaded on the plane and begin our flight to Sandspit. It was a beautiful day and you could see the snow on the mountains in BC still (this is the middle of June). We landed in Sandspit at about 7:30 am. They told us that they were taking us to the lodge where a big breakfast was waiting and then we were off fishing. Great!!!! Well I guess I was going fishing. 

Once we had breakfast and were orientated, we were off to the harbor to get on our boat. 

The Harbor

 

There were guides and boats waiting. Our guide was a lady named Mandy. I was impressed! A female fishing guide. WOW!. So we had a boat orientation and stuff and away we went. I had my gravol patch on and was hoping I wouldn’t be sick. 

The next three days we were on the boats at 7 am and back in for supper around 6 pm. We spent the entire day on the boat and we fished. It was AMAZING! Who ever thought fishing could be fun? Our guide was awesome. She not only took us fishing but she was a great tour guide. She told us all about Haida history and culture (being a Haida herself). She showed us some of her favorite places on the coast. She made sure we got lots of beautiful pictures. She made sure we got to see the whales and orcas and such. It was the best time. I never dreamed that fishing could be like this.

On the last day, our fishing limits were filled so the lodge arranged for us to have a sightseeing day. We took the ferry to across to Queen Charlotte City and did some touring around the coast. We visited the Haida museum and got to see them carving totem poles and building large canoes. It was a great cultural experience. 

We are booked to go again this year in June. This could become a yearly event. Who knew!!!! 

Here are some the shots from our trip. Hope you enjoy them 

Heading Out

 

Navigating the Channel

 

The Scenery

 

The Deep Dive

 

Hang On

 

The Watcher

 

Tufted Puffins

 

School of Orcas passed by us

 

The Bragging Board. Show all the fish caught and weight by each person in the group

 

The Big Catch

 

Just as big a catch

 

The Haida Gwaii Museum

 

Raven Totem

 

Canoe Building Shed

 

Carving a Totem

 

Dogsledding at Coldfire Creek

My husband, Gord, was born and raised in Yellowknife, NWT. He was one of five children, the other four being girls. Their father, Roy, was and avid trapper and hunter. Roy owned his own dog sled team. Gord has told me many times what he remembers about his dad and his dogs.  Everytime we watch a movie or a show on the discovery channel or history channel that involves dog teams, he reminisces about his dad and what he remembers. Roy passed away several years ago. His request was to be cremated. Gord built a fancy oak box for his dad’s ashes and on the lid of the box he woodburned in a picture of his dad and his dog team.Many times over the years we have talked about dog sledding and Gord has said that he would really like to try it. He never did drive the sled or work with the team as a child but would like to see what its like. So……We recently celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. What do you buy a man for an anniversary gift that doesn’t want anything???? Well I booked us a romantic weekend in Jasper at the Jasper Park Lodge and on the Saturday I booked a dog sledding trip. This was going to be really cool.  We started out early Saturday morning with the tour company coming to pick us up at the hotel. We had driven about an hour and a half towards McBride when the van turned off on a snowy icy side road with a sign that read “Coldfire Creek  Trail”. We had no idea what to expect.    

The Firepit

 

There were two other passengers with us, a mom and son from England visiting the resort town. The were just as excited as we were because they had no idea what they were getting themselves into.We parked the van and waited. We were early. A few moments later the truck with the dogs and sleds drove up. Once the truck stopped you never heard such a commotion in your life. Those dogs just wanted to go!    

The Team

 

 The drivers unloaded the sleds and tied them off to the trees and then proceeded to unload the dogs. They have a very precise process for how they hook the dogs up. Some dogs have to be hooked up first  and at the front cause they don’t like the dogs on the other team so if they are at the front and can’t see the dogs at the back of the other team, there is no fighting. It’s like kindergarten.    

Starting the Chain of Command

 

Ready to roll

 

So once all the dogs are hooked up and the lead dogs are in place, then the owner of the teams proceeds to tell us that only one guide is going and will ride on one sled and the other will be driven by one of us. Yikes!! I IMMEDIATELY took shotgun on sitting in the sled. I wasnt gonna drive.So Gord was picked to drive his sled and the guide went with the other two people. I think he was a little nervous about doing this by himself but he was more than willing. We proceeded on a two-hour sled ride on a mountain trail. There were hills and valleys and cliffs and avalanche areas and everything. I was nervous a few times as the dogs were running at quite a good speed and I could see the valley below quite clearly.    

The Amazing View

 

Several times I would look up behind me and ask if everything was good cause dog sledding is quite a workout for the driver. When going up hill you have to push the sled with one foot or get off and run with it up the hills. Going down the hills they sure took run fast (hahahaha) and the brakes have to be used quite a bit. I must say Gord did an awesome job and it was an amazing experience.    

The Driver & The Rider

 

If anyone ever wants to have a truly Canadian experience this is the one to have. The day was a cool and a little foggy with just the right amount of sun poking thru the clouds. The dogs were awesome. The campfire lunch halfway thru the trip was great. I must say we will be doing this again I am sure.      

One of the Team

 

Waitin for Lunch

 

Taking a Break

 

Having a Visit

 

Siblings

 

Come On Let's Go Already

Walking With Goats

      

In our first year here we decided to take a quad trip to the top of Mt Hamel.    

Of course we did it in the summertime.    

The mountain in winter

 

We had been told by many people that this was an amazing ride and the scenery was beautiful. We were also told that a large herd of mountain goats also live at the top of the mountain. There is a forest fire tour at the top and the goats usually hang around up there. So we started out on a nice sunny day with not too many clouds in the sky. My husband and I had not ridden quads up a mountain before but we were up for anything. We made several stops along the way to admire the amazing scenery. We could see the highway below as we got of the quads and looked over the edges of the cliffs.     

View of Grande Cache from the top of Mt Hamel

 

Once at the top we saw the forestry tour we were told about! I couldn’t believe it as we got closer and there was a girl waving at us from inside the tour. Brave soul she was. So we continued past the tour and lo and behold there was the goat herd.This was early spring so there were the babies too. They were a couple of months old and they were active.     

The first view of the goats on top of the mountain.

 

We parked our quads and very slowly and quietly walked closer to the herd. We sat down on a rock and got out the cameras and waited to see what would happen. They actually ignored us. As long as we were quiet and didn’t move too much, they ignored us. The moms and the babies went about their business as if we weren’t even there. It was amazing. How many people can say they have sat in the middle of a wild mountain goat herd and had babies playing and running and jumping all around them? Well we can. What an experience. Here are a few shots that we took that day. Hope you like them.     

Two brave souls fighting the wind

 

Baby goat only a few months old

 

Momma and her young

 

Looks like she is winking at us!

 

Looks like playschool

 

View of the train tracks from the top