How many elk? I dunno, more than a hundred that I could see in the open and who knows how many more in the valleys between the hills.
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.The majority of them were females, many with this year’s calves by their sides. They were grazing placidly, seemingly oblivious to the drifting smoke that was so thick that I could taste it. The morning breeze hadn’t yet begun to rise and in the still air I could hear, at least in the lulls between the man-made sounds, the soft hum they were making.
A pair of bull elk square off at the Ann and Sandy Cross Conservation Area southwest of Calgary, Ab., on Tuesday, September 13, 2022.The sun was well above the horizon now but if anything it made the smoke in the hills look even more hazy. Paradoxically, though, the smoky light made the things closer to me much brighter. So I decided to leave the elk to their morning munching and roll on.
Smoke-tinted light on cow parsnip in the foothills southwest of Turner Valley, Ab., on Tuesday, September 13, 2022.The cow parsnip leaves in the forest around it were a pale green that was edging toward yellow while their tall seed heads looked like brass. Further into the foothills, west of Turner Valley, the first of the patches of fireweed I found were scarlet and gold, some of the leaves dripping with raindrops from an early morning drizzle.
Green getting overtaken by red on a worn-out leaf in the foothills southwest of Turner Valley, Ab., on Tuesday, September 13, 2022.And with the amber tint from the smoke, the effect is intensified. It may have made the elk hard to see clearly but down here on the forest floor it seemed to magnify the light.Article content
A young whitetail buck in the foothills southwest of Turner Valley, Ab., on Tuesday, September 13, 2022.A lot of them were the young of the year and their plumage still had that baby-bird look. But even the adults were a little dull-feathered. The females were mostly grey and the males, their springtime brightness gone, a pale blue that matched the smoky, cloud-scattered sky overhead.
Looking back across the valley I could barely make out lines of trees that were maybe a kilometre away. Hills beyond that were just dim, dark, indistinct humps. There were mountains out there somewhere, too. But I wasn’t going to see them today.Article contentMike Drew/PostmediaWith the sun now overhead, the rays breaking through the cloud and haze lit it up like it was aflame, the hot reds and bright oranges made even more intense by the bronzy miasma around them.
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