Mini Road Trip: Cranbrook-Invermere

This morning I had to take Paul to the airport - he was flying from Cranbrook to Vancouver to pick up a new (to us) car. Cranbrook is 90 minutes' drive south of us, so that meant that I had quite a few opportunities for photo's on the way home!

Much as I love traveling with my hubby, when I'm in the photography mood, alone is best because I can stop and start as much as I like, even turn around and go back if I want to!

On the way in to the airport, I'd noticed that there are some alpine flowers in this area that we don't seem to get near us, so the first order of the day was to capture them (got carried away by the mozzies for my trouble, too!):


The first place I came to was Fort Steele, a bit of a tourist trap but, strangely enough, the cheapest place in the corridor to get petrol so I always top up there on the way home from Cranbrook. Being summer, there are horses EVERYwhere in this area ... I had a blast!

These draft horses were so friendly ... I couldn't get far enough away from them to take a decent shot! Not many of my horse shots came out - I think I still get too excited around horses when taking photo's!



The big and the small (click on the photo to enlarge and see the little bird that seems to have struck up a food-sharing agreement with the horse!):


I saw some cherries ripening in the summer sun as I left Ft Steele ...


I spotted this chap, along with his friend, among the trees as I was driving out of the Fort Steele grounds ... the back-light was just so gorgeous that I had to turn the car around (again - I'd already backtracked after filling up with gas, to visit the Shire horses!). I'm disappointed with the series that I got, the light made it hard to get decent shutter speed (and I'm hating the noise I get at iso 400 these days!), but I managed to drag this tight crop kicking and screaming from my computer's recycling can:


Just south of Wasa there's a pull-out with a good view over the wetlands ...


... and the Kootenay River.


After crossing the river, I found a good place to stop and take photo's of the hay bales in the fields - this is the first cut of the summer!



Then there was just the road home:


Those of you who live in the area will be wondering where the photo's of the Hoodoos are. By the time I got as far as Fairmont, I just didn't have the time to stop - had to be home by 11am - and I made it with seconds to spare! Another day ...