Middle Lake and the Moraine

I am on call, meaning I can venture no more than 1 hr from downtown. Fortunatly, the West Wing is inside that zone, but most hiking is not. Most. Inside that zone are (among other things) the short walks in Bow Valley Provincial Park. So Saturday we decided to wander around Middle Lake and the Moraine trails. And it happens to be the middle of Wood Lilly Season.





The lake offers nice vistas both up the Bow Valley and across to Yamnuska.




The lake is also home to Red Wing Blackbirds and Loons.





We also got to an area of the park that for some reason attracts very few visitors despite the scenery -- the sand dunes.




There's really no trail to the dunes, they're not marked, and aside from elk, I'm not sure who goes there. They provide a nice access to the marshes of the Bow, and while we were hanging out there, an osprey flew by.




Personally, I think it's cool to find stuff like this less than an hour from the city.