Rachel Barkman

When the campsite has a hike to a waterfall 👌🏼
📍 Rolley Lake Provincial Park

Nothing goofier than watching a bear go to town chomping on grass. What do you mean this is a big, scary, predator? He’s just a dude at the salad bar who clearly loves snuggling, right? 😂

Not a mushroom, but Ghost Pipes are a mycoheterotroph, which means it uses mycelium (the network of fungi underneath the soil) of mycorrhizal mushrooms to siphon carbon, sugar, and nutrients from nearby trees since this ghostly plant is unable to photosynthesize. It’s always such a treat to find these beauties in the forest. This is my first time seeing them in bloom, I typically find them in the early stages or well past expiration. Ghost Pipes turn black as they age, so these ones are already on their way out. The forest was absolutely filled with them last weekend. I’ve never seen so many!

Alberta Great Horned Owl vs BC Great Horned Owl.
I love finding GHO in Alberta because they’re typically this lighter colour (which suits their boreal habitat more! This is called a regional adaptation). Our GHO here in the Lower Mainland are more of a dark chocolate brown in colour, which suits the conifers they prefer to roost in here. Both are beautiful, but I find the light colouring to be especially striking! The darker GHO does have an injured eye but seems to be doing very well despite the injury (I took this photo in December and he’s still thriving).

Alberta scenery: Rocky Mountains vs open prairie skies. Both beautiful in their own way.

Our trip to Alberta was full of incredible wildlife. I spotted this young moose on the outskirts of Kamloops. We were treated to tons of Columbia ground squirrels while in Canmore (as well as a grizzly! But I don’t have any photos of that). Baby coots (who are adorably ugly), ruddy ducks (those blue bills!), coyotes, a Swainson’s Hawk with a dead meadow vole, my first ever pronghorns (even though I lived in Alberta for 8 years, I’ve never seen wild pronghorns!), terns, pelicans, eared grebes (with spooky red eyes), baby buffleheads and goldeneyes, a northern yellow warbler, and a juvenile yellow-headed blackbird with a mouth full of grubs!

It’s ⛺️ season. Where are you pitching a tent this summer?

This is sunrise at first peak on Mount Seymour. It’s legal to backcountry camp anywhere after Brockton Point. The mosquitoes can be quite bad though, so I recommend August as the prime time to visit!

Captivated by the moths & butterflies & wildflowers we saw in Alberta. I was beyond excited to see my first hummingbird moth! It’s amazing what you find when you stop to notice the little things. 🦋🌼

Dreamy summer greens