Forget the Bears - Look out for the Trees! June 7-8

The increasing winds and threatening rain ended our time for photographing wildflowers so we decided to take the rest of the evening off and play some cards. The wind would end the games early too. In fact it affected the rest of our evening. Great smokey-yellow gusts rising from the forest on the opposite side of the river caused a neighbouring camper to seek our opinion on the possibility of it being smoke and a forest fire. Since you couldn't smell smoke or see flames and the "smoke" seemed to change areas with each gust of wind we came to the conclusion that it wasn't smoke but tree pollen. The tall and thin lodgepole pines seemed to be highly affected by the wind. In fact we heard and or saw some fall while we were discussing the possible smoke. Later a couple of guys from Calgary would come by asking if we had a saw. A tree had fallen across the campground road after they had set-up their tent and driven back out to the gate to register their campsite. This left their tent and vehicle on opposite sides of the fallen tree. It also meant the few people camping in the unattended campground (including us) were trapped inside the campground with no phone service until help arrived. Since we had planned on moving on in the morning we thought we would see if we could help move the tree. So we grabbed our mighty little hatchet and 7-inch long folding saw and walked out with them to see if the 4 of us could make the tree small enough to drag off the road. After spending quite a bit of time and energy taking turns hacking away at the tree we managed to cut off the tree's top that was extending into the woods. But the remaining portion crossing the road was still too heavy for the 4 of us to budge. At this point we decided to not hack away the entire night and the Calgarians went off down the highway seeking the nearest phone. Banff Park staff were eventually contacted (note we are still in Kootenay) and a chain-saw meant that around 2:30 there was once again access in/out of the campground. I'm glad none of the trees surrounding our tent decided to fall!
In the morning on route to the Lake Louise campground in Banff National Park, we hiked through a regenerating burn area (more wildflowers); and, into the paint pots (above) - a historical source of red ochre. The ochre beds are considered a sacred site by First Nations.