lucy_clarke's blog

It's always a touching moment when you're walking to town or to a friends house and a sweet little mule dear or an elk with his velvety antlers peeps out into your path and looks at you curiously but cautiously with their big eyes...but it's not my favourite moment.

There's another animal, not quite so wild and native to banff, that always makes my day.  You can see her popping her head out from under the fence where she lies in the sun stretched out without a care in the world.

Did you know that over half of all mammal species on earth are rodents? Most are furry critters with a high activity level that are generally small in size.I like Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrels. I really do. I notice them a lot when I am at Moraine Lake, especially when I am hiking up the rock pile trail. Yes they do look like Chipmunks as they have similar colours and markings. The  one great way to tell them apart is that the Chipmunks have facial stripes and the Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrels do not.

Quite often, as a rock climber I end up traveling on goat trails to get to the base of a wall and start climbing. Quite often, I end up on those trails because I loose the climber’s trail. Although I regularly see sign of their presence like hair hanging in the trees or dropping on the ground, sightings of the Rocky Mountain Goats only occur on very rare occasions. They live in the Alpine and Subalpine areas and are the largest mammals found in that high altitude habitat.

I have been living and working in Banff for 3 years now and everyday I am amazed at the parks beauty. One of the great things about living in the National Park is the wildlife. I love seeing the baby deer and the larger elk with their beautiful antlers, but nothing beats seeing a bear in the wild. I remember seeing my first bear in 2007 whilst driving along the Icefields Parkway on Discover Banff Tours' Glacier Trail Tour. Everybody was so excited and it was an added bonus to an already amazing day.

I used to have a friend who lived in Middle Springs in Banff and often I would take a short walking trail through the woods to reach his house. One evening in early spring as I was walking through this older forest I heard a hoot of an owl. Pleasantly surprised by this sound and not needing to worry about what other people might think as I was walking on my own I decided to hoot back. "Hoo, hoo" I called out. "Hoo, Hoo!,"  and to my complete amazement, directly in front of me on the narrow trail I watched as a blur of white and gray feathers flew by.

When visitors come to Banff it is always the Bear, Moose and Elk that they are eager to see. I always just let them know to keep on the lookout out for the smaller animals that are just as magnificent to encounter.

As a jogger I am often out and about at odd times of the day and night.  When the need to stride strikes, I head out.  I know that I am taking more of a risk in the early morning hours and right around dusk, since this is the time when our local wildlife are most active therefore I prepare myself for a safe outing where I make lots of noise using my keys and always take well traveled routs. At 5PM on a bright tuesday afternoon I wasn't my regular consciences self.  I left my house at the base of Tunnel Mountain.

Living in Banff for almost 4 years, you would think I would be used to the transition from winter to summer. Yet every year I am still blown away by how much the area changes and goes from being a beautiful white winter wonderland to a mesmerizing blend of colors from the greens to blues to browns. It is like stepping into another world.

I have been living in Banff for 8 months and had not yet seen any bears as they had all been hibernating over the winter. Once summer had started I decided to go on The Glacier Trail tour with Discover Banff Tours as I had heard that many bear sightings had been made on this tour. My mum was visiting from Australia at the time and she also wanted to see a bear whilst here, making it the highlight of her holiday in Canada.