Canmore Warnings and Dangers

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On the day of the wedding, the whole group cleared out of the Inn to do a bit of exploring in nearby Banff National Park. The forests and mountains were beautiful from the previous day snowfall and we took a winding road up to the Two Jack Lake area. While stopped there for a look out over the frozen lake, we had an interesting experience with a Gray Jay (also known as a Canada Jay) perched in one of the treetops near us. One of our group was holding his camera up for group photo, and as he was wiggling his little finger while fidgiting with the focus, the Jay suddenly attacked his finger, giving him quite a surprise! It turns out that the Gray Jay is one of Canada's 'cheekiest' birds, not afraid to grab any bite to eat in its efforts to live off the land all through the Canadian winter. One of our party pulled out some crackers from the picnic lunch we had been given by the Inn and he was able to lure the Jay back for some real food this time! The photo of the Jay in the second picture is from a website called "Laura Erickson's Birderblog". I have some suet attached to a tree in my backyard in New Brunswick and, so far this winter, a Gray Jay is the only bird I have seen clinging to it as it picks off whatever it can get.

Because this bench is made of metal - the tip would be a warning if you sat here in a thunder storm!!
The park was adjacent to the local school & had only the one bench - but what a bench, it could easily seat 20 children.

Lions,Tigers and Bears Oh My!Read Elk,Cougars and Bears oh my!and yes they are all out there.The chances of running into a cougar are slim,Elk are a concern.More so in Jasper than canmore.Bears do exsist espicially in th mountains.If you encounter a bear do the following

1).Make yourself look big
2).make loud noises so that the bear will be aware of your pressence.
3).Do not take food,drink in the woods.A bears scent is 50 times more powerful than a humans.

There are two types of bear in the bow valley.Black and Grizzlies.They can be defined by one way.the Grizz has much larger shoulders.Black bears like berries,Grizzlies meat.Be aware if you get between a Grizzlie and her cubs you can kiss life goodbye.Either fight back,with anything or curl up into a ball.Grizzlies bury their prey and eat them later.Your chances of seeing a bear are remote but be aware they do exsist.