The Sunflower Hill Chronicles, Part 3: The Turning
By Birgitta Jansen March 20, 2022 As I set out on Campground Trail, I stop for a moment to look up at the sky. Thick, heavy cumulus clouds are gathering, leaving only small patches of blue sky still visible. Although here the temperature is a few degrees above freezing, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was snowing in the high country. I resume my walk while contemplating the significance of this day; the Vernal Equinox. “Vernal” comes from the Latin word ver,meaning Spring; vern
Pipsissewa: A well-connected evergreen
Just about anywhere you walk in the Nature Park, you will likely run in to patches of Pipsissewa (Chimaphila umbellata). This small, evergreen shrub is less than a foot tall with glossy toothed leaves arranged in whorls around a short central stalk. In the summer, 4-8 pink flowers rise up on long slender stalks of their own and give off a fragrance that attracts pollinators. Also known as Prince’s Pine and in Ktunaxa as ʔa·kpi¢̕is ǂawu, this little shrub spreads vegetatively
The Inaugural KNP Photo Scavenger Hunt
Kimberley Nature Park Society invites you to participate in the inaugural Photo Scavenger Hunt 2022! When: April 15 to May 15, 2022 How to participate: Head out to the Nature Park to look for some of the variety of things to be found there. Go in a group, as a family, or by yourself and look for and photograph as many of these life forms as possible: 1. Tree bark 2. 3 different cones 3. A flower or more 4. Wild Animal foot prints 5. A bird or wild animal
The Sunflower Hill Chronicles, Part 2: Landscape in Waiting
By Birgitta Jansen March 11, 2022 The Campground Trail parking area is still thickly snow-covered when I arrive on March 11, 2022, so I gratefully park my vehicle in the campground’s office parking lot. It’s icy but plowed and accessible. After a bit of a struggle putting the traction devices on my boots—a winter ritual here in Kimberley—I trundle across the road to the trailhead. There are no other vehicles around. Yesterday’s soggy snow has frozen solid overnight, but now t
The Sunflower Hill Chronicles, Part 1: Promise of Spring
By Birgitta Jansen March 5, 2022 It was my first Sunflower Hill hike since last fall. The noon-time sun shone brightly in a cerulean sky, cumulus clouds already building up over mountain ridges. This was a day too beautiful to resist. The outdoors was calling. Tasks that should be tended to were left behind and forgotten. Going up Campground Trail I quickly discovered, not unexpectedly, that there was still a considerable snowpack although much melting has already gone on. Sl
