Despite today's forecast for a sunny day we woke up to the mountains shrouded in fog. So we walked around Edith and Annette Lakes and along the Athabaska River till noon.
This çhipmunk posed for Leo:
While walking along the shore of Edith Lake, two western sandpipers walked right up to us.
Not the bird of the day, but pretty cool anyway.
By noon the mountains were coming out of the clouds, so we shelled out the big bucks ($46.95 each) to take the sky tram up Whistler Mountain.
You can hike up if you like but it takes 5 hours (and by then it could be raining).
Once you get off the tram it's another half hour hike to the summit.
Where you are rewarded with the money shot!
Due to the crowds, the vegetation was pretty worn down, but we did see lots of yellow paintbrush
We kept going past the sign that said, "only properly equipped experienced mountaineers should go beyond this point," to follow a path that went further along a ridge. At the edge of the precipice we saw this guy perched (obviously an experienced mountaineer).
Returning to the inexperienced masses, we ran into this ground squirrel with a taste for orange food,
and we also saw 4 willow ptarmigan, the Bird of the Day.
They were running around biting the blossoms off the mountain avens.
This next shot shows how well their plumage blends in with their surroundings.
It took us 2-1/2 hours more hours to hike down to the bottom of the mountain, but it was worth it because we got to see my favourite mountain rodent, the pika. Sorry, no photo, too fast for the camera.
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