Day trip!  Today was road trip day to David Thompson country and what a day it was.  There were so many things to see and photograph.  

The first glimpse of the mountains is always exciting.  There are still some very snowy peaks.

We had hoped that the dandelions would be covering the ditches with a carpet of yellow but there were very few of them.  Last year on road trip day, the ditches were full of dandelions with bears eating them.  Today, we saw one bear.  All I got was a photograph of a blurry bear bum as it scampered back into the trees.  It was out in full view; in fact it reared up on its hind legs to get a better view of us.  It stood there until it heard the noise from the rumble strips under the tires and then it was gone.  That was it for bear sightings.

We traveled west along the David Thompson highway.  The area is so scenic.  Just outside the Nordegg town limit, we saw mule deer grazing in the ditch.  As we slowed, they glanced up from their feast.  A couple of other vehicles stopped as well.  That's when the deer had enough and bounded back into the forest.

We made our way to Abraham Lake.  The water level is very low and we were able to drive out onto the hard surface that had been covered with water in the past.  The mud was caked and cracking.  Rocks, driftwood and pine cones littered the area.

From Abraham Lake, we traveled to Fish Lake.  We stopped for lunch and tried our hand at fishing with no luck.  The lake remains a beautiful place to picnic, hike, fish or camp.  We also tried casting lines out at the Harlech Fish Pond.  The wind was not in our favor, making it difficult to cast.

The day trip was filled with many memorable animal sightings that I'll share over the next couple of days.  It was so exciting and I took so many photos that I've got some sorting to do before sharing them.