mount blanshard

Snow Squall over Golden Ears Ranges Mountains from South Langley

A snow squall over peaks of the Golden Ears Ranges near sunset – viewed from south Langley near High Point Estates.

snow squall at sunset golden ears ranges mount blanshard robie reid

Snow Squall at Sunset over the Golden Ears Ranges (Purchase)

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A few years ago I found a new spot in the southern part of Langley, British Columbia (near High Point Estates) to view the mountains to the north. Mount Blanshard (The Golden Ears) is the most prominent from here, as it is from most of Langley. Mount Robie Reid (right) is also frequently seen from various parts of Langley and Abbotsford. I waited until there was a good snowfall on the peaks and photographed the scene in February of 2022. Unfortunately, it was about -5°C and very windy so my large lens acted a bit like a sail and I wasn’t able to get any sharp images. This year I went back after a good snowfall in the mountains with much more success. Some of the snow I’d seen earlier in the day on the lower elevations had melted, but there was still some snow sticking on this evening in late March.

The panorama above shows a snow squall dumping some fresh powder during some sunset light on the Golden Ears Ranges (part of the Garabaldi Ranges) peaks, to the left of Mount Blanshard. To the right of Blanshard is a smaller peak called “The Defendant” (1884m / 6181ft), and then Mount Judge Howay (2262m / 7421ft) peeking out to the left of Mount Robie Reid (2095m / 6873ft). I was hoping for some interesting clouds but wasn’t counting on a snow squall like this. I watched it move westward, behind Mount Blanshard, and then get into a nice position just as some subtle sunset light warmed the colors up a bit.

mount blanshard aka the golden ears at sunset in winter

The Golden Ears at sunset as seen from south Langley (Purchase)

I made a number of panoramas here as the scene was perfect for it, but I also made a few “mountain portrait” style photos of some of the individual peaks. First up, Mount Blanshard aka the Golden Ears in the photograph above. I have many photographs of this mountain, from the south (Langley/Maple Ridge), the east (Port Coquitlam), and the west (Golden Ears Provincial Park). I like this view as I’m able to show more of the mountain itself than I am when I am a bit closer. From this vantage point I’m actually about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Blanshard.

This next photo is mostly of Mount Robie Reid, but there is a bit of the more abrupt Mount Judge Howay showing up to the left of Mt. Robie Reid.

mount robie reid mount judge howay winter

Mount Robie Reid and Mount Judge Howay (Purchase)

The photograph below shows some peaks in the Chehalis Ranges with some nice sunset light on them. These are photographed from the same spot as the photos above, but they are approximately 70km (44mi) from that location. I was lucky to have some really clear air on this particular evening! Peaks here include Mount Clarke (2159m / 7083ft), Stonerabbit Peak (1858m / 6096ft), Mount Ratney (1967m / 6453ft), and Mount Bardean (1926m / 6319ft).

chehalis range peaks including mount clarke stonerabbit peak and mount ratney

Chehalis Range peaks including Mount Clark, Stonerabbit Peak, and Mount Ratney (Purchase)

For more mountain photographs please visit my Mountain Photos Gallery.

A Snowy Walk at Derby Reach Regional Park

Fresh snow creates an outline on each branch of this thick deciduous forest at Derby Reach Regional Park in Langley, British Columbia, Canada.

snow on the trees at derby reach regional park near the fraser river

Snow Outlines the Branches in a Deciduous Forest (Purchase)

In early January we had a light snowfall overnight here which actually stuck around through the next day. So often even a large dump of snow is a bit slushy the next day, or everything turns to rain, and there aren’t many photography opportunities in those conditions. I can often see snow on the mountains without such conditions down here closer to sea level, but snow covering the trees like in these first two photographs is certainly more elusive. As this was something I’ve been waiting for I actually made a photo from the backyard of a tree across the street that was lit by a street light in case everything was gone by morning! Luckily, that didn’t happen.

As the conditions looked promising I headed out to Williams Park which is a small local park I like to visit, often just for a walk. There is a creek running through the length of it and the sound of water is always a good accompaniment to a 2-3km stroll. It can also be nice with snow around, but the scenes there weren’t speaking to me that day so I headed north to Derby Reach Regional Park. Forest scenes can be a tough subject to find a composition with – so many branches and plants heading in different directions can create quite a mess of sorts. With some snow on the branches, however, it is a bit like a highlighter has been drawn on all the branches and they stand out in a more individual fashion. I photographed the scene above, one I’ve seen a dozen times without really noticing any distinctiveness to the flow of the branches, but the snow changed that. It was pointed out to me that this first photograph would make a good jigsaw puzzle. For those who enjoy a lot of frustration, I suspect.

snow on the trees at derby reach regional park near the fraser river

Fresh snow on branches of a tree at Derby Reach Regional Park (Purchase)

Further down the trail this individual tree grabbed my attention again due to the fringe of snow on each branch that makes the tree (a Red Alder in this case, I think)

snow on the trees at derby reach regional park near the fraser river

Tugboat Towing Barge of Sawdust Down the Fraser River (Purchase)

When I visit Derby Reach Regional Park I tend to frequent an area called Muench Bar which gives a nice view of the Fraser River and on a day of good weather – the Golden Ears Mountains. I tend to photograph these peaks too often frequently, as previous posts in this blog will attest. When I’m along a big river like the Fraser, there is usually some boating activity and I’ll often photograph them as they go past my location. Here I had both subjects available, so I photographed this Ledcor Tugboat towing a barge full of sawdust down the river – with the Golden Ears (Mount Blanshard) in the background. The clouds were frequently obscuring then dissipating from the mountain peaks but I was usually able to wait until they became visible.

snow on golden ears blanshard and ice in the fraser river

The Golden Ears and the Fraser River (with ice!) on A Winter Day (Purchase)

We don’t often have a cold snap long enough to form ice on the Fraser, but this happened a few times this winter. At one point parts of it were frozen over, which isn’t that common. During this cold spell there were again chunks of ice flowing in the river, and I included the pilings in the foreground mostly due to the nest boxes at the top. These nesting boxes are for the Purple Martin (Progne subis) I believe – though they might be used by other species as well.

snowy golden ears mountains at derby reach

Fresh Snow on the Golden Ears and Derby Reach Regional Park in Langley (Purchase)

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As I was heading back to my car from Muench Bar after sunset there were some more interesting blues in the sky and I again made a panorama from my favourite view of Mount Blanshard. I have previously photographed Mount Blanshard from this same spot in the spring. I should try to get a photo like this in every season to complete the series.

For more photographs from this snowy day visit my Langley Township/Langley City Gallery.

Golden Ears (Mount Blanshard) From Maple Ridge and Langley

The Golden Ears (Mount Blanshard) and Derby Reach Regional Park at Meunch Bar in Langley, British Columbia, Canada.

sunset at derby reach park with the golden ears mountains

Golden Ears and sunset light at Derby Reach Regional Park (Purchase)

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This spring hasn’t been a time where I’ve managed to make a lot of photographs. Due to the pandemic situation I’ve been staying home, and the few times I’ve gone to a local park it has been without my camera. Earlier in the year, however, I did manage to get a few of my desired locations/subjects photographed (it’s a very long list). The three most interesting visits were to Golden Ears Provincial Park, Pitt Lake, Derby Reach Regional Park. One thing all 3 locations have in common is they have great views of different angles of the Golden Ears Mountains (Mount Blanshard). The Golden Ears are one of my favourite mountains – and one I grew up looking at outside my bedroom window. So I thought I’d make a post here with a number of Golden Ears photographs made recently.

The first panorama of the Golden Ears above shows some sunset light shining on the trees in the foreground at Derby Reach Regional Park. I’d walked these trails for the first time the previous year and thought this might be a good location to photograph the mountain with some snow on it. I had been hoping for some sunset glow on the mountain followed by blue hour. I didn’t get that glow, but the sunset did light up the trees in the foreground quite nicely at an area of the park called Meunch Bar. The photograph below shows the same location after sunset. The nesting boxes in the foreground are mostly utilized by swallows I believe, but I haven’t confirmed that yet this spring.

golden ears and derby reach regional park in early evening

Early Evening light at Derby Reach Regional Park (Purchase)

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The next photograph below shows a perspective on the Golden Ears that I have photographed in the past. Actually, I made this photograph as an alternative to another panorama I shot in the same spot – one that I sold a rather large canvas of in early March. The client and I had gone through a few potential images before deciding and I wanted to throw a few more possibilities (at higher resolution too) for the next client. The is the view of the mountain from the farmland areas on the way north to Pitt Lake.

golden ears blanshard peak blue hour panorama

The Golden Ears Mountains – Mount Blanshard, Edge Peak, Blanshard Peak, and Alouette Mountain (Purchase)

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Anyone who has visited Pitt Lake will be familiar with the view below of Mount Blanshard from the west. This is McPhaden Peak (part of the Mount Blanshard Massif) with a lot of fresh snow and some sunset light. I made this photograph from the edge of the Pitt River near Pitt Lake in Pitt Meadows, BC.

golden ears mountains mcphaden peak sunset fresh snow

Sunset lights up fresh snow on Mount Blanshard (the Golden Ears) (Purchase)

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In mid-February I visited Golden Ears Provincial Park and walked along Gold Creek to Lower Falls and then to North Beach. The photograph below shows a familiar site to all who have stopped and looked at Alouette Mountain’s Blanshard Peak which is part of the Mount Blanshard Massif. Gold Creek winds its way through the foreground on many photographs from this area, but I wanted to photograph just the mountains and snow for this panorama.

evans peak mount blanshard massif golden ears provincial park

Evans Peak and Alouette Mountain (Blanshard Peak), Edge Peak of the Mount Blanshard Massif with some fresh snow in Golden Ears Provincial Park (Purchase)

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As with the photograph above I wanted to concentrate on the mountain peaks and the snow in the photo below. This is Alouette Mountain’s Blanshard Peak with fresh snow on it and a fringe of sunlight along the southern edge.

fresh snow alouette mountain blanshard peak

Fresh snow on the rock and trees Alouette Mountain’s Blanshard Peak (Purchase)

For more photographs of the Golden Ears Mountains please visit my Maple Ridge, Langley, Pitt Meadows, and Golden Ears Provincial Park Galleries.

Views from the Traboulay PoCo Trail – Golden Ears and the Pitt River

View of the Golden Ears, Raven Peak and Osprey Mountain (left) and the Pitt River from the Traboulay Poco Trail in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada.

mount blanshard osprey mountain pitt river

The Pitt River, Osprey Mountain, and the Golden Ears (Purchase)

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   It is relatively warm and spring-like now, but a few months ago I was still looking for winter photographs in my area of British Columbia. The Golden Ears (Mount Blanshard) are one of the nearest mountain views that I can reach from where I live, and so they are a frequent subject of mine. I have photographed them from many locations but hadn’t done so from the Port Coquitlam perspective, so I drove out to the Traboulay PoCo Trail in February to photograph the Golden Ears and the Pitt River.

pitt river and osprey mountain in winter

Osprey Mountain and the Pitt River (Purchase)

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   While the Traboulay PoCo Trail encircles Port Coquitlam entirely, I parked at the Prairie Avenue parking area and walked just the short distance between there and the DeBouville Slough. This gave me the great view (first photograph above) of the Golden Ears, the Pitt River and a few surrounding mountain peaks. I also made a few other photographs in this area, including this one of Osprey Mountain with some nice “belt of venus” sky coloration. This was not a view I’d anticipated, but that is hard to do in a location you’ve never visited. Some times trip planning on Google Earth etc is very useful, but it is never as useful as actually visiting a location.

   The last photograph here is a nice post sunset view – alpenglow on Mount Baker. The river in the foreground is the Pitt River in a spot near the DeBoville Slough while Mount Baker itself is in Washington State. I also made a photograph of Baker a bit earlier in the evening with what I would call “sunset light” on Mount Baker.

alpenglow on mount baker from the pitt river

Alpenglow on Mount Baker from the Pitt River (Purchase)

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   Not to wade to far into what is often a contentious discussion over the definition of alpenglow, but the photo above is exactly what I’d call alpenglow. The definition of alpenglow is that the light has to be indirect, so it is usually reflecting off of clouds or the atmosphere in some way. Sunset light can create a great glow, but is still direct light. So the photo I linked to above would be “sunset light” and the photo shown above is “alpenglow”. I see a lot of photographs where direct light is labelled as alpenglow. Alpenglow is great light, subtle, and is harder to find than good sunset light. Quite often it just doesn’t materialize when I am looking for it. I think this might be why actual alpenglow is a bit coveted, and why some want to move the definition towards something easier to obtain such as the direct sunset light. I do wish I saw light like this more often!

For more photographs from Port Coquitlam visit my Port Coquitlam Gallery.

Golden Ears Mountains and the Fraser River

The Golden Ears mountains as photographed from Brae Island Regional Park in Langley, British Columbia, Canada.

golden ears mountains and the log booms on the fraser river in langley bc

Golden Ears Mountains and the Fraser River

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   Last week I visited Brae Island Regional Park near Fort Langley, BC. I have found with previous trips to this park that timing can be important. My first visit there was mostly noteworthy for the vast quantities of mosquitoes I encountered which allowed me to break a personal record for bites in one evening (50). I guess late May is not a good time to visit. I was able to photograph at the various viewpoints of the Fraser River on my trip there one year ago without any mosquito action so I headed there again this year at about the same time – early September. I didn’t get to see a great sunset, but I did like this scene that I photographed from a viewpoint just east of Tavistock Point. The panorama above shows the Golden Ears mountains (Mount Blanshard) and Mount Robbie Reid (right) which are a familiar sight from the Fraser Valley (especially Langley and Maple Ridge). The Golden Ears are formed by McPhaden Peak, Edge Peak and Blanshard Peak. The majority of the trees on the other side of the Fraser River are in Kanaka Creek Regional Park (in Maple Ridge).

   Despite the general lack of mosquitoes this trip was not free animal intervention. My walk to Tavistock point took about 25 minutes from the parking lot. The way back took me about 35 minutes, and it had little to do with the darkness. I had a flashlight out, but despite that there were so many frogs out on the trail that I had to go pretty slowly to avoid stepping on them. A recent windstorm and the dry summer also left a lot of dry, crumpled cottonwood and alder leaves on the trail, which were hard to distinguish from the frogs against the crushed gravel. I stopped counting at around 35 frogs but I don’t think I stepped on any, luckily.

Visit my Fraser Valley Gallery for more photographs from the Fraser Valley.

Gold Creek and the Golden Ears Mountains

Gold Creek winds through the mountains and forests of Golden Ears Provincial Park in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada.

gold creek in golden ears provincial park

Gold Creek along the Lower Falls Trail in Golden Ears Provincial Park (Purchase)

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   If one were to point to an “iconic” composition from Golden Ears Provincial Park most would choose the second image here, showing some of the peaks of the Golden Ears mountains. While this may be the most popular scene, I decided to feature a slightly different composition in the photograph above. Even without the mountains in the background, I still like the impact of this scene. I have a few different compositions of this, but I think the wider panorama above shows off the area more effectively. In conditions where there were clear skies and/or some snow on the mountains, I think the bottom scene might prevail.

   I have previous photographed this area, but never really have encountered “perfect” conditions for doing so. I had planned on photographing this area in the snow last winter, but snow wasn’t really part of our 2014/2015 winter unfortunately. I headed to Golden Ears Park a few weeks ago on a cloudy day, as I knew my main goals were wildflowers, waterfalls, and Gold Creek itself. When I reached this view, about half way to Lower Falls along the Lower Falls Trail, I decided that the iconic view was worth a photograph regardless. The slight haze in the sky and the clouded background still allowed for enough contrast to photograph Evans Peak (left) and Edge Peak behind the foreground of Gold Creek and the many Red Alder (Alnus Rubra) trees lining the edge of the forest.

emerald green waters of gold creek in golden ears provincial park

Emerald waters of Gold Creek in Golden Ears Park (Purchase)

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   Which one of these compositions do you prefer? Do you think the second composition here is effective despite the imperfect conditions in the sky?

For more of my photographs from this area visit my Golden Ears Provincial Park Gallery.

Golden Ears Sunset Panorama

Sunset hits the clouds clearing from Mount Blanshard (The Golden Ears) – photographed from Tavistock Point at Brae Island Regional Park in Langley, British Columbia, Canada

mount blanshard the golden ears

Clouds clearing from Mount Blanshard at Sunset (Purchase)

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   As I mentioned in my previous post I also photographed Mount Blanshard (aka The Golden Ears) while at Tavistock Point last week in Brae Island Regional Park. The forecast had been for a cloudy day but as I came up to Tavistock Point the clouds started clearing from Mount Blanshard. I was able to make this panorama just as the light from the sunset came through the clouds to the west.

The Golden Ears Mountains – Mount Blanshard

The Golden Ears Mountains – Blanshard Peak and Edge Peak in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada

panorama of the golden ears mountains in maple ridge, british columbia, canada

Panorama of the “Golden Ears” Mountains – Blanshard Peak and Edge Peak

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   Part of the Garibaldi Ranges – The Golden Ears mountains are a familiar sight in Metro Vancouver, especially from Langley and Maple Ridge. On of my favourite mountains, I have been looking at these since I was a kid. This “Blue Hour” photograph was made from the Pitt Polder area of Pitt Meadows.

See more of my mountain photographs in my Mountain Photos Gallery.