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Waterfalls were everywhere thanks to the rain in the foothills
Published Jun 05, 2026 • Last updated 3 hours ago • 6 minute read
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Waterfalls everywhere thanks to the rain in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/PostmediaArticle content
So much green.
Looking down on the foothills from a rise just west of the city, I could see endless emerald pastures and leafy forest extending all the way to the mountains. Washed clean by three days of rain, it all glowed in the morning sun.
I had decided to take a chance on the weather forecast and wait until Wednesday morning instead of braving the wind and rain. Glad I did. The morning was cool but sunny and bright and the foothills were gorgeous. Swallows were swooping through the meadows grabbing bugs out of the air to take to their babies; little ephemeral streams ran through carpets of dandelions, full of rainwater.
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A tree swallow peeks out of a nesting box in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia
All of it was stunning but what I really wanted to see was my favourite little waterfall. It’s tiny, a mini-Niagara not much more than waist high, but it sits in a pretty declivity in the foothills surrounded by jagged rocks and green moss. The last time I saw it, it was encased in ice but with all this rain I was sure it would be roaring today.
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But there were a few stops to make along the way.
Jumpingpound Creek was predictably high and dirty, though not as much as I expected. It was running right up to the banks and the side channels were flowing as well but it hadn’t really spread out much. With all that rain I expected it to be flowing among the trees but, no, it looked like pretty normal spring runoff.
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Jumpingpound Creek runs high and dirty in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia
What the rain had affected, though, were the roads. The gravel sections were a slimy mess with a lot of heaved up areas in the low spots where water was pushing through from underneath. If they were like this nearly a day after the rain had quit they must have been nothing but grey soup when the rain was coming down. Glad I decided to wait.
The sunshine was helping dry things out, though, and it filtered nicely through the trees where I stopped to look for orchids. I figured I might be a bit late for the pretty little calypsos but there were lots of other things to catch my eye.
Lichens in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia
Lichens love the damp forest in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia
I don’t know if it was the rain or the light but the greens, oranges and yellows of the lichens were really rich. Against the dark dampness of the mossy forest floor they seemed like they had their own light, tiny bits of neon stuck to twigs and fallen limbs. Among them were plants still unfolding their tiny leaves and fallen spruce and pine needles.
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And one small patch of orchids.
One blossom was still opening, another looked to be finishing up. But close by were a couple that were clearly done, the pink drained and faded to jaundiced yellow. Still lovely but past their prime.
The last of the calypso orchids blooms in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia
Calypso orchids fading in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia
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Calypso orchids in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia
The whitetail buck I found down the road was just coming into his.
His antlers were starting to branch out, the velvet on them slick from walking through the wet forest. Winter hair was still coming off but the soft brown fur of summer was showing through between the patches. Another week or so and he will be magnificent.
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A whitetail buck with antler buds in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia
I made the turn onto Powderface Trail and had to ford the overflow from Sibbald Creek caused by a beaver dam at the bridge. It wasn’t deep or treacherous in any way but it kind of put me off from continuing much further. The road ahead would be mucky at best, flooded even more along Jumpingpound Creek at worst. Instead, I watched a group of cowbirds.
They were entertaining, flying back and forth along the road, searching the grass for fallen seeds and poking through the muck for whatever meaty things they could find. Seemed like they were still in courtship mode, too. Several of the males were doing this wing-spreading, tail-raising thing whenever another male showed.
The females, as usual, seemed unimpressed but I would think they had already laid their eggs in another species’ nest — they are parasitic that way — and were happy to just keep foraging.
Male cowbirds display in front of a female in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia
A yellow warbler along Sibbald Creek in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia
There were plenty of other birds around for the cowbirds to parasitize. Yellow warblers everywhere along with song sparrows, blackbirds and waterbirds of every kind. Redtail hawks flew over the wide meadow while harriers patrolled the beaver ponds. I even saw a little sora rail in the water right beside the road but it eluded me.
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Sibbald Meadows Pond was lined with people, most of them fishing. I suspect the pond had recently been stocked and word had gotten out so folks were there to catch their share. Good luck to them but I decided to roll on a bit further. My little waterfall was right there but I kinda wanted it to myself.
And they weren’t the only fish-seekers.
A mallard lets out a quack on a beaver pond in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia
A pair of female common mergansers on a beaver pond in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia
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A bufflehead and male common mergansers on a beaver pond in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia
Common mergansers, fish-eating ducks, were swimming on the beaver ponds up by the summit. Two females were on the lower pond, swimming in synchronization like a couple of ladies out for a stroll, while a group of males kept to themselves on the far side of the upper pond. A little bufflehead swam nearby.
The mergansers were pretty wary and stayed close to where a rain-swollen spring stream was feeding into the pond but a mallard posed nicely as it preened on a submerged log. He was funny, quacking and flexing his wings, the opposite of the nervous mergansers.
The marmot I found up the road wasn’t nervous either. It was out in the muddy gravel for some reason and never moved until I was right up to it. Even then, it just ambled off into some roadside rocks and posed like it was the master of its domain. Given the size of it, it probably was.
A marmot has a look around next to a beaver pond in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia
A marmot taking it easy in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia
Crowd or not, time to go visit the waterfall.
And it was roaring though, again, not as much as I thought it would be. Water was pouring down the narrow valley and dropping over the hard sandstone lip of the falls but with all that rain, I kinda expected more.
It was still a lovely sight and the bubbles around the edge of the plunge pool reflected the sky above while water splashed on the rocks and flowed down the often-dry stream below. A lone clematis blossom bloomed in the spray while the moss soaked up whatever it could. Canada violets showed their pale faces in the shady forest close by and I’m sure I could have found other pretty little things had I decided to cross the stream. A combination of laziness and a desire to keep my feet dry held me back.
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A little waterfall roars with runoff in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia
Water blasts over a little waterfall roaring with runoff in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia
The sky reflects in bubbles below a little waterfall roaring with runoff in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia
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A Canada violet in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia
I debated going over the summit and heading back along the highway but decided to retrace my steps instead. I’d heard frogs singing on the way up so I figured I’d have a look for them. Found them, too, in a rain-filled ditch next to the road. It sounded like there were hundreds of them but I only managed to see one. It looked very relaxed.
Clouds were building up again as I headed east, and they loomed over a set of beaver ponds closer to town. I could see where the rain had sent the water across the road and carved away a bit of the gravel. It wouldn’t take much more to flood it again.
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A frog relaxes in a ditch filled up by the rain in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia
But the ducks were enjoying it. There were ringnecks and green-winged teal, a young shoveller still in last year’s baby feathers, mallards and geese. Downstream, below the road, water gushed out and flowed away through the beaver ponds.
Where it would go on to nourish so much green.
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One of last year’s shovelled drakes still in its adolescent feathers on a beaver pond in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia
Ring-necked ducks on a beaver pond in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia
A green-winged teal on a beaver pond in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia
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Storm clouds over a beaver pond in the foothills west of Calgary, Ab. on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Mike Drew/Postmedia
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