ssphillips

This months calendar image features a stand of beautiful white birch trees in winter. We went snowshoeing at the West Bragg Creek Provincial Recreation Area in the foothills southwest of Calgary. We made our way around the Snowshoe Hare trail, which is a very popular trail for beginners to snowshoeing. It's not too terribly busy but popular enough that the trail is well marked and beaten down by other visitors. It's also a good distance (about 6 km) if you want to take your kids.

This months calendar image features a glowing halo around the sun on an icy cold day in winter. Halos are created by light interacting with ice crystals in the atmosphere and can form at any time of year but are much more common on very cold days in the winter. This image was made on the prairies south and east of the Calgary city limits on a beautiful winter day.