Thank you very much to everyone who entered this year’s photo contest! We’re amazed by the talent of the photographers who contributed submissions, and we know that you’ll enjoy looking through the photos, too. Our judges are currently in the process of reviewing the entries. We’ll announce the top three winners in the judges category on April 11.

Meanwhile, we’d like to announce our reader’s choice winners! Congratulations to our first-place winner Davis Urdaneta and our second-place winner Mark Greenfield for receiving the highest number of votes for their pictures. You can view their lovely contributions below.

Davis Urdaneta wins a dream getaway to Radium Hot Springs.  It includes:

• 3 night stay in a Luxury 1 Bedroom Suite for 4 at the Bighorn Meadows Resort
• Breakfast for 2 courtesy of La Cabina Ristorante
• $50 gift certificate from Fire’D UP Breakfast & Burgers
• $75 gift certificate from Old Salzburg Restaurant
• $100 gift certificate from CasaVino Wine Bar
• $440 gift certificate from Kootenay River Runners for a full day rafting trip for 4 adults

Mark Greenfield wins a Portable Campfire (courtesy of Campfire In a Can).

Thank you to everyone who voted for their favorite photos. Stay tuned for updates on next year’s photo contest! And be sure to take some great photos this summer to enter into the next contest!

Nature’s Reflection of Tranquility, by Davis Urdaneta

Yellowhead Lake, by  Mark Greenfield

Submit your best mountain park photos by midnight! Make sure to vote for your favorite entry in the annual Experience the Mountain Parks Photo Contest, too. Our entries range from majestic to serene. It’s a joy to look at the beautiful Mountain Moments that our contestants have captured! We look forward to announcing the winners soon.

This upcoming Monday marks the end of our March photo ID contest AND our annual photo contest.

Before midnight on March 31, you can enter as many photos taken at Mountain Parks as you wish. Our five photo contest winners will receive some terrific prizes:

• Dream Getaway to Radium Hot Springs
• Portable Campfire
• HD Camera Outfit (courtesy of The Camera Store)
• 4 Ultimate Rockies Explorer Passes
• Glacier Icewalk

Make sure to vote for your favorite photo. Two of the prizes will be awarded for the photos with the most votes. Your vote matters!

We’re thrilled with the beautiful submissions we’ve already received, and we’d love to see your best mountain park photos, too! Click here to enter and vote.

The photo below is a recent entry to the photo contest.

Cameron Falls in Waterton National Park – by John Hardy

March 31 is the last day to enter the March Photo ID Contest. If you correctly identify the location of the photo below, you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a copy of Canadian Rockies Explorer by Graeme Pole. Click here to enter!

March photo

The Experience Mountain Parks annual photo contest ends on March 31. Submit your entries as soon as possible! You can enter any number of photos taken in the Canadian mountain parks.

We’re offering some exciting prizes. A $1,500 HD camera outfit, courtesy of The Camera Store, will enable its winner to take many more high-quality photos. Need a vacation? Another one of our lucky winners will receive a 3 night dream getaway to Radium Hot Springs. We’ll also be giving away a Glacier Icewalk Tour for a family of 4, a portable campfire, and 4 Ultimate Rockies Explorer Passes to three other winners.

Please vote for your favorite entries, too! Click here to enter photos and to vote.

Here’s one of this year’s entries:

“Nature’s Reflection of Tranquility” by Davis Urdaneta

One of our guest bloggers–Tanya Koob–is a finalist in the Best Canadian Blogs category of the 2014 Bloggies Weblogs Awards! She writes for her blog Family Adventures in the Canadian Rockies, but she also provides us with great blog posts and articles for our guides. She loves to write about the joys and challenges of exploring the Rocky Mountains with children.

We encourage you to support her by clicking here to vote for her. Voting only takes a few seconds. If Tanya wins, more attention will be directed toward our amazing playground here in the Rockies!

See below for a couple photos from Tanya’s latest blog post, “Winter Escape to Jasper Park.”

Skiing to Leach Lake on Hwy 93A

Hiking in Maligne Canyon with 40 Metre Tall Waterfalls

The joy we feel from the letters we receive really helps to provide our team with a sense of fulfillment that our work is appreciated and we’re making a small positive difference in the world. Upon learning that she had won our February Photo ID Contest, Sera Bennett of Red Deer wrote:

“What exciting news to see when catching up on my e-mails!

My family has always loved the mountains and especially hiking and camping in the national parks over the last 35 years. We have hiked on numerous trails and have always looked forward to trying new ones. Now, as my grandchildren get older we hope that they too will want to share our love of the parks and hiking with us.

Thanks so very much for the book we will enjoy it very much!!!!”

Would you like to go hiking safely in the mountains with your children, but not sure where to go? Enter our March Photo ID Contest for a chance to win a copy Canadian Rockies Explorer by Graeme Pole. Use it to create some cherished memories with your family this summer!

The Swatch Freeride World Tour stop at Revelstoke Mountain Resort will begin Monday, March 10, weather permitting. It’s the fifth stop on the tour.

Contestants will be competing on the Mac Daddy face, which is outside of Revelstoke’s normal skiing area. The steep 2,500 vertical foot face make this a venue exclusively for experts. The Mac  Daddy was first used for competition during 2011 Swatch Freeride and Freeskiing World Tour.

Participants will not only experience the thrill of tackling this challenging slope, but will also be competing for monetary prizes.

The schedule of events begins on Friday, March 7, during the Pre-Athlete Arrival. A full schedule of events will be taking place in conjunction with the competition. Events range from a health and wellness fair on Saturday to plays, live music, a photography workshop, and bowling. View the schedule here.

Of course, you can hit the slopes yourself at Revelstoke Mountain Resort!

The 2014 Crown Managers Partnership Annual Forum is just around the corner. The Forum will be held on March 17-19 in Missoula, Montana. Registration ends March 14th.

This year’s topic is Adaptive Management for Climate Change in the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem. 

The Crown Managers Partnership (CMP) is a voluntary multi-jurisdictional, trans-boundary partnership formed in 2001 by a collection of agencies seeking to demonstrate leadership in addressing the environmental management challenges in the Crown of the Continent region.

The conference is an outflow of CMP’s desire to share information about common interests and issues in the Rocky Mountain Range’s Ecosystem and then collaborate. The location of the Forum rotates between British Columbia, Alberta and Montana.

Some of the specific topics that this year’s Forum will address are:

• cumulative effects of human activities across the ecosystem
• increased public interest in how lands are managed and how decisions are reached
• increased recreational demands and increased visitation
• the maintenance and sustainability of shared wildlife populations
• collaboration in sharing data, standardizing assessment and monitoring methodologies

The Forum is scheduled to have an engaging range of activities, including an opening keynote, small group exercises, a panel discussion, and a round robin discussion.

Please note that the Forum on March 17 will take place at the Double Tree Hotel (100 Madison Street) and the remainder of the Forum (March 18-19) will be held at the University of Montana in Missoula, MT (32 Campus Drive).

Click here to register.

For answers to questions about the conference, contact crownmanagers@gmail.com.

Congratulations to Sera Bennett for winning our February photo ID contest! She was one of the contestants who correctly identified the photo below. The image, taken by Graeme Pole, is of Rock Isle Lake at Sunshine Meadows.

February photo

If you think you can identify the photo below, click here to enter the March photo ID contest. If you guess correctly, you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a copy of Graeme Pole’s book Canadian Rockies Explorer, a Canadian Rockies Companion Guide. April is the last month that we’ll be giving away a copy of Graeme’s book to the monthly trivia winner, so take advantage of this opportunity while you can!

March photo

Only two days left to enter our February photo ID contest. This month we’re featuring a stunning photo of _______. If you can correctly “fill in the blank” and identify the location, you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a copy of Graeme Pole’s book Canadian Rockies Explorer, a Canadian Rockies Companion Guide.

Click here to enter the contest.

If the February trivia quiz photo makes you want to go sightseeing, just wait until you read Canadian Rockies Explorer. It’s full of more of Graeme’s beautiful photos, and serves as a great guide of the national and provincial parks of the Canadian Rockies.

February photo by Graeme Pole