The March/April 2025 issue of Canadian Geographic features a story on Wildflowers and retracing the footsteps of Mary Schäffer Warren, accompanied by a stunning collection of photographs by the late and great Natalie Gillis.

There’s this person I met about 17 years ago. It was my first summer working in the mountains at a historic lodge in Banff National Park. Now, by this point, this person had been lying in the Banff Cemetery for 66 years, but her story was so compelling that it has been the subject of much Rockies folklore. Her accomplishments as an explorer, writer, photographer and artist put her name in the history books alongside notable men of the same era.

Mary Schäffer was no ordinary woman.