Canadian Rockies

It's hard to know what to blame it on but I didn't touch my camera for more than three days this past week. It could be burnout or it could have been a lack of great subject matter. Anyway, I made up for it over the next few days.

I spent a lot of those first few days driving. It's a long way from Ft. Nelson to Jasper. Jasper is near the north end of the area known as the Canadian Rockies which includes Jasper, Banff, Yoho, and Kootenay National Parks. For a photographer this is a "target rich environment", but I found the drive down from Ft Nelson pretty uninspiring. A lot of it looked like back home in Michigan. Not that that's bad but it just didn't make me want to break out the camera. I guess I needed the break from photography anyway.



One of my first photo stops was at Mt. Robson in Mt. Robson Provincial Park just outside of Jasper NP. This is the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies.




Near the Town of Jasper is a place called Maligne Canyon, The name means "wicked", but it was also beautiful.

I camped that night at the only campground in the park that was still open. It happened to be on the site of a rutting ground for Elk. It was getting dark when I was setting up my camper and I could hear an Elk bugling quite close by. Then I hear the sound of hoof beats approaching. A cow (female Elk, not a Holstein)and a calf ran right up to the edge of my campsite. They stopped and looked back to see three or four more cows coming followed closely by a bull. They all paused there at the edge of my campsite and the bull bugled again. They all looked over at me for a while and then moved on. Quite an experience! Even if I did have time to get my camera I wouldn't have had enough light to photograph it. However, the next morning I heard some more bugling and what sounded like sticks banging together...


Right across the street form the campground a pair of bulls was duking it out! The light still wasn't that good so a lot of the photos didn't come out like I wanted them to but I got some decent ones. I also got some video that I haven't looked at yet. If I can figure out how I'll get it online for you.


All done fighting. Seems to be no hard feelings.



The Angel Glacier is also near the town of Jasper. It's easy to see how it got it's name.


This is just down stream from a waterfall, but I just can't think of the name of it. Athabaska maybe? Sorry.


The road south of Jasper has scenes like these, one right after the other. It got to be overwhelming. There was no way I could photograph it all. The mountains in the Canadian Rockies have got to be the most beautiful I've seen yet.


I was in this area a few years ago with my friend Mike and at that time you could walk anywhere you wanted to on the Columbia Icefields. Now they restrict you to a very small area. I guess it's just too dangerous.



Some more roadside mountain scenes.



Mistia Canyon is one of my favorite spots to photograph. You might recognise some of these photos from my older stuff. You can find some of them on my website. You'll notice the water levels were higher back then. That's because it was earlier in the season and the glaciers were melting faster.



Peyto Lake is known for it's brilliant color. It comes from the fine rock particles suspended in the water. It was snowing when I was there. You can see it on the mountains in the background.



This is the famous Lake Louise. It's a beautiful lake but I don't see why it's so famous. I think there are much more beautiful lakes in the area.





Take Moraine Lake for instance. I find it much more inspiring than Lake Louise. Conditions weren't quite what I had hoped for, but I think you can see what I mean. You can find other photos of this on my website too.


This is along the road to Moraine Lake.



It seems like I can't do a post without some kind of sheep in it. I found these Bighorn Sheep near Two Jack Lake, just like I did last time I was here. They are a species separate from the Dall and Stone sheep which are collectively know as thin horned sheep. The lamb you see is laying right in the road. It's amazing more of them don't get hit by cars.


In Michigan they say "if you don't like the weather just wait a few minutes". That's at least four times as true in the mountains. I took a drive through Kananaskis country this morning. We had a nice sunrise with some clouds and blue sky.


An hour or two later, at higher elevation, I was in a snowstorm!


An hour or so after that I was back in some mild fall weather, this afternoon I actually felt comfortable in a t-shirt and now in a RV park in Cochrane it's cold and rainy. Michigan weather is pretty stable in comparison.

I've got church narrowed down to one of two choices for tomorrow. Last week was OK but the church was looking for a new pastor and a guy from the congregation preached the sermon. He had the whole thing written out and he read it to us. I'm surprised I stayed awake.

Speaking of staying awake... It's about bedtime for me. I'm now on mountain time and I had to set the clock ahead once again. Another hour closer to Michigan time. The trip isn't over yet though. From here I head south for Glacier NP in the good old USA. It will be good to see some reasonable gas prices again. Well... more reasonable anyway. I've had to pay over $5/gal in some parts of Canada.

I'll let you know how it goes next time. Take care till then.

Steve

PS. I think I have it figured out. Click the play button below and see what happens.