And at the opposite end of a day that ended with a stormy sunset outside of Omak, Washington was this sunrise over Lake Louise in Banff, Alberta. I enjoyed some really good sunsets on this trip, but sunrises eluded me. Nonetheless, this was a pleasant morning to cap the trip off with. There are few better lakes to sit by and wait while the day's light quietly sneaks in than this one nestled amongst the Canadian Rockies.
Tags: Banff Canada sunrise alpen glow Lake Louise calm tranquil blue Alberta It has been 25 years since my last visit here hopefully it does not take me another 25 to get back
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When I was 10 or 11 years old my mom, younger brother and I made a road trip up through British Columbia and Alberta on our way to see my great aunt and uncle in Calgary. We made our way up through Hope, stopping to get our photos in the town that First Blood (Rambo I) was filmed, then up over the Canadian Rockies, camping in both Jasper and Banff. There are only about two things I remember from that trip, 25 years ago, one of the abstract and the other concrete. I remember thinking that the Canadian Rockies were the most amazing and beautiful place on the planet. That is the abstract recollection. The concrete memory I have from the trip is seeing the Athabasca Glacier in the Columbia Icefields. It is a sight that moves you and then stays with you, perhaps for your entire life. I shall see. But how often do us mere mortals get to walk up and touch a glacier? The opportunities are there, but not too frequently. Perhaps not frequently enough.
The walk up the glacier is studded with signs, showing you where the glacier extended to in years past, dating almost all the way back to the 19th century. It is sobering to hike past all those years, and I remember doing that as a 10 year old boy.
Well fast forward 25 years and we had the chance to see this glacier again. Even though it was a bit out of our way, I wanted to give Owen the opportunity to see Athabasca, perhaps to leave its imprint on him too. It was a little spooky to hike up the trail and see the sign for the year my mom, brother and I had visited, to imagine the three of us standing there touching ice that no longer existed for the glacier had retreated another eighth of a mile.
They say the whole thing will be gone within 100 years. Owen's children will have a chance to see it and their children should too, but after that all bets are off.
Tags: Banff Canada Alberta Athabasca Glacier Icefields Parkway one of the most amazing drives in the world
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The view from atop the rock pile at Moraine Lake, particularly toward the end of the day, is impressive. There are few things in the world quite like the Canadian Rockies. Combine them with picturesque lakes and a lovely sunset, mix it together with a Hasselblad and a couple strong ND filters and you have the makings of a pleasant evening.
As a side note, there is a path that leads to the top of this pile. This may not mean much to you if you haven't been there, and I would have thought nothing of it before I had gone. But standing on top of the rock pile, having just hiked up the path and watching how many people seriously thought the best way to get to the top was to scuttle/slide across the floating log jam then clamber up the sheer side of the pile was an astounding exercise in ignoring the obvious path less than 50 feet away. It was sort of like being back at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and watching people (some with baby in stroller and all) think the only way to get across the roundabout to the arc in the middle was to dart out into the constant, heavy traffic. That was scarier to watch than this, but still, walking across floating log jams is never the best of ideas. But there were no injuries on this particular evening and the sunset was quite enjoyable. So in this case all's well that ended well.
Tags: Banff Alberta Canada Hasselblad Hasselblad 500C square film Kodak Ektar 100 analog long exposure Moraine Lake landscape sunset Rocky Mountains
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Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies. The lake changes color throughout the year, going from a surreal green in the summer to a deep blue in winter. This effect is caused by "glacial flour" - or rock flour - essentially rock ground up by glacial activity into a flour that is then washed into the lake. The suspended particles change how light reflects and refracts from the water. In the summer, when the lake is full of glacial flour the water is green and as winter sets in and less run-off carries less rock flour into the lake, the lake reverts to a deep blue color.
This image made with my 6x17 curved plane panoramic Reality so Subtle 141 pinhole camera. (that's a mouthful to say)
Tags: pinhole Canada Banff Lake Louise Alberta film pano analog
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Sometimes you park. You get out. You stand in the middle or the road at modest personal peril. You gawk. You make photos.
Made along the Icefields Parkway somewhere between Banff and Jasper.
Tags: Icefields Parkway Hasselblad Hasselblad 500C square 6x6 Medium Format film analog Canada Alberta roads Canadian Rockies landcape Banff Jasper
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