Icefields Parkway and Jasper National Park

This blog covers the Canadian Rockies from Lake Louise to Jasper.  The Icefield Parkways is a beautiful drive.

We started the third day with a 3-1/2 mile walk to the Plains Glacier Tea House above Lake Louise.  Shown in this picture is a Clark's Jay.

There were a few climbers just off of the trail to the tea house.

A bear cub chowing down on berries along side the Icefield Parkway. I kept looking for momma bear but I couldn't find her.  She must not have been in the immediate area which was fortunate for people who were way too close to the cub.

Fireweed flowers along side Mosquito Creek.  It rained a little this morning so you can see all of the water drops on the flowers.

The Bow River at the Mosquito Creek junction.  While not a great picture I had to put this in the blog as a memorial to my lens cap.  It was floating down river much faster than I could move.

A better Bow River shot.

Mistaya Canyon.  This canyon has no barricades or walkways. A good place to walk carefully.

The Mistaya River and Kaufmann Peaks.

The river churns as it flows through the narrow canyon.

Mistaya Oxbow and Epaulette Mountain

Silverhorn Creek and Mount Weed.

Peyto Lake.  The glacial runoff has suspended rock flakes that reflect the blue light.  While it is very pretty, light doesn't penetrate the water so there is little plant life and not many fish. 

Mosquito Creek.  As I hiked back to this location to take a picture I stepped on a four foot diameter boulder along side the creek.  The bank collapsed and the boulder and I rolled into the creek.  Fortunately I only got a wet foot and didn't get crush by a rolling boulder. 

Moss Waterfall

Day four started with a pre-dawn drive to Bow Lake.  This is a great place for early morning photos.

Crowfoot Mountain reflected in Bow Lake.

Fireweed reflections at Bow Lake.

Moraine Lake. This is a beautiful lake that is easy to reach.  Just arrive before 9 am if you want to get a spot in the parking lot.

We hiked to Helen Lake in the afternoon.  There had been a grizzly sighting on the trail early in the day.

I like the way the sun light played through these grasses.

One of two Helen Lake pictures.

Helen Lake

Dolomite Peak and some interesting clouds

This is the area where the grizzly bear was sighted.

I went to Herbert Lake four mornings to get a good sunrise picture.  The first morning there were clouds at the eastern horizon. Day two, very low clouds so no mountains.  Day three, fog so thick you couldn't see the lake.  Good thing it was only four miles from my bed.

On day six we drove to Jasper.  This is a reflection in Rampart Pond.

We hiked up to Parker Ridge to get a good view of the Saskatchewan Glacier. The glacier is two miles wide.

Athabasca Falls Canyon

Athabasca Falls and Mount Kerkeslin

Full moon photography at Patricia Lake. I used a headlamp to light the stump. This picture was taken at midnight.

The beginning of day seven and a hike to Mount Edith Cavell and Angel Glacier.  The trail to this area has a lot of bear activity so you must walk in groups of four or larger and have bear spray.  Kathy and I joined a family from Belgium and had a wonderful time.  Good thing they spoke English otherwise it might have been a long day.

We hiked up a steep path to 2800 meters to get a good view.

Kathy sat down on this rock and I thought this guy was going to climb into her lap.

We hike back to Moab Lake.  The only lake that I didn't think was picture worthy.

Pyramid Mountain reflection in Pyramid Lake.  I passed within 8 feet of two elks females on my way to this sunrise spot.

Maligne Canyon is another nice canyon trail.  There are four bridges across the canyon so there are lots of nice views.  The fifth bridge is gone so if you head that way skip that parking lot and trail.

These trees seem to be able to grow almost anywhere.  Not much soil here.

I thought the pothole was interesting.  The water is actually moving in the hole.

Medicine Lake is above Maligne Canyon.  This lake drains through a cave system into Maligne Canyon.  It is interesting to see waterfalls entering the side of the canyon in some areas.

Medicine Lake Slabs reflected in Pyramid Lake.

That all for the Canadian Rockies Blogs.  Tomorrow I am off to Kenai Alaska with John Miller.  Hope to publish a Kenai blog in a couple of weeks. 

Yoho and Banff National Parks

Mount Stephen from the Yoho Valley Road

Kathy and I spent our first day in the Canadian Rockies visiting Yoho National Park. Yoho is a 30 minute drive from Lake Louise.

Our warm-up hike for our visit was up the Iceline Trail.  We started at 5000 foot elevation and climbed to 7400 feet.

This trail took us up to some small glaciers and clearly above the tree line.

The elevation gain was a little aggressive for a first day in the mountains hike.  Fortunately for me Kathy was still smiling as we prepared to turn-a-round for the trip down. In the background is Takakkaw Falls.  The third tallest falls in Canada.

Space alien on Iceline trail.

A better view of Takakkaw Falls and the glacier that feeds it.

After lunch we traveled to the Emerald Lake Road.  Our first stop was the Natural Bridge.  Before the river cut through the rock this was a water fall.  A daring soul can walk across the natural bridge.

I like the contrast between the patterns in the rock and the movement in the water.

Easy to see how Emerald Lake gets it's name.  This lake wasn't near as crowded as Lake Louise or Moraine Lake in Banff.  There is a nice level three mile hike around the lake. 

Emerald Peak shot from the Emerald River.

We spent our second day in Banff.  Our first hike of the day was at Sunshine Meadows.  We road a bus from 5000 to 7200 foot elevation. Beat the three mile hike of the first day to get to 7200 plus elevation. There were lots of wildflowers in the meadows and three nice lakes for reflections.  Since we caught the first bus of the day there weren't many people here yet. This is Rock Island Lake.

Looking for a handout.  The fines are very steep for feeding animals in the National Parks.  As Kathy and I went through customs we were warned not to feed the animals or speed in the parks.  He should have talked to his country men about the speeding part.

A pink Indian Paint Brush.

More common Indian Paint Brush.

I liked the composition.

This was Bear lake. Fortunately we didn't run into any bears while we were out hiking.  Kathy has her bear bell and both of us were carrying bear spray.

Mid-morning reflection.

There were lots of insects in the meadows.  Almost every flower has some insect looking for nectar.  We like these insects much more than the mosquitoes and horse flies that weren't looking for nectar.

After a great lunch in Banff we headed to Johnston Canyon.

Johnston Canyon is a hour drive up the Bow River Parkway from Banff.  This canyon can be quite crowded from 10:00 to 4:00.

There are lots of pretty waterfalls along the trail.

There are walkways along the canyon so you are never too far away from the water.

I used my variable neutral density filter quite a bit on this trip to get slower shutter speeds so I capture the swirls in the water.  For the non camera folks a ND filter reduces the amount of light that a camera sensor sees so the shutter stays open longer.

Another water fall.

We finished our hiking for the day having walked about 9 miles but most of it was on level ground.

The next blog will cover the Icefields Parkway and Jasper National Park.