The Quiet Picture

The light seemed to be good in the morning and there was no fog. We headed out in search of the ultimate sunrise photo, but we found elk instead – grazing on a meadow a bit off the road. I finally got some use out of the 300mm lens I’ve been dragging with me, so I was happy.

By then the little light there had been was gone and we only had an overcast sky left. We checked out a couple of small lakes though and since I already had the 300mm mounted, I snapped some shots of some birds to kill time.

Then we headed for Sunshine Meadows, hoping that the place would live up to its name. Well, a little bit – we got some diffused sunlight at first, and then on the way back. But for the actual hike, it was overcast again and I only took one landscape photo and even that was half forced. But I did get some closeup work done (thankful for carrying the big lens with me again!) and I also managed some bad shots of a ground squirrel and some birds.

When we were on the bus back, someone pointed out a mountain goat on the opposite valley wall. Sure enough, there is no mistaking of the white fur! It was way too far to even attempt with my 300mm, but when we had gotten off the bus and started driving back to Banff, we saw a group of whitetail deer – so close that my 300mm was too much. But after that, we came across two smaller groups of deer and I finally got some recognisable whitetail deer photos as well.

Already on the highway 1, we saw a bus pull on the side of the road. We decided to check out what they had noticed, and found ourselves looking at the biggest elk bull I have even seen. A gorgeus 12-pointer and my 300mm had some work to do.

It was already getting time for the evening light, and although it didn’t look very good, we still decided to drive to the Vermilion Lakes. When we had gotten to the end of the road and I was turning the car, we saw that elk bull walk right towards us! Panic… elk is the most dangerous animal in the Rockies, and these 12-pointers are nothing to toy with. But the elk just walked casually by us, and continued walking the road. We followed slowly, hoping that it would turn to the water. It didn’t, instead it just kept walking slowly on the road, switching from side to side when it needed go past people who already were standing by the roadside, photographing the lakes. When the bull finally disappeared in the forest, we turned back for our original plan.

We didn’t get much evening light though, so we gave up after a short while. On our way back, would you believe we came across the elk bull again! Unbelievable… we watched it go to the waterside and roll over in the mud, and sharpen the antlers. I had been smelling the air so it had obviously found the scent of some elk cows and now it was determined to find them. We watched it disappear in the bush for the last time and felt priviledged for the experience.

The weather is finally improving! We got some sunshine already in the morning, but it kept coming and going in the fog. We did the Lake Minnewanka loop and although it initially was cold and foggy, it got truly magical by the time we reached the lake itself. The fog kept constantly changing, hiding and then revealing the surrounding mountains.

Once we had finished the loop, we headed for the Bow Valley Parkway again, this time we could actually see some of the sights we missed yesterday. Castle Mountain is very photogenic and we photographed it in two occasions, in noon light and then in afternoon light again. By the time we were finished with the day’s shoot, there was still some beautiful evening light left, but we decided our time was better spent drinking milkshakes at Dairy Queen. Can’t complain…

Time to move on, to Banff. It was another cold and overcast morning but nothing to do about it, just get going. We took the Bow Valley Parkway and stopped at every spot the book said was worthwhile. It’s just that on an overcast day, not many of the stops were actually worthwhile. We did our best though and I hope that the conditions provided a little bit of extra that you don’t normally see in these iconic landscape photos.

Once in Banff, we did the Vermilion Lakes drive (saw some ducks) and the Fenland Trail (saw some squirrels), visited Banff Springs Hotel to see how the other side travels, and then did some shopping on Banff Avenue. Photographically speaking, not a special day but I’ll pick an overcast day in the Rockies over a day in the office anytime…

It had snowed overnight, but it looked like the sky was going to clear a little bit during the day so we drove to Moraine Lake, hoping to find 4 other people who would hike with us to Larch Valley. There is a law in Canada that during increased bear encounter risk, you have to be in groups of 6 or more.

Before we got to the trailhead, we just had to take a proper look at Moraine Lake again. Just fantastic with the fresh snow!We didn’t have to wait for long until two couples showed up, heading towards Larch Valley. So we took off on the 465 metre ascent and kept a good pace, as some of the group appeared to be the athletic variety. I was grateful for the bicycling I did this summer… When we reached the valley, we got sun on the mountains surrounding us but the valley itself was in the shade. The trees were covered in snow anyway, and the colours hadn’t reached their peak, so the photographic opportunities weren’t quite as plentiful as I would’ve hoped for. But, the scenery was just simply fabulous so I’m not complaining by any means!

While we were up there, we saw some people going up and coming down on the Sentinel Pass (2611 metres) so we thought that we’d try it as well. The snow was deep but there was a fairly good trail, however my hiking boots are not good on snow (as I’ve commented on some other occasions) and suddenly I also felt my legs turn to lead. Hard as I tried, I couldn’t go any faster and finally I had to make the decision of not going all the way up. I hated being the weakling of the group, but honestly… I really didn’t have it in me go any further. It sucks, but with hindsight, it was absolutely the right decision. My GPS told me that I turned back at 2519 metres, so about a hundred metres of ascent short of the goal. The view was great from where I was though and apparently I didn’t miss all that much for not going up on the pass.

The day was just as grey as we were afraid of. Just some light drizzle, but very low cloud so the only thing clear was that we couldn’t shoot any landscape today. We decided to drive through the Kootenay NP, which normally is good for wildlife sightings. Except on a day like this, not even the wildlife want to move too much. Sure enough, we didn’t see anything special on our drive to Radium Hot Springs. We stopped at the Paint Pots but been there seen it done that and moved along. The info centre at Radium Hot Springs recommended the trail up from the centre to the camping site on top of the hill, as it may provide an opportunity to see some bighorn sheep. I didn’t feel like hiking at all, so I decided to drive up instead. On the way there though, I saw a couple of whitetail deer grazing by the roadside. As I drove past them for the second time, I saw a couple of people walking by and they got to a few metres from the deer. Duh! The deer here are definitely not as skittish as the ones we have at home…

Then I spotted a squirrel, and he wasn’t too bothered about me either. I got a chance to get close and the squirrel just kept on munching the apples, providing me plenty of opportunity for photography. The background isn’t ideal, but I’m fairly pleased with the pictures anyway. It’s such a cute little thing! As far as the ID goes, we think it’s a red squirrel, even if it doesn’t look exactly like the ones we have at home.

When we were turning back to the highway, I saw a couple of bighorn sheep by the roadside! This was just the edge of the town so I was able to park in front of a shop and we approached the sheep by foot – mind you, we made sure to keep a safe distance. I know there’s a rule that you should not get out of the car and approach the wildlife, but I’m telling you these sheep were so close to the houses and shops that the main difference between us and the other people walking the street was that we had cameras and the shoppers didn’t. You could get fooled to thinking that the animal is in a natural environment, right? Well, wrong… I was able to take the above shot by keeping myself low on the other side of the road, so that the grasses hid the tarmac. And then just squeeze in the shots in between the passing cars! We were quite amused by the other tourists who crowded the place after they saw us, they stood on the road and photographed the animals. They probably wondered why we lifted the cameras barely over the curb when there was a clearer view to be had on top…

On the way back to Lake Louise we decided to take the Bow Valley Parkway. It had started to rain a lot so any photography was out of the question. And just when we were about to give up, we saw an animal run across the road – a fox I thought. We drove slowly to where it had disappeared to the forest, and there it still was, looking back at us. But now it was obvious it was no fox – it was a coyote! Just as we had identified it, it jogged deeper into the forest, leaving us feeling happy about this cold, grey and rainy day.

The morning dawned dark and rainy. Not much to do about it, so we just drove off to Lake Louise. When we got there, we found ourselves in snowfall.. or sleet anyway. It was cold! Quite a contrast to the sweating we had to do at the hoodoos on Monday in scorching sunshine.

We didn’t really know what to do, because this weather was clearly not presenting any photo ops. I had taken the picture just to show the conditions… my trousers were soaking wet after it (my rain poncho doesn’t really do anything for the legs) and my fingers were numb with cold. But since there wasn’t anything else to do, we drove to the Moraine Lake and found to our great joy that the weather (and visibility) was better there.

A bit of a wind going on though, and with what the dull sky the lake for the most part wasn’t all that glorious as you normally see in the pictures taken at Moraine Lake. There was one corner of the lake however that showed the true colours. Truly amazing… when I was up here back in the 90′s, it was early summer and the lake was still mostly covered by ice, so this was new to me. Wonderful!

Having taken our pictures, we drove to the hostel in Lake Louise, checked in and had a lunch and tried to figure out what do with the remaining daylight, considering that it was getting better all the time. We ended up taking the Lake Agnes hike and had a nice cup of hot chocolate in the tea house. It somehow seemed appropriate with what the snow on the ground and all…

When we got back, I just wanted to hook up the Powerbook to check out my photos so far, and to write this blog (yes, the previous entries are all backdated, in case you hadn’t already figured it out). Now I’m tired! Here’s hoping to better weather tomorrow. Even if the forecast says it will get worse.

We had some good photo ideas from yesterday’s hike around the Emerald Lake, so we decided to go there again and see the same in the morning light. Except, the morning light was extremely diffused, with a lot of high cloud (and a touch of smoke I’m sure). So I did a bunch of closeups and intimate scenics but nothing worth mentioning. When we had enough of it, we drove the Takakkaw Falls, which is either Canada’s highest or second highest waterfall, depends how you count. Since I won’t be able to see the contender, I choose to count this as Canada’s highest (245 metres, in case you’re interested).

We did the normal tourist thing and walked to the foot of the falls, but weren’t happy with the photo ops there. It’s not so easy looking straight up at them anyway. We figured that we could get better views from the opposites side of the valley, so we took the trail up from the Whisky Jack hostel where we were booked for the night.

And sure enough, it was better – way better! When the sun came out, it created a rainbow in the spray of the falls. I know from other pictures I’ve seen from the falls that the rainbow can be much more glorious, but I’ll take what I get. The light was patchy, which helped to create a bit of mood in the image.

There’s plenty of interesting things to see here, natural and unnatural alike. We had decided to skip the further exploration of the Glacier NP so we had an extra day at Yoho NP instead, and this gave us a chance to hike up to the Hoodoos. The weather is great – warm! – but the smoke still lingers on so intimate scenics is the word for the day.

That’s the hoodoos. Rock formations where the rock underneath is soft and gets eroded faster than the tough rock balancing on top. When we got there (after a decent hike which included an ascent of 300 metres), I was disappointed to discover that the afternoon light would be much better, not the morning light as it was. So we circled to the other side of the hoodoos and balanced precariously on the steep slope with slippery sand and gravel. Got back safe, obviously, but I don’t think the pictures were worth it… My best shot still appears to be a one taken on the shady side. Oh well.

We got plenty of daylight left, so we drove to the Emerald Lake after the hoodoos. Since it was slightly windy, there weren’t any great shots to be had to show the whole lake, not that the air was that clear either. We found our way to Peaceful Pond, and found a much better opportunity there.

We still did the whole trip round the Emerald Lake, and my feet were feeling it. I think I got a blister… and my hiking boots normally never chafe!

We felt like we’ve deserved a proper dinner, but the one we got served was just too much. Can’t believe the size of the portions here…

Oh yes, and I’m also too tired to spell check my posts, so no nitpicking, ok?

Early in the morning, we headed east from Vancouver towards the Glacier National Park. No problems with the driving, and we got there early enough. A disappointing factor is that there is a lot of smoke in the air, as there are some forest fires in the region. Without any rain, the smoke is going to be lingering around so the grand scenics will have to wait until the worst of the smoke disappears.

The day was mostly about driving and less about photography anyway, so I just got a snapshot nearby Roger’s Pass.

I’m using my Powerbook so I have no guarantees as to the colour and sharpness of the images I’m posting!