Blog
Epiphany
Exploration of Alberta, Canada’s Rockies and largest city Calgary.
Seven minute read:
The Canadian Rockies
Lake and waterfall galore
Wildlife
The journey begins with a series of fortunate events
View of Banff from Sulphur Mountain at golden hour | composite, 21mm, 1/100s, f/11, iso 125
299 Miles: Glacier to Calgary
Kalispell, Montana | 48°18'27.0"N 114°15'12.2"W
The few lights of the border crossing at Roosville disappeared in the mirror of our 4Runner rental just after midnight. Since landing at FCA – Glacier International Airport in Kalispell Montana - one hour before and traversing into Alberta, CA we focused on finding somewhere to stay.
Final approach to FCA airport (Glacier Park International, Montana) marks the start of a Canadian Rockies trip | Google Pixel 7 Pro
Surprise number 1.
Thirty minutes earlier – before complete darkness occurred about 11 pm - I had seen a moose with her two calves grazing on the roadside. I had never seen moose before, but it was on the bucket list. My expectations of seeing one over the next 10 days had been both sanguine and restrained, so I left feeling energized. This was a positive omen for our trip.
A wildfire hotspot on the hill west of Sparwood | Google Pixel 7 Pro
Surprise number 2.
At 1 am, while passing through the village of Sparwood, we saw hotspots of forest fire on the east facing slopes to our left, about a kilometer away. Not raging infernos as I had imagined from the regular reports of Canadian fires earlier in the summer, but quiet, amorphous red-orange flickering blobs. It was difficult to understand the scale because of the distance and darkness. There were fire fighting vehicles on the service road where I pulled off to try to get a cell phone photo. This time it felt eerie and foreboding, the total opposite of before.
Around 2 am, having being told at a dozen motels ‘no vacancy’ – for reasons we could not figure – we decided to keep on trucking to our reserved room in Calgary. That was a vestige of our original travel plans just 48 hours earlier before I realized Kate’s passport had recently expired. To make our journey to Banff and Jasper happen we would have to drive across the boundary with two passports and one birth certificate.
I awoke to this pre-dawn view of the Aurora Borealis from the Cowboy Trail | Google Pixel 7 Pro
Surprise number 3.
Around 2:30 am, thoroughly exhausted, we pulled onto a pull-off lane of Highway 22 “Cowboy Trail” northbound to take a nap. With the engine and lights off the air was utterly still and totally dark. At 3:15 I woke to the high speed woosh of a passing truck, still tired but after several minutes, awake and feeling refreshed enough to continue. Then I looked up for the first time, thinking I saw the first signs of dawn on the horizon. But after rubbing my eyes thoroughly and a moment of confusion, realized it was not astronomical twilight before us, but the northern lights. This time I felt exhilaration. I had no expectation for seeing the Northern Lights in 2023. Our latitude was a lowly 49°52'. But the time and the conditions of the magnetosphere that particular day proved to be serendipitous.
Calgary
Calgary, Alberta | 51°02'41.2"N 114°03'11.3"W
Kate uses her first SLR camera at Calgary’s National Music Centre museum (aka Studio Belle) | 14mm, 1/80s, f/7.1, iso 100
Moraine Lake
Banff National Park | 51.3217° N 116.1860° W
Mid-morning light drapes across the peaks east of Moraine Lake | 30mm, 1/80s, f/14, iso 160
The turquoise water of Moraine Lake viewed from The Rockpile | 23mm, 1/100s, f/10, iso 100
Canoers on Moraine Lake | 472mm, 1/400s, f/10, iso 320
An American Pika (Ochotona princeps) smiles for the camera | 500mm, 1/1000s, f/7.1, iso 320
Mount Edith Cavell
Jasper National Park | 52°40'06.0"N 118°03'24.0"W
Ancient layers of ice and glacial till rise beyond Cavell Pond | 100mm, 1/100s, f/9.0, iso 100
The trailhead seat and sign | 23mm, 1/80s, f/6.3, iso 100
Green lichens (living) and gray (dead) cover the rock outcrops throughout the meadows | 500mm, 1/125s, f/7.1, iso 100
Angel Glacier and Mount Edith Cavell | composite, 23mm, 1/50s, f/14, iso 100
Ice, abstracted | 472mm, 1/250s, f/9.0, iso 100
Mistaya Canyon
Icefields Parkway | 51°57'01.0"N 116°43'00.0"W
The Mistaya torrent rushes through narrow canyon walls toward the North Saskatchewan River | 35mm, 1/20s, f/13, iso 100
A subalpine forest of Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) | 42mm, 1/40s, f/9.0, iso 160
A Columbian Ground Squirrel standing sentry next to his burrow beneath a picnic shelter (Urocitellus columbianus) | 472mm, 1/1000s, f/7.1, iso 5000
Lake Louise
Banff National Park | 51°24'42.0"N 116°13'41.0"W
Lake Louise is a magnet for activity at sunset | 23mm, 1/25s, f/22, iso 100
Dining at the Fairmont Lake Louise | Google Pixel 7 Pro
A cantilevered trail through nearby Johnston Canyon | 31mm, 1/30s, f/13, iso 100
Moss in the tree canopy | 254mm, 1/40s, f/8.0, iso 100
Banff
Banff National Park | 51°09'53.1"N 115°33'46.7"W
Photo op in the Cascade of Time Garden with downtown Banff in the background | 25mm, 1/320s, f/8.0, iso 320
Gondolas arrive at the summit of Sulphur Mountain above Banff | 27mm, 1/80s, f/9.0, iso 200
O Canada | 25mm, 1/100s, f/10, iso 100
Brown and Black Bears are not uncommon in the Canadian Rockies | 35mm, 1/80s, f/4.0, iso 100
Orange lichens adorn a white rock at Cave and Basin National Historic Site | 19mm, 1/20s, f/4.0, iso 1000
A sulfurous pool at Cave and Basin National Historic Site in Banff | 19mm, 1/10s, f/4.0, iso 2500
Rotten eggs were on the menu at this hot spring | 35mm, 1/25s, f/20, iso 100
Park Canada distance signage | 123mm, 1/320s, f/8.0, iso 100
Canoers on Lake Minnewanka | 100mm, 1/500s, f/10, iso 160
Hotel view | Google Pixel 7 Pro
Jasper
Jasper National Park | 52°53'09.1"N 118°03'27.2"W
An American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) among elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) foliage | 451mm, 1/250s, f/7.1, iso 100
Pyramid Mountain as seen from a group canoe, Lake Beauvert at Fairmont Jasper Park | Google Pixel 7 Pro
Horseback riding through a birch grove | Google Pixel 7 Pro
Rounded river stones in a point bar of the Athabasca River | 35mm, 1/50s, f/10, iso 100
Athabasca Falls | 14mm, 1/50s, f/20, iso 100
Horseshoe Lake, one of many stops along Icefields Parkway | 25mm, 1/100s, f/14, iso 100
Peyto Lake in late afternoon | 22mm, 1/100s, f/16, iso 100
Music used to create this post: Black Muddy River (DeYarmond Edison), Scott Street (Phoebe Bridgers), So Now You Know (The Horrors), Jetstream (Doves), Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd)