Fall at its Best in the Canadian Rockies

Dad and I pulled into Calgary to wait for better weather, and to buy Dad a new camera, since his old camera was malfunctioning. Calgary is a big city and negotiating through traffic with our big van (23ftX8.5ft) was challenging. But we found a new camera for Dad in downtown Calgary. Then we headed west, back towards the mountains, and stayed at a hotel right outside the Calgary Olympic center.

In 1988 the Jamaican Bobsled team made its debut on the course in Calgary. The Four Seasons hotel where we stayed in had a picture on the wall of the original Jamaican Bobsled team posing with the hotel manager.

We left Calgary, looking for some nice weather and headed back towards Banff, and the national park. However the weather did not look too good west of us up in the mountains, so we turned north along the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. In order to travel as close to the mountains as possible, we used logging roads; however after traveling down the logging roads for a few miles we determined that they were too bumpy for the RV, so we headed back east for the paved roads.

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Below is an image from the logging roads (Canada 40) looking west towards the east slope of the Canadian Rockies. At the spot where I took this picture we met a Czechoslovakian guy and a South African guy who were out hunting for bears.
This is a long Panorama, remember to Scroll to see it all--->

After we cut east to the pavement, the Rockies dropped out of sight. Also the weather began to move in. We continued north and west zigging and zagging on a series of paved roads, and we stopped in the town of Rocky Mountain House for lunch at Boston Pizza. Boston Pizza is a chain restaurant in Canada. Every time I have ever eaten at Boston Pizza the service has been excellent, and the food has been outstanding, and Pizza is just the tip of a very large and complete menu that has many different entrees. After Rocky Mountain House we turned west toward the mountains on the "David Thomas" highway (Canada 11).

We camped for the evening 10 miles west of Rocky Mountain House. The weather had deteriorated to rain, and the road ahead promised to have some spectacular views. So we stopped at Crimson Lake provencal campground, and decided to continue our drive the next day.

The next morning started out cloudy and drizzling. How long do you have to wait for good weather in Canada? We continued to drive west to the town of Nordegg and had breakfast. Nordegg is a nice little remote mountain town in the foothills to the eastern slope of the Canadian Rockies. Many dirt bikers, and hunters on ATV's like to hang out in Nordegg. We also noticed that many of the pickup trucks had grill blockers, that severely limited the amount of air that is allowed to flow over the radiators. This indicated to me that it gets real cold in Nordegg during the winter. We were there on Sept 23, and the snow level was just 120ft (50M) or so above town.

We stopped turned off the main road to go up to a waterfall (Crescent Falls), because, when its raining, waterfalls make excellent photographic subjects. Crescent Falls were about 7 Kilometers north of the main road (5miles), Below is an image of the falls.

There is also a nice canyon just downstream of these falls; however we did not have the correct weather to properly photograph it.

We continued west of the David Thomas Highway (Canada 11) until we reached lake Abraham Lake, there the weather started to break, and some of the peaks began to emerge from the clouds.

Below is a picture of Mount Michener (2337M). As it began to break from the clouds, I thought it looked a lot like Mt. Everest.

Mount Michener is in Alberta's' Bighorn Wild Land Provencal Recreation Area
I Highly recommend clicking on the above image to see the larger version, because the pine trees become visible, and provide a sense of scale, illustrating the grandeur of Mt. Michener.

Being a graduate student of geology, I have an interest in folded, thrusted, and overturned rock beds. So I could not resist shooting the panorama below, which was at the same pullout overlooking lake Abraham, looking in the opposite direction of where I shot the above image of Mt. Michener.
This is a long Panorama, remember to Scroll to see it all--->


Below is an image of a peak above a small cove of lake Abraham. We were finally finding the fall colors we had been looking for. Our waitress back at Boston Pizza in Rocky Mountain House said that the David Thomas Highway (Canada 11) would knock our socks off. I think she was right.


Below is another look across an arm of Abraham Lake. Abraham lake was so scenic that we vowed to return when the mountains were out of the clouds.

This image of Abraham Lake was shot within the Kootenay Plains Wildlife Protection Area

The clouds were a little thicker once we crossed into Banff National Park on the David Thompson Highway, then we turned south on the Ice House Road and drove to the top of Bow Pass the highest road in the park at 6,850ft or (2088M), where we found that it had been snowing. We turned and drove to up the Peyto Lake viewpoint, and hiked down to the overlook, on an icy trail.

I really like all of the different shades of cyan seen in the reflections and shadows on the surface of the lake.

Below is another image of Peyto Lake, I included this image to show the snow depth on the ground. I know that we were searching for fall, but in the process we found a little bit of winter.

The Date the above image was recorded was Sept 23, 2007 at about 4:00PM.

Dad and I wanted to catch Monday Night Football and watch the Dallas Cowboys play. We drove out to Canada 1, and turned west over the continental divide an Kicking Horse Pass, and through Yoho National Park, and stayed in Golden B.C.... We stayed in the same hotel as we did the last time we were in Golden, but this time we ordered Pizza to eat while watching the game, since we had such a bad experience at the restaurant there. It was a good night, the Cowboys won.

The next day we woke up and there was a thick band of clouds near the ground; however, every time there was a small break in the clouds I could see clear blue overhead. It took me a while to convince dad that it would be a great day if we could just get above the low clouds, but once I did, we were off, and this turned out to be a spectacular 300+ picture day for both of us. Yoho national park was in the clouds, but as we gained altitude into Banff National Park, the weather rapidly improved.

I stopped the van and took a short hike down to this lake. The biggest challenge in this shot was keeping Sport the dog both out of the shot, and out of the water (so he didn't create reflection killing ripples). The Clouds were lifting indicating that there was a good weather day ahead!
This is a long Panorama, remember to Scroll to see it all--->

Below is another image of the same lake that is in the image above.

The Image below is from the place in Banff National Park on Icefields Parkway where we first found Fall; however with clear blue sky's above the mountains impressive peaks become more evident than they were a 10 days before when we first photographed this scene.
This is a long Panorama, remember to Scroll to see it all--->

The fall colors were also brighter and peaking during this visit.

We continued north through Banff National Park, and back into upper Jasper National Park. We stopped at the Columbia Glacier Lodge for lunch. The Columbia Ice Field is always a exceptional scene to photograph.
This is a long Panorama, remember to Scroll to see it all--->


After lunch, we drove back south again on Icefields Parkway and returned to Banff National Park, where we found more fall colors below the steep high cliffs with spiraling mountain tops.
This is a long Panorama, remember to Scroll to see it all--->


We continued south on Icefields Parkway, then turned east on the David Thompson Highway and back into the Kootenay Flats Wildlife Preserve to revisit lake Abraham.

In the image below, I setup to take a picture of the fall trees and Abraham Lake, and a group of dahl sheep just happened to walk into the frame as I was ready to shoot.


Below is another look at Lake Abraham from a bridge crossing a small arm of the lake on the David Thompson Highway
This is a long Panorama, remember to Scroll to see it all--->



Below is a third image of Abraham Lake in Kootenay Flats Plains Wildlife Preserve off the David Thompson Highway near Banff National Park in Alberta Canada. In this image there is a lot of changing fall trees. This may be the among the most expansive and intense fall views we encountered the entire trip.
This is a long Panorama, remember to Scroll to see it all--->


We turned around and took the David Thompson Highway back into Banff National Park, and then headed south for Lake Louise. We stopped along the way where photo opportunities presented themselves.


The image below was captured no more than 100 yards away from the image above, but looking in the opposite direction. I liked the look up through the red aspen trees at the peak.


Snowy Banff mountains across a deep blue lake, what's not to like?
This is a long Panorama, remember to Scroll to see it all--->


We returned to Lake Louise, and spent $100 to fill the tank on the RV. Then we returned to Moraine Lake which is always a spectacular photographic subject.
This is a long Panorama, remember to Scroll to see it all--->

The mountains at the far right of this image are normally the focus for photographers on Moraine Lake; but, I decided to do something different and show 180deg + of the lake in this panorama.
It was a very cold windy day that did not allow for reflections to be captured in the surface of the lake. My hands were very chilly after photographing this image.
We inquired about staying in the Moraine Lake lodge, but we decided that $327 a night was just too much to pay for a night of lodging even at a location as nice as this.

We continued south into Banff National Park on Canada 1 heading for Canmore Alberta, where some more reasonable lodging could be found.

Canada 1 Between Banff and Canmore has some excellent late afternoon views
This is a long Panorama, remember to Scroll to see it all--->


The next image is from the south eastern edge of Banff National Park and shot from Canada 1, I call this image "Flat Iron City". Never before have I seen so many flat irons in a single scene.
This is a long Panorama, remember to Scroll to see it all--->

Just a reminder, you can click on any image to see it in higher resolution (make sure automatic image resizing is turned off on your internet browser). The Detail in this image is very nice when seen in the higher resolution.

We stayed the night in Canmore where we found a huge suite for a reasonable price, and we dined at Boston Pizza which never disappoints. The first 15 images above were all captured on the same day. I don't think I have ever had a single day where I have captured 15 nice print quality images before. A good day in Banff and Jasper National Parks is worth waiting for, and is as photographically rewarding for a landscape photographer, as any place on Earth.

From Canmore we decided to drive Canada 40 south along the east side of the Rocky Mountains. We stopped at Kananaskis Country Golf Course that advertised that they had a restaurant that was open to the public. Kananaskis Country Golf Course has got to be one of the most scenic golf courses in the world, also the food in the restaurant was excellent, and the prices were very reasonable for Canada.


Below is an image on Canada 40, of a mountain with flat irons with some nice fall colors below.

Below is an image of a conifer that has needles that turn yellow in the fall. This image was captured on top of Kananaskis Pass at 7750ft (2362M) on Canada Route 40 south.


After the pass we drove east down out of the mountains and onto the plains. We passed a town called "Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump". We turned south again and eventually linked up with Canada 6, which we drove through Wateron Lake National Park.

The image below is of Chief Joseph Mountain in Montana; however it was shot from within Wateron Lakes National Park in Canada.


Next time we return to the United States to chase the fall colors of the Rockies in...
Glacier National Park, Montana
Bear Tooth Pass, Montana
Dead Indian Pass, Wyoming
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
The Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming
Flaming George National Recreation Area, Utah
Dinosaur National Monument, Utah and Colorado
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
Kebeler Pass, Colorado
The San Juan Mountains, Colorado
Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
Canyon De Chile National Monument, Arizona
Silver City, New Mexico
Sierra Blanca, New Mexico
The Guadeloupe Mountains National Park, Texas

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