Banff Stickers

Canada, Banff National Park. August, 2014

mountain

You know it's going to be a good morning when you get to your sunrise spot 45 minutes early to set up for a workshop and the sky is already pink. You know it's an even better morning when you have to talk about ways to avoid oversaturation of oranges and pinks because it's such a vivid sunrise!

My original plan when I picked up a workshop participant at 3am was to head to Bow Lake to capture the Milky Way in pitch-black skies; however, after watching the northern lights dancing in front of us for the whole drive from Banff, we decided to head up to the Bow Summit (where there is a clear view to the north) instead. This is what we were greeted with -- dancing greens and purples and lights pulsing across the entire sky. I think it was the right choice!

MORAINE LAKE - Rocky Mountains Canada Sunrise glow.

I'm not sure if I will ever find a road I love more than the Icefields Parkway (although the Spray Lakes Rd/Smith Dorrien in the Kananaskis comes a close second). I find a new angle on the mountains every time I drive it, and fortunately in winter, you can stand in the middle of the road for quite a while before a car passes by!

MORAINE LAKE - Rocky Mountains Canada Sunset.

When we passed 7,000ft on our way uphill to the Larch Valley, the green pine trees started to give way to the gold of larches. The view of them stretching into the distance with the mountains behind was something else!

From about halfway up the C-Level Cirque track on the side of Banff's Cascade Mountain, we found a lookout with my favourite view of the day. While Lake Minnewanka is gorgeous to visit, its waters are often rough; this angle smoothed them out as well as showing just how large the lake really is!

No matter what time of year, the view from Morant's Curve is stunning, with the mixture of natural (the mountains, the Bow River) and the manmade (the train tracks). The frame of golden aspens in late September just makes it even moreso.

On Tuesday morning, I was lucky enough to make it to the Moraine Lake Road entrance just after the road was opened for the season. I arrived at the lake to find I was only the third car parked in the parking lot! It was fantastic exploring around the Rockpile in the wintry conditions, and it proved that Moraine Lake is well worth visiting even when the water isn't shining brightly blue like it does later in the summer!

A few last plants doing their best to fight their way out from under the early season snow at Lake Louise. This is such a gorgeous time of year -- the lake, while not its signature bright blue, was still a lovely turquoise, a colour that was brought out nicely by the white snow all along its shoreline!

While snow covered the majority of Johnson Lake and kept it hidden from view on this visit in mid-February, a small unfrozen area gave a little window into what was hiding underneath the winter wonderland!

An illustration of the valley of the ten Peaks, with the rocky mountains reflecting in the water of Moraine Lake. A landscape illustration for people who love to explore in the mountains of Banff National Park.

Winter reflections can't be beaten, partially because of the stunning landscape they reflect, and partially because they are so rare! Luckily this area of Lake Louise often has a small area of open water, and this afternoon in late January was the perfect time to be there.

Emerald Lake, Alberta, Canada

A small side road off the Icefields Parkway, meandering off towards a campsite that was closed (as everything on the Parkway is at this time of year). There was the perfect amount to pepper the roadside and mountains while still leaving the road clear for easy driving.

The huge rock faces of Sundance Canyon, towering high above the small stream below. Such a short hike from the town of Banff but it seems so far away!

I made two trips to Jasper in September, and on both trips, I needed to be in Jasper at a certain time so I wasn't able to dawdle along the Icefields Parkway like I usually do. It's a travesty to drive the Parkway without stopping though, and I found that on both trips, I made one photo stop: at Mount Chephren and the Waterfowl Lakes. Both times presented me with completely different scenes; the first was a smoky sunset, and the second was this gorgeous, foggy scene just after sunrise.

Can you see the person standing on the edge and enjoying the view? He's so hard to pick in the seemingly never-ending landscape of trees and mountains stretching out beyond the Bow Summit. I never get sick of this lookout because it seems to change every time I visit -- in the time I've lived in Canada, the lake has morphed from milky green to blue to white!

It doesn't get much better than going to somewhere that is packed during the day and finding it completely deserted for sunrise. I had the entire Bow Summit lookout to myself for much of this morning, and that made it feel even more special when the peaks all started to glow in orange, their reflection in the water below. Sure, the water is a brighter blue at midday, but this is truly the way to see Peyto Lake.

Even though the moon disappeared behind Mount Fairview, the view across Lake Louise on this night was just unreal. The full moon lit up swirling clouds at the end of the lake as its turquoise waters lapped at the rocks at our feet -- and the best thing was, our group was one of the few to witness it after the daytime crowds disappeared completely at sunset. To get the full effect of the moving clouds, I shot for 3 minutes; hence the faint star trails you can see above.

Add some fun and beauty to your home with this traveler poster design or give it as the perfect gift!

I went to Morant's Curve early one afternoon looking to capture a timelapse that perhaps featured a train. 45 minutes later, no trains had passed, but in that time, this cloud crossed the entire sky -- just a single streak with hardly a cloud around it. It was truly unbelievable to watch...and very exciting because I managed to capture the entire traversal in my timelapse, which you can watch at https://vimeo.com/202296789.

The Larch Valley track, which climbs to 8,000ft above Moraine Lake and the Valley of the Ten Peaks, is one of the most popular hikes in Banff National Park in autumn. It's no wonder, since the pine trees turn to golden larches as soon as you hit 7,000ft and you're absolutely surrounded in autumn colour. What a place!

I headed out from Cave & Basin with a small group of fellow hikers on an overcast morning, but by the time we made it to this spot on the Bow River, the weather had turned. The river was calm, Cascade Mountain was white with fresh snow, and the sun was warm. Perfection!

Snow and ice battling to cover the Bow River at Lake Louise in mid-November. It did eventually win in sections of the river, but the Bow was still flowing strong on this day. The thing I noticed most in this scene was how the snow covered the rocks on the island, turning what would have been pristine, flat snow into white blobs all along the riverbank.

What a day this was. We started by hiking 10km through Paradise Valley to the stunning Giant Steps -- a place that was worth every step of those 10km to reach. From there, we climbed over Sentinel Pass, reaching the top right around the time a blizzard bore down on the area. As we made our way down the (much easier) path down the other side of Sentinel Pass, the larches peppered gold across the Larch Valley below while the Ten Peaks stood imposingly behind. Having spent the day surrounded by breathtaking scenery, I wouldn't say it was a sight for sore eyes -- I think it's a better description to say it was a sight for sore feet!

Golden hour in any part of the world makes everything look just that little bit more beautiful. Golden hour in the mountains is spectacular and seems to make for completely different scenes every few minutes as the light catches different parts of the mountains. This is one such scene, with the craggy slopes of Mount Rundle, covered with a recent snowfall, lighting up in pure gold.

Flashback to late October when Bow Lake was just beginning to freeze. The -13ºC temps that morning made the open water steam like crazy, creating an absolutely stunning scene for golden hour. It was one of those scenes that, for the 1000th time in 2017, made me appreciate how lucky I am to live so close to the mountains.

I woke up on the last official day of summer in Banff National Park to a winter wonderland. Even though the snow all melted by noon, it was fun while it lasted! I captured this image of the mountains surrounding Lake Minnewanka as the mist started to clear around mid-morning.

Doesn't this look like a scene right out of a Christmas card? Lake Louise was gorgeous under a blanket of late October snow. I love early season snows that pepper the trees in white while the lakes are still unfrozen!

Canadian Rockies, Icefields Parkway beautiful fresh mountain stream.

While much of the rest of the Icefields Parkway felt more like autumn than winter, the Bow Summit didn't quite fall into that category. We had to plow through a bit of snow just to park and then were treated to a winter wonderland of frosted trees and snowy tracks on our way up to the Peyto Lake viewpoint. It was one of the highlights of our drive!

Wow! What a difference a month makes. When I visited the Bow Summit in September, the peaks had just received their first dusting of snow. A month later, we hiked through the snow just to get to the lookout, and the snow on the slopes below it made for a perfect spot to have a winter picnic and enjoy the amazing views.

Gorgeous reflections of summer on the Bow River in Banff. Who would have thought that only weeks before this river was in flood?