A blustery morning today had Cecil and I heading west to Banff National Park seeking shelter from the cold winds in it's mountainous surrounds. We only spent a couple of hours there as some of the usual haunts were unexpectedly closed and the wind spoiled some others.
We did manage to find some nice images including the main shot today showing Mt Rundle with ominous skies overhead. We spent some time watching a small herd of Rocky Mountain Sheep block the route along Lake Minnewanka Scenic drive, they were there for the road salt and not giving it up for anyone. It was a really enjoyable couple of hours with light traffic both ways thanks to the gap between tourist season and ski season. The weather was good throughout (for the time of year) and we explored much more than we shot today. Not the most exciting images overall but we enjoyed it all the same.
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With a couple of weeks at home on the menu, Cecil and I took a last look at the ice and snow around Banff today. We opted for the Banff area as kananaskis was holding at -19 with cloud and snow predicted to last all day.
It's good to have a change of venue so Banff was it, the predictions of -8 and snow free certainly helped the decision too. We first stopped off at Cascade Ponds but fresh snow covered everything and though we walked around a short while, there was nothing to catch our eye and we moved on. Next stop was Johnson Lake where I knew the outlet was going to give us something, including a repeat of a shot made earlier in winter. With a couple of images in the bag we continued on to Two Jack Lake and Lake Minnewanka but both were entirely snow covered and offered little. We were soon back in the truck and into the town of Banff where we headed to an overlook above Bow Falls. I'm glad to say we found some nice shots at the overlook, not great but nice and good enough to have us thinking about visiting again in different seasons. After the overview for Bow Falls we went down to the falls themselves, but these were also entirely frozen and snow covered. I did meet and have a chat with a guy from Liverpool near the falls but we moved on sans images. That disappointment saw us head out to Vermilion Lakes on the outskirts of town. With hot springs and sulphur pools, at least Vermilion would guarantee us a little open water. We spent time roaming the bulrush pools and shoreline finding a few images along the way, before setting up tripods for sunset. The cloud that had roamed around all day put a stop to any decent sunset images so we grabbed a few and called it a day. It will be fantastic to be home with family again by tomorrow morning, we're both ready for a bit of home. Escaping the ice and snow is just a bonus, though I'm sure it will be here waiting for us when we get back.......... Cecil and I took a ride out to Lake Minnewanka and Johnson Lake in search of a change of scenery last week. I confess much of the scenery around here looks the same in winter but we tried.
Johnson Lake is located at the south end of Banff National Park off the circular road that leads to lake minnewanka . On arrival we found it almost completely iced over but one small pool remained liquid, close to an outlet stream. The stream itself looked like a great option for a few images but turned out not to be so. The small pool at the outlet did produce a nice reflection of the Fairholme Range that lies to the east which provides the main shot for today. We stopped at Two Jack lake briefly but it was full of people ice skating, lovely to see but not the best thing for landscape photography. We continued on to lake minnewanka where we found some great ice chandeliers along the shoreline which saved the day. I've captioned the gallery today to show which location is which. With Cecil heading off on holiday tomorrow we decided to get a day in with the camera gear before he left. With an early finish required for his birthday celebrations we opted for the shores of Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park.
Along the way we called in at Cascade Ponds where we found some nice images with a walk around the largest lake before heading to Lake Minnewanka. Lake Minnewanka is a stunning location with turquoise blue water held captive by towering mountains and a man made dam on the western end. There are still quite a few tourists around so finding a quiet place to make our shots was not easy but we picked our way along the western shoreline just south of the dam where opportunity usually awaits. The main image below is of a lichen covered rock on the shore of Lake Minnewanka illuminated by dappled light breaking through the trees behind the camera. Across the lake Mt Astley stands most prominent with Mt Girouard creeping in from the right. The gallery below has captions to help you follow along. The spring like weather continued today (as long as you stayed out of the wind) so I took full advantage of it by heading out to Banff National Park with Cecil to shoot around Lake Minnewanka and Vermillion Lake. The skies were clearer than yesterday with bright blue backgrounds behind large grey clouds. It was a great day roaming but would probably have felt better for Cec if he hadn't had his shoe sucked from his foot by the freezing mud of Vermillion Lake. I think it was made better by us watching another guy do the same, then as we laughed and talked with that guy another one came along and lost a shoe too (he was less amused and simply said "that's it for me tonight" and hobbled off the ice with one shoe on and just a sock on the other foot) Very entertaining for me, the only dry footed guy out of four.
The main shot below is of the sun striking the boathouse at Lake Minnewanka (now closed for winter) with Mt Inglismaldie behind. The gallery has simple captions just to show where the shots are taken.....11 different shots of the same mountain, is it overkill? |
AuthorWe arrived in Calgary, Canada on 29th December 2011 to continue our journey. This blog is intended to keep our family and friends informed whilst we explore Canada.You can use the RSS feed below to stay updated. Categories
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