And now for the exciting conclusion to the Canadian Rockies in Winter adventure! This post covers the Lake Louise and Banff area. In my previous post, I left off at the point where we rejoined the photography tour at Lake Louise. While it wasn’t as cold as the first half, it was still darned cold most of the time. The lows ranged from -18 °C to -28 °C (-4 °F to -18 °F), while the highs remained around -11 °C (12 °F). And as usual, wind and cloud cover made a big difference in how cold it felt.
If you haven’t yet read posts 1 and 2 of this adventure, follow the links below:
Lake Louise
In the early morning of our first day at Lake Louise, we went to the lake to photograph. The weather did not cooperate. The sky was overcast and gloomy prior to sunrise. During and after sunrise, the clouds broke up a little, but there was no color in the sky, just bland clouds. Below are three photographs from that morning.
Castle Mountain
For the afternoon, we drove southeast for a bit. Our first stop was at Morant’s Curve hoping to catch a train on the tracks. No luck today. Then we went further to a spot along the Bow River to photograph sunset at Castle Mountain. This turned out quite good. The mottled light on the mountains was very nice, plus we had some interesting ice shapes in the foreground to work with.
My main regret at this spot was that I left my neutral density filters in the hotel, so I couldn’t smooth the water as much as I hoped. Still, it was pretty good overall.
Emerald Lake
The next morning would be another very early start. To get to the shooting location at Emerald Lake, it was a 30-minute drive west of our hotel. The views here were quite stunning in their peacefulness and solitude. The first photo below is looking down a finger of the lake towards a small bridge before sunrise. The snow and ice were quite pretty, and the surface of the water was still, making for good reflections.
Turning around, still on this finger of the lake, there was a picturesque building with a nice warm light to include in the compositions. It was really quite tranquil and pretty. Two compositions of this scene are shown below emphasizing different foreground elements.
As the morning progressed, the light kept changing, highlighting interesting clouds and creating nice light reflections on the surface of the water.
Morant's Curve
Around mid-day, we returned to Morant’s Curve. Today was nicer that the previous day. The day was a little warmer because more sunlight came through. Yet there were still great clouds around the mountains. Instead of staying up by the road, a few of us hiked down the slope to the train tracks. Our goal was to get to the river below.
The return trip, hiking up the slope, was pretty difficult since we had to slog through snow about 1 1/2 feet deep up a steep grade. It was the classic, two steps up, 1 step back kind of deal. For the first time, I actually broke out in a sweat. But as we were nearing the road, we heard a train whistle! Quickly, we got to the top and got our cameras ready.
And then the train arrived. It turned out to be quite a long train giving us many opportunities to get photographs. The photo below is my favorite.
But it was down by the river 20-minutes earlier where I got the best shot of the day. In fact, I consider it my best shot of the entire trip. The river was flowing, but a wide sheet of ice extended out for perhaps 40 feet from the bank. As you walked on the ice, a top surface layer about 1/4 inch thick would continually crack. Underneath the surface layer was thicker ice of unknown depth.
About 20-feet out from the bank, I spotted a field of ice crystals sitting on the surface that looked somewhat like a field of flowers. I knew I wanted to get a composition with the mountains in the background, and those ice crystals in the foreground. So, scooting on my posterior, I slowly slid out to them wondering if the ice would hold.
The entire time I was photographing, I could hear ice cracking all around. I really had no idea whether I would end up plunging into ice cold water, or whether I would get back to the bank safely. Fortunately, it turned out that I would not go swimming that day. I will be debuting “Ice Flowers”, a new fine art print soon.
Banff
After Morant’s Curve, we continued south to Banff and checked into the last hotel. During the afternoon, we went out to a small park with stunning mountains all around. Then, a short distance away, we found a herd of Elk.
Too bad my wife and I couldn’t stay longer. Unfortunately, because we had rented the car in Red Deer, we would need to pack this night and leave early in the morning to catch our flight home.
Return to St. George
In the morning, we got up and out of the hotel room at 5 a.m., drove 2 hours to Red Deer to return the car, then caught a shuttle bus for another 2-hour ride to the airport to check-in for our flight. We were at the airport early relative to our flight, so there was time to wait.
Our flight ended up delayed because all the planes needed de-icing before takeoff. It was actually exciting to see, since it was the first time I was on a plane where it needed de-icing. Although waiting is never fun, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise because we would get to Las Vegas just after dark.
From the airplane window we saw a nice glow just after sunset from above the clouds somewhere over Utah. Then, about 20-minutes before landing, I noticed a bright point of light in the sky and what looked like a huge tail behind it out the window. While trying to figure out what it was, the steward excitedly started telling everyone to look out the windows.
It turned out to be a SpaceX rocket launch to place a couple dozen new satellites in orbit for the StarLink constellation. The rocket came and went in just about 5 minutes, although the tail lasted longer, and I would not have seen it if the plane had not been delayed.
Finally, we arrived at home sweet home around midnight. It was so warm!
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