Canadian Rockies & Lakes Part 1
I was fortunate enough to go to Canada in the summer where I witness some of the most breathtakingly beautiful sights I’ve yet experienced! What a truly outstanding place it is. I hope you’ll agree with me that there are some real marvels of creation in this vast land.
Close to the top of the list has to be Lake Louise. I’ll never forget the first impression I got when I walked to the edge of the lake for the first time, looked to my left, and my eyes feasted on this sumptuous view:
In fact having experienced this for myself, I started observing everyone that walked down the same pathway as I had as they came down to the lake. I carefully watched their faces as one after the other, they looked to the left, appreciated what they were beholding, drew breath and, as if reading from a script, everyone said “WOW”. I think “Wow” must be an international term, as people from the far east, the middle east, various parts of Europe, and indeed from all over the world, came out with the same expression time after time, irrespective of the language they spoke. Here another image from Lake Louise.
Another incredibly beautiful place is Maligne (pronounced Maleen) Lake, with the world famous Spirit Island at the far end of the lake, but in the middle of my photo below.
You can only get to see the awe inspiring vista by boat, as its a very long way down this long and narrow lake. Behind Spirit Island is a part of the lake that’s called “The Hall of the Gods”… what an name, what a place!
Here’s another view if Spirit Island from the side. Notice how beautifully the trees are “rim lit” by the afternoon sun. Magical!
And before you say anything, yes the colour of the lake is that colour! It’s because of the fine particles of “glacial flour” ( the fine particles of rock that are ground down as the glacier moves down the mountain) that wash into all lakes that are fed by glacial melt water causing the lake to take on this amazing turquoise colour.
Our return from Lake Maligne took us past Medicine Lake.
Some strange things happen here though! The water in the lake disappears during
the autumn! This is due to porous rocks & tunnels beneath the lake that
allows the water to drain away, only to fill up again the following spring as
the snows melt. But how lovely it is when its full of water!
The lodge we stayed in in Jasper was on the banks of the Athabasca river, we would often hear the shouts and screams of people doing white water rafting as they sped past the lodge. One evening though the sunset was truly glorious, so while everyone else was playing cards, I was out taking this sort of photo:
A few days later I returned and ventured across the Rockies in to Britsh Columbia (BC), it was interesting that all the BC car number plates had the tag line “The most beautiful place on earth” at the bottom. How true that is! The first thing I noticed about the colour of the water in the streams on the other side of the “divide” (where the streams flow down towards the Pacific to the west, while on the east side of the Rockies (the Alberta side) they flow towards the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans), was that it was so much lighter in colour. The streams and waterfalls had a very pale whitish hue that made them quite distinctive. The Marble Canyon probably had the most colourful rocks of all the falls that I saw there, what you you think?
Can you see what looks like the profile of a mans head looking left at the top of the photo above? You can even make out his “hair style” pretty smart hey?
It was actually very tricky getting these above images, as I had to balance my camera very precariously over the edge of the railings on the bridges. It also seemed very dark 15 or so metres down to where the water rushed through, in comparison the the bright sunny conditions above, but I’ve managed to get the very best out of the colours in the water and the rocks. At the top of the Marble Canyon, you can see exactly what I meant by the light colour of the water in the next photo, this is probably one of my absolute favourites!
The silky look of the water belies the ferocity with which it flowed! Another strickingly impressive waterfall was a few miles further into BC, where the rock formations were so different, yet just as beautful.
Again, I managed to capture this with a slow shutter speed, making the water almost look like a mist rolling down. In fact, the roar of the water as it rushed past was almost deafening.
Well that’s it for Part One, I hope you got a feel for the beauty of the Rockies. More will follow soon.