Canada 2007

Welcome to my abbreviated journal from my current Canadian Rockies trip, which took place between June 16 and July 15. For the first two weeks, I traveled with my photo buddy, Rick Dunn, and his wife, Jennifer. From then on, I went solo.

Updating my site during a trip is a first for me, and is pretty darn cool! I'll try to update this frequently, while also trying to have at least one picture displayed for each day. So, we'll see how this goes. My laptop display is not calibrated and can be difficult to process pictures, so some of them aren't displayed as best as they can be and will be corrected for the final trip report. I hope you still enjoy the content!

Be sure to take a look at Rick's amazing collection from the trip here.

The following are some notes from the road followed by the pictures:

7/15 update
And so, 30 days on the road concludes and I am back home. What another great trip! There are so many more pictures than what I have listed here, but be sure to keep tuning back for further updates to this story.

7/8 update
Added Jennifer's grizzly picture for day 11

7/6 update
WOW! That was the word of the day yesterday when I utilized a very clear morning to take the Jasper Tramway to the top of Whistlers Mountain for the first time. There were a couple other days in the past week that may have worked as well, but it never came to be. Probably for the better. My main goal, or hope, was to see what Mt. Robson looks like from that perspective. Little did I know until during the seven-minute ride up that it is only visible from the top an average of 20 days a year, according to the tram tour guide! Granted, the tramway isn't operated in the winter months, but still. It was perfectly clear upon getting to the top, save for some clouds that were starting to build to the east. There was zero haze early on and Robson was a world-class, sparkling jewell; my eyes to never look away from it for very long. I walked the remaining distance to the summit of Whisters and spent the next, mosly windy, 5.5 hours there just taking it all in and constantly firing off pictures! Of course, the rest of the 360-degree view is quite spectacular as well, and personally, easily tops any 360 I've been treated to in Colorado—because of the far more dramatic mountains as well as the sheer number of them that are visible. Oh yeah, and glaciers and icefields, too! Don't have any of those at home, unfortunately. Definitely a trip highlight.

7/4 update
It's been pretty slow for picture-taking the last few days, though today's sunrise (picture above) was real good, and so close to being great if it weren't for some clouds to the east that prevented most of the alpenglow. At 5:50 AM, while I was shooting away in the marshy grounds of Leach Lake (prettier than it sounds!), right around 60 feet away, a sizeable black bear (# 4 of the trip) inaudibly approached on the road slightly above! I happened to turn around, as I did every so often to check my surroundings, and you can only imagine my surprise! Immediately after seeing him, he started a more direct pace up the opposite hillside, though still a casual walk. As a bit startled as I was to see him initially, surprisingly, my heart never jumped—well, at least not as much as I thought it would/should! Okay, that is enough excitement for the day! Gotta rest!

6/27 update
Wow! Earlier this morning, mostly during the midnight hour, I had the awesome experience of seeing the northern lights for the first time. While they are visible every now and again in Colorado, I've never made the effort to find a dark sky away from the Denver city lights. I was on the Mt. Edith Cavell Road near the end around midnight. I got out (mostly dark, but there was a bright moon behind Cavell), set up the tripod and put on the camera right next to the truck. Immediately, I hear this ruffling of the forest floor what seemed like 30 feet away next to the road! At this point, my adrenaline shoots up about 1000 points! I got in the truck, made some noise, started the engine, and decided to try to give it another go. No sooner did I get my hands on the camera again that the noise and the shuffling happened again—this time more pronounced! I'm pretty sure I heard a soft snort/breath, but I'm not sure. All I could think about was grizzly. Of course, yesterday morning Rick, Jennifer and myself were down at Cavell Lake shooting sunrise, which is a very short distance from where I was at now, and when we were done, they headed up the very short trail first and saw a big momma grizz and two good-sized cubs looking right at them! The bears continued down the road and Jennifer got a pretty nice picture of them (to be shown in my trip report when the time comes). Anyway, so back to trying to shoot the lights. I decided I wasn't going to play this game after two noises, so I headed down the road a few miles to tempt my fate there hoping the lights would last. They did, and I fired away a number more shots from a couple different locations. They weren't the dramatic green and red display I would've hoped for, as this one was only cyan in color, though I was still more than excited! After a 19.5-hour day yesterday without a nap, I didn't make it up for the clear-sky sunrise this morning. We'll see what tonight brings—hopefully no more forest sounds!

6/25 update
I put up a picture update page here. I'll try to update it as frequently as I can, and will try to display at least one picture from every day.

6/23 update
Checking in from the town of Jasper, AB. Currently enjoying a great time with much more favorable weather conditions than from my last trip up here. The first day we drove up to Beartooth Pass in Wyoming on the Montana border, then up to Glacier on the second day. On the third day, we drove up through Calgary, then west into the heart of the Canadian Rockies where the majority of the rest of the trip will be spent. Lots of pictures! I'll post another update as time allows.

Day 1: Sunset, Beartooth Pass, WY

Day 2: Sunrise, Beartooth Pass, WY

Day 3: Rick at Lake Sherburne, Glacier NP

Day 4: Sunrise, Moraine Lake, Banff NP

Day 5: Sunset, Bow River, Banff NP

Day 6: Sunrise, Moraine Lake, Banff NP

Day 6: North Saskatchewan River and Ram Range outside of Banff NP

Day 7: Peyto Lake, Banff NP

Day 8: Maligne Canyon, Jasper NP

Day 9: Sunset, Mt. Kerkeslin above the Athabasca River, Jasper NP

Day 10: Mt. Edith Cavell

Day 11: Grizzlies on Mt. Edith Cavell Road, Jasper NP
Photo courtesy of Jennifer Corwin

Day 11: Mt. Robson

Day 12: My first-ever experience seeing the northern lights! WOW!

Day 13: Panther Falls, Banff NP

Day 14: Mt. Edith Cavell sandwich, Jasper NP

Day 15: Rainbow on the Catacombs Mountain group
above the Athabasca River, Jasper NP

Day 16: Mt. Christie and Brussels Peak (far left) start the string
of mountains in this Athabasca River panorama, Jasper NP

Day 17: Mt. Edith Cavell and Cavell Lake

Day 18: Leach Lake sunrise attempt, Jasper NP—first day getting totally shutout

Day 19: Leach Lake sunrise, second attempt. Much better!
Mt. Fryatt's summit lies in the clouds on the far left;
Whirlpool Peak is the prominent one on the right

Day 20: Mt. Robson from Whistlers Mountain, Jasper, 75 KM (47 miles) away

Day 20: A wider view. The Yellowhead Highway, (HWY 16) runs
west in the valley below. The 2-D picture really doesn't convey the rise of Robson very well in comparison to the last one in relation to the other peaks, but it really stood out in person, that is for sure. The wider angle seems to have flattened everything out to the same plane.