Day 21, September 2

Day 21, September 2

Locations: Icefields Parkway; Bow Valley Parkway; Vermilion Lakes

Miles driven: 297

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I set the alarm for 5:30 again and snoozed a couple of times since it was another gray morning. Shortly thereafter, it started to rain pretty good. I got up at 8:30 and it was still raining, and even thundering every now and again. Ugh! What is it with the weather up here?! This was day number four of this stuff. I was reminiscing about the 300 days of annual sunshine Colorado receives that I am used to, and there is certainly something to be said about that! It felt like another day potentially going to waste down the drain. Oh sure, I was still able to see nice things, and there’s always the saying that a bad day of vacation is still better than a good day at work, however, there comes a point when it feels like vacation days are being wasted. Regardless, this was obviously out of my control, and I could only try to make the best of the situation—which means that I’d have to look for more photo ops that overcast skies promote. I had been wanting to head back south into Banff, but my goal was to shoot sunset on Medicine Lake, Maligne Lake, and I really wanted to see Mt. Robson again, so I was staying north to try to record these. I would've also liked to shoot Pyramid Lake and Peak, but that wasn't a must-do for me. The weather was definitely delaying things a bit.

I had no idea what I was going to do for today, but I was just going to wing it and see what happened. I left the Kerkeslin Campground at 8:45 mainly just to get out in case there would be a camp host who might start to make their rounds, if there even was a camp host staying here. It started raining pretty good at 8:53 and I could barely distinguish some of the mountain ridges. I thought perhaps I'd check out Vermilion Lakes in Banff to see where they're at and to scout for pictures and go from there, and possibly even come back here in Jasper for sunset, but first I’d have to fuel up in Jasper.

I got into Jasper and topped off the tank and left at 9:22. I reached Saskatchewan Crossing at 11:01. I stopped in Lake Louise and topped off the tank again, and from there, I took the Bow Valley Parkway towards Banff. The rain continued to be off and on. I even saw a patch of blue sky, but that didn't mean anything as I had seen that tease before!

I took a short rest around 1:45 at one of the pullouts near Moose Meadows, after which there were quite a bit bigger patches of blue sky, but still mostly cloudy. I was wanting to take the Mt. Norquay drive but missed its exit as there was a semi roll-over and cleanup crew blocking the view of the exit sign just prior. I ended up going into Banff still in search for the road. I then circled around. It was 3:40 and I had been still debating about heading back up to Jasper for sunset. The sun had been out for quite awhile now here in the Banff side of things and didn't think I should push it, for it could have remained overcast up north. I thought I'd play with my odds down here and wait around and shoot at one of the Vermilion Lakes for sunset. I took the Vermilion Lakes Drive, then took the Mt. Norquay Road and had a couple of sandwiches.

Before just heading back to Vermilion Lakes, I headed up the Bow Valley Parkway a bit to possibly shoot the Sawback prescribed burn area if I could get some cloudy light, but as I was passing above the Vermilion Lakes on the highway, I saw a bunch of elk by lake #1. I took Bow Valley Parkway exit and turned right back around. Go, go, GO! I got down to the lake, and sure enough, the roadside had resembled a mall parking lot. I think a number of elk had already moved on by the time I made it here, but there still were about five that remained. I found an open spot and I took a number of shots of the sole big-racked bull, but nothing good as I had too much motion blur on most. After he walked off, I just waited around here for sunset.

I got one 4x5 fired off at 5:50, then the clouds filled over again. Storm clouds were starting to form just to the west and lighting was frequent and getting closer. I took a number of pictures of the developing clouds and was waiting for a lightning shot. I was waiting outside a bit longer than I wanted to, but I finally got a shot with a bolt at 7:01, and by 7:10 PM it just let loose and was really storming with heavy rain, extremely strong wind gusts, and a lot of very close lighting strikes. It was really getting after it.

At 8:02, the storm was pretty much letting up, though still raining, and some color was starting to appear to the west, so it was time to make a mad dash up to the highway and hopefully find an opening to get a shot of it, though it was doubtful I'd get anywhere with a view in time. The color was getting a bit more intense each minute. As I was going down the highway, there was a spot of light hitting Mt. Rundle and a little rainbow over Banff. I couldn't believe it! I thought, “Boy, you know, I sure have a knack for being at the wrong place at the right time.” The sunset was even getting more intense as I continued west out of Banff and I knew someone was getting an incredible show somewhere. I only ended up getting a couple of snaps while driving a little after the peak color. I drove on up to the Overflow Campground south of Lake Louise and arrived there around 8:45 and I turned in for the night.

8:39 AM — Campsite #34 at Mt. Kerkeslin Campground