Day 23, September 4

Day 23, September 4

Locations: Mt. Edith Cavell; Panther Falls; Athabasca River

Miles driven: 217

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I left the Kerkeslin Campground at 6:00. Stars were visible at 2:30, but not any longer. I seem to sense a pattern here! I headed out towards Mt. Edith Cavell anyway and hoped that the thick fog was just hanging low in the valley. I started up the Cavell road and eventually climbed out of the fog. At 6:40, I arrived at the pullout that overlooks the Astoria River valley, and in the direction of Tonquin Valley, that sits just prior to the Tonquin Valley trailhead. The top half of Cavell and some of the mountains in this area were clouded over, so seeing that sunrise wasn't going to be worth too much here, I backed down the road a couple of miles where there is a clear view of the valley back to the east where I came up from. There was a slit in the sky above the mountains across the valley to the east. Fog clouds remained down in the valley with overcast above. I was hoping the sun would be able to find it's way through the opening on the horizon and light everything up above it. Well, it wasn’t nearly as dramatic as I had hoped, but there was still a band of muted color that provided for a wonderful series of shots. I'm glad I decided to get up when things were looking amazingly bleak, and the results of the pictures definitely made getting up worth it. After the sun rose higher, everything turned gray. I did go back up to the overlook near the Tonquin Valley trailhead one more time to take some shots and wanted to make sure the sun wasn’t going to come out. After figuring that it wouldn’t be making an appearance anytime soon, I headed back down the hill.

I went into Jasper to top off the tank. A guy with a trailer pulled in shortly after waiting for me. He began to get impatient as I could barely make out his continuous mumbling. When he pulled in, the pumps were all taken, but by the time I finished, there was just myself and one other vehicle. He starts mouthing off as I was topping off the tank asking what the delay was for, in no uncertain terms. I went up to him to ask him what his deal was. I asked him why he was in a hurry and why he couldn't use one of the open pumps. He asked if I was blind and told me he had a trailer. I told him maybe he shouldn't be towing a trailer if he can't negotiate it around. I also asked him how many gas stations there were in town. He didn't know. I told him there are between four and six, and there was no reason to pick one of the pumps that I was using! He got the bonehead award for the day.

I left Jasper at 9:35 and went back south along the Icefields Parkway planning to look for river scenes. It began to rain shortly after. Just north of Tangle Falls near the Columbia Icefield, it started to snow real good. I was already counting out sunset for tonight. I stayed in the parking lot across the road from Tangle Falls for over an hour. I took a few shots with the Rebel of the falls. I had the tripod umbrella attached and I received a few comments on it and a lot of looks! I know about a hundred people who came and went were wishing they had one! I had heated up a cup of soup and took my first, and only, self-portrait of the trip. The snow began to let up around 12:35.

At 12:45, the storm seemed to be clearing out a bit as the clouds were lifting off the peaks. I headed just a bit further down the road to Bridal Veil falls and stayed there for a few hours. At the far north end of the Bridal Veil Falls Viewpoint pullout, and just through the trees, lies the North Saskatchewan River as it cascades through immediately before the plunge it makes in the form of Panther Falls. I shot here for quite awhile as the scene definitely caught my eye. Very cool spot. After I was done here, I changed out 10 sheets of film. I walked down the trail to the eye-level view of Panther Falls, then down to the base where the spray is thick and will wet a lens as soon as you uncover it. It was virtually impossible to shoot. One would need a wind blowing upstream to keep the mist away, but I wouldn't think this is very common. I hiked back up to the eye-level spur and took some shots from there. It was 6:00 when I was back in the parking area. The skies started to break up a little earlier and some blue sky started to appear in the last half-hour to 45 minutes. I was about to head out, but then the Cirrus Mountain to the southeast was catching some light and some clouds with windows, so I stayed a bit longer to take some more shots.

The afternoon turned out to be rather productive. When you really want mountain shots, as was the case with me, you're not really focused on going after the intimate shots. After some light shooting days, I knew today I had to look for anything conducive to overcast skies, that being river, cascades, streams or something. Thank goodness I stopped at this area. I still figured I was going to have to keep looking for this kind of stuff the way the weather has been.

I headed back to the north to see what the sky was doing. There was quite a bit of snow that had fallen today. Yesterday, along Parker Ridge, it was all brown, but today it was covered in white, though I would guess three inches at the most. I thought all the white peaks could make for some really nice pictures, but the trick was getting skies to where this would be possible. It’s funny how I seem to recall thinking this the first day I arrived in Banff! It was raining at Parker Ridge, but turned into snow as I was nearing the Columbia Icefield.

I was planning on heading directly over to Medicine Lake, but things were kind of starting to happen on this side near the Athabasca River. I wasn't confident Medicine Lake would get any light, but it was showing potential on this side. Plus, at the bridge that crosses the Athabasca River, 7.5k south of Jasper and just south of the park gate, you can shoot in two directions, so it was kind of an easy decision to stay put tonight, especially after last night. I shot quite a bit from the bridge. There was an opening off to the northwest at sunset, which was the only opening around. Everything else remained overcast. I was figuring on more of the same for tomorrow, at least to start with.

After sunset, I went back south a bit and tried calling the folks from a payphone at the side of the road, but no answer. I then went to the nearby pullout on the bank of the Athabasca River where 93 and 93A come closest together and had a sandwich. When I was done, I tried calling the folks again, but still no answer. I went back to the Kerkeslin Campground one more time and it started to lightly rain. I pulled into the campground around 9:30 and stayed in site #29.

7:03 AM — The only color of the morning looking back to the east from the Mt. Edith Cavell Road. The all-too-frequent low-lying fog lies down in the Athabasca River valley.