Day 35, September 16

Day 35, September 16

Locations: Lake Louise; Kootenay National Park; Castle Junction

Miles driven: 149

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I had the alarm still set for 5:45 and left the Helen Lake trailhead around 6:05. The sky was pretty much clear over the Crowfoot Glacier area across the way. I drove into Lake Louise which was mostly overcast down there. The clouds did break up a bit awhile later in the morning, so sunrise itself was uneventful. I stayed on my perch on the lake shore near the outlet stream on the boat house side until late morning and had conversations with a couple other avid amateur photographers, one from Bemidji, Minnesota and the other from somewhere in Wisconsin. Si never did show up, but he really didn’t miss anything. He must have been enjoying the warm confines of his hotel room! I left the lake at 11:00.
I drove into Kootenay once again as it had become my go-to place for overcast days and walked up the Floe Lake Trail a ways, probably about a mile in, for some forest and river shots. I spent most of the afternoon in here shooting and got back to the parking lot at 4:00. The skies were about half clear at this point and I wasn't sure what I was going to do yet for sunset.

I went over to Castle Junction, arriving there at 5:38, and waited for sunset. Conditions were right for a good evening of shooting as there were puffy clouds above Castle Mountain which had been there for awhile along with clear skies off to the west. I fixed up some tortellini in the parking lot at the bridge above Bow River before walking to river level to set up. While I was waiting around, there was a couple that pulled into the lot and walked down to the river bank for pictures where I would be setting up, so this confirmed that there is an opening in the fence at the bridge to gain access that I wasn’t exactly sure about previously. I shot a number of keepers from the shore before the clouds broke up and faded away. I left here at 7:25.

There was still light on the base of the peaks and I went up to Hillsdale Meadows to see if I could get some sunset light on the mountains there, but there weren't any clouds over the Massive Range and I didn’t end up shooting anything from here. There were, however, some great clouds over the mountains near Banff. I wanted to get a bit closer to them for a shot, so I continued south along the Bow Valley Parkway looking for an open spot to shoot the peaks which were now getting some sweet light. I went as far as the Sawback prescribed burn area and turned around after there hadn’t been any openings from which to get a shot. I ended up backtracking all the way back to Moose Meadows during the last light where I finally got set up. I should've stopped here first and I was really kicking myself that I didn't. The light had faded a good bit since I came through here the first time. I could only hope I could get the same conditions again and I was already planning to try to shoot the same thing again tomorrow.

After the oranges and blues of sunset faded away, I drove back to the Helen Lake trailhead for the fifth consecutive night and arrived there at 8:45. I went to bed shortly thereafter. The skies had totally cleared off, save for two really small clouds to the northwest off in the distance. I was running out of days for a sunrise at Lake Louise, but I would try there again tomorrow.

1:18 PM — Death and life along the Floe Lake trail