Banff, Canada
Some of the most beautiful scenery in the world can be found North of the United States. From British Columbia and Vancouver Island, all the way to Newfoundland, you will see some amazing things. My adventures there are far from over, but there are 2 places I would like to discuss. The first is Banff…
Banff is a beautiful area of Canada. Located in Alberta and nestled in the Canadian Rockies, Banff is one of the most visited areas of Canada. People from around the globe come to Alberta to visit Banff. Make no mistake, if you plan on visiting this lovely town and you plan on a Summer time trip, beware! This is a tourist town to match all tourist towns and will be heavily populated. From a photographer’s standpoint, Summer is the worst time to visit! Just the tourist buses of people alone is cringe worthy! My lovely bride and I went, can you guess, yep, that’s right…in the Autumn! Mid to late September and we learned a very valuable lesson during our initial time traveling together. Get up early! Even getting up at stupid o’clock, before sunrise, makes sense in this area due to all the tourists. You could arrive at a destination at 0700 hours and expect multiple charter buses not more than an hour later. Now, you’re inundated with tourists and you’re lucky, as all get out, if you can get off a shot without someone’s head being in it…or someone kicking your tripod.
The photo to the left is taken from atop Sulphor Mountain. There is a lovely, and not cheap, gondola ride to the top and as you can see, provides one with these sweeping views, 360 degrees, of the town of Banff and parts of the Canadian Rockies.
Also at the top of Sulphor Mountain is the Sulphor Mountain Cosmic Ray Station. Yep, you heard me, that’s its name. There is a complete history of the place on the boardwalk leading to the remaining structure. A little history for your imagination. There were 9 similar structures built to measure and study cosmic rays. Sulphor Mountain was the most important due to its elevation. At 2283 meters, it had the clearest area to study, unaffected cosmic rays coming from above. This station was built in the Winter of 1956-’57. For your imagination, there was no gondola ride to the top. Airplanes were not facilitated, I will leave it up to you to imagine how all this got built. You could cheat and look it up online, but it’s much more fun to go and read all the info that is provided along the boardwalk, up to the plexiglass door so one may see inside at the living arrangements. One man, for 30 years, manned this station and provided the scientific community with valuable information on cosmic rays.
Johnston Canyon is a popular destination with its Lower and Upper falls. The photo to the left is of Lower Falls. This was one of the first places we stopped at in Banff and we learned, the hard way, about the toils of not getting up and leaving early enough. By the time an hour had passed after the hike into the Lower Falls area, not 1 but 6 tour buses arrived. Where there were but 3 cars in the 2 rather large parking areas provided, now were full of passenger cars plus the aforementioned charter buses. The folks weren’t exactly fluid in trail manners for opposing hikers. It almost took twice as long to get out and back to our car. I took several long exposure shots along the way to the falls, which I kind of regretted, because by the time I got to the falls, I may have had twenty minutes to get some decent, not well thought-out, shots before the wave of other tourists arrived. People jockeying for their own position, whether they got in your shot, or not, didn’t seem to matter. My tripod got kicked so much that it almost flew into the water had I not been paying attention. From that moment on, we got up at stupid o’clock and enjoyed long moments of hiking and photo snapping before any crowds set in.
Lake Louise is another really beautiful, popular place to visit. The pristine, blue/turquoise colored water is breathtaking. There is a large hotel right on the lake, if money is no object, then I fully recommend a stay at this hotel. It has a mall of designer shops inside to help free you of some wads of cash. But for simple tastes, like ours, we would rather hike for a bit, admire the views along the way, come to a plateau and view the scene to the right. This is Agnes Lake and it is the view from the Agnes Lake Tea House. Yes, there is a tea house at a plateau on this Lake Louise trail that overlooks its own lake. The tea house has a variety of teas, a rather large selection actually, some coffees and a decent variety of snacks to eat. I believe that one of the only heated, breakfast-type, edibles you could get, at the time, was oatmeal. The folks that work at the tea house actually stay in little cabins, one or two person, so that the trek isn’t made daily to the tea house. It is, of course, closed in the winter time for obvious reasons. You just have to go and experience this hike for yourselves. Remember, stupid o’clock is the best time to leave AND get there, as that alone is not an original idea and there will be a few folks there even at that time morning. But it’ll be far less than what charter buses will bring later on into the morning.
One last thought about Banff. The photo to the left is of Crowfoot Mountain with Bow Lake in the foreground. We got up at stupid o’clock and went for a drive and came across this lovely scene. The sun was just popping up above the Canadian Rockies and provided this wonderful pop pf color on the top of Crowfoot Mountain. The area was empty and still and also provided a beautiful reflection shot. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that it was cold…not just cold, but bloody cold. My wife and I are always prepared for such contingencies and packed appropriately. But the extra layers didn’t fully do the trick, especially when the breeze kicked-up and took away any other reflection shots I might have gotten. Still, beauty wins every time and when a scene like this presents itself, I’m there, camera on tripod, ready to create an awesome memory.
I should have pointed out at the onset that my wife and I drove into Canada from our home state. So there really wasn’t a limit on what we could bring in terms of clothing, etc. We brought snacks to reduce the number of diner stops we made to help maintain the budget. Plus, if we see something of interest, we can divert ourselves at will, go and explore and then be on our way again. If you can be mobile for your trip to Canada, independently mobile, then the sky is the limit. But if you’re going any other time other than Summer, pack accordingly and prepare for those contingencies. Do some research for sure, especially in the areas you’re interested in seeing. We stayed in a beautiful little town called Canmore. About 35-45 minutes East of Banff. Saw a couple of Elk cows meandering alongside a road into the town. I highly recommend a stay there.
Up next week, Jasper, Canada. Another gorgeous piece of real estate within Canada that needs to be talked about. Until then, travel safely!
