Candian Rockies
Martin Tai
>Dear Martin,
>I am planning to trip to Canadian Rocky within two weeks or so. Would
you
>like to comment on where and what to shot? You can point out a book or
>literature. Thanks.
Hi,
We were just back from a eight day holiday trip to Banff,
Lake Louise and Jasper in the Canadian Rockies.
Our first stop was Banff, a resort town in Banff National
Park. Banff is the prettiest resort town in Canada, better developed
than Niagara Falls in Ontario and Quebec City in Quebec.
The houses and shops on the main street have a European
look.
Great hordes of tourists from all over the world came to
Banff; we saw Japanese, Australians, Scottish, Germans, and Americans.
Japanese is the second language in Banff. All hotels, lodges
"NO VACANCY".
The Banff/Lake Louise Tourism Bureau published two excellent
guide books:
1) "Official Visitor Guide, Banff/Lake Louise SUMMER 1995"
2) "WHERE ROCKY MOUNTAINS".
These guides can be obtained in all information booths in Banff
/Lake Louise/ Jasper and in many shops. They content nice description
of various places to go, to shop, accommodation with price and
telephone numbers etc. The hard covered version of the Official Guide
in Banff Spring Hotel and Chateau Lake Louise is not as good as the
soft cover ones, it has too much advertisements, and less useful
informations.
You may phone Calgary office 403 244-7343 for your copies, but
I don't think you will get them in time.
So the following is a description of the photo opps.
BANFF
We stayed at the world famous Banff Spring Hotel. It is a
800 plus room hotel situated in the mountains, overlooking the
Bow Falls, where the beautiful Hollywood goddess Marilyn Monroe
made her famous movie ' River of No Return '. Banff Spring looks
magnificent from afar.
The Banff Spring is a best to photograph from a distance,
there are two spots you can get a clear view, one is at the Golf
Course Drive, there is an open area you can get a good picture of
the Banff Spring nestled in mountains.
The next spot is at the Bow Falls trail, a 15 minute downhill walk
from the Banff Spring Hotel. At the Bow Falls trail, there is a
also clear view of the Banff Spring Hotel, with pines and walk
way wood rails as foreground.
The Bow Falls itself was quite scenic as well.
The tour coach took as to Rafter Six Lodge, a wood log lodge which
was also a move set for Marilyn Monroe.
When the weather is good, the Sulfur Mountain Gondola ride is worth
it-- cable car takes you up to the top, where you can supposed get an
eagles eye view of Banff. However, we had no luck, it was a rainy day,
on top we could see clear, every thing was gloomy.
Closer to Banff, the Administration building at end of the main
street has a attached garden, known as Cascade Garden, a Japanese
style garden with artificial ponds, bridges, flowers.
Right in front of the Administration building, there is a circular
flower bed. From this point you can have a clear view of the Banff main
street from one end to the other, with a cloud shrouded mountain as a
back
drop. With a 28mm or wider angle lens, a vertical shot will cover
the colorful flowers in front, two pines right and left, and the Bow
River Bridge, the Banff main street and the distant mountain. The
problem was too many photographers in between the front flower bed and
the middle scene bridge.. they stood there one after another to
take picture of the Administration building itself ( which is at your
back )
Around Banff, there are several lakes -- the Moraine Lake is
reputed to be "the Jewel of the Rockies". It was not on our
itinerary.
Excursion into the Yoho National Park in the neighboring Province
of British Columbia is interesting, photo ops includes:
The Takakkaw Falls a nine hundred feet falls, the Natural Bridge
etc.
JASPER
Our next stop was at town of Jasper. Yep, a five hour express
coach trip all the way north. The town of Jasper is a contrast
to Banff, rather outback. It was cool there, while Toronto was at 30
degrees C, in Jasper it was 5 degrees morning, 15 degree day time.
People came to Jasper for their surrounding mountains. I have
never seen any mountain as beautiful as the mountains in Jasper National
Park. In our coach, we overhead an American tourist's conversation with
a French woman tourist. The American came to Jasper every year for the
past twenty years ! He was crazy about Jasper's mountains; he used to
came here to climb the mountains, he also said Alberta beef is the best
in the worlds. So we ate Alberta steak almost every day. It does taste
tender.
BTW, while at Calgary, we resided at Radison Hotel downtown, there
was a beauty contest right there, organized by a model agent Face-West.
Western Canada does produce many of the world's most beautiful
women, many super models came from the West. Western Canadian woman
is taller, slimmer, with snow white complexion; may have something to
do with the highland weather or the beautiful sceneries
The Malign Lake in the Jasper National Park was beautiful even
in rainy day.
There is a Malign Lake Cruise you can take, they provide
shuttle bus too.
On the cruise boat, you can photograph from the back of the boat
outside the cabin. But the best photo ops is at Spirit Island, where
the cruise stop over for about half an hour. A trail along
that island let you get classic shots of Malign Lake:
blue sky, white clouds, a small islet with tall pines at the center ,
a band of snow claded mountains encircled the whole lake....
My pictures turn out quite well, in spite of the rain. They
looked like Chinese paintings: misty clouds, pines, mountains,
lake , more pines..
My colleagues said, you don't need to go to Quai Lin, Rockies
Mountains look real like Quai Lin.
In sunny days, Malign Lake shall be stunning.
Maligne Lake is about 50 km south of Jasper.
In Jasper , there are tram ride to mountain tops. But due to
rainy weather, we stayed in town.
The motorcoach then back from Jasper to Banff, this time
made many photo ops stops along the way. The Icefields Parkway
is the worlds most beautiful. Majestic mountains of stunning beauty
all along the way. Last year we travel to Europe, IMO, the Alpine
mountain scape in Northern Italy and Switzerland is no where close.
(That was in August, there was not snow on the mountains )
The Rockies has character, solemn, towering, breath taking.
The Athabraska Falls thundering down, and the background mountain
towering up, forms excellent contrast, a study of Yin and Yang.
Peyto Lake is one of the most spectacular sights you'll ever see,
And we had our first sunny day !
White clouds, blue sky. The Peyto Lake looked like a gigantic piece
of jade of such a pristine color. The light played on the mountains
brought out the slanted ridges and horizontal textures of the brunette
mountains; on the far right, a snow clad mountain range is visible.
At the foreground, pines. A view to die for !
The WHITE color of snow clad mountains in the Rockies are so
stunningly beautiful, like sparkling diamonds of heavenly magnitude.
If Red color is the color of Eastern Canada, then White
must be the color of the West. ( thus the red and the white on the flag
?)
Columbia Icefield and Glacier is one of the biggest in the world.
It feeds three Glaciers, which in turns feed three great oceans; north
to the Artic, west to Atlantic, and east to the Pacific.
Specially constructed "Snow coach" with giant wheels took us to
the Columbia Icefield. Walking on glacier on top of Continental Divide
on an icefield which feeds three oceans was quite an experience
LAKE LOUISE
Our third stop was Lake Louise. We reside at another
Canadian Pacific Hotel - Chateau Lake Louise. It is a magnificent
hotel right by Lake Louise. We like it better than the Banff Spring
Hotel. The giant window views from the tea room and dinning
rooms are truly exceptional, like huge paintings.
Lake Louise is the most beautiful place on earth, a fairy land !
I got up early in the morning, looked out the window, and saw
the morning sun shone on the Victoria Glacier, wow, what
a spectacular view ! I grabbed my camera and tripod and hurried
downstairs to the Lake. The blue sky was adorned with a few strokes of
white clouds floating leisurely. The turquoise colored lake was still
as a polished bronze mirror reflecting the golden mountain peaks
gilded by the golden rays of the rising sun.
The mountain at the right was brighter, the mountain at the left was
still shrouded in shade, hence darker, this forms a Yin and Yang
pattern, the reflections of them completed the Four Quadrants of I
Ching.
The Master Tao was performing his painting in grand scale.
There are many sightseeing places around Lake Louise. But we just
enjoy the view of the Lake. There is a walking trail along the Lake.
In the morning, the Victoria Mountain and the Glacier is in the sun,
in the after noon, the Chateau is in the light. Evening view of the
Chateau from the trail is also excellent.
There are several angles for the Lake and Glacier.
1. From the front. With pebbles as foreground, with red canoes
as decoration.
2. On the lawn. The red poppies, green lawn provides good foreground
if you have patience to wait for people to go away.
3. From the boat house. The idled canoes forms nice composition with
the Victoria Glacier.
4. From the lake side trail, you can have pine trees as your
foreground.
5. From you hotel room window.
WIDE LIFE
Along the Icefields Parkway, from time to time you can see
elks, deers, black bears rooming. The elks are aggressive, leave
don't get too close. There are bald eagles, giant owls, but we
didn't see any.
The Canadian Rockies is truly a place of great natural beauty.
Our stay was too short, the sketch barely scratched the surface.
You can get much complete info from the booklets quoted above.
A photo book compiled by Kara Kuryllowicz contains a large
numbers of outstanding scenic and wide life photos of the Rockies by
famous Canadian photographers. You may be able to get it at
your local bookstore.
Wish you a nice trip to the Canadian Rockies.
Bob Neuman
says... (MUCH DELETED, read post above)
> The Canadian Rockies is truly a place of great natural beauty.
>Our stay was too short, the sketch barely scratched the surface.
The Jasper-Banff area is SPECTACULAR!!!!! (Makes the U.S. Rockies look
like foothills, though beautiful foothills...) I have been there twice,
and I must return - there is a strong feeling of newness to this land,
as if you are observing the rough beginnings of great mountains.
Mark Huth
>From: rp...@cornell.edu (Bob Neuman)
>Subject: Re: Candian Rockies
>Date: 18 Aug 1995 16:34:56 GMT
>In article <60.20324.32...@canrem.com>, marti...@canrem.com
>says... (MUCH DELETED, read post above)
>> The Canadian Rockies is truly a place of great natural beauty.
>>Our stay was too short, the sketch barely scratched the surface.
>The Jasper-Banff area is SPECTACULAR!!!!! (Makes the U.S. Rockies look
>like foothills, though beautiful foothills...) I have been there twice,
>and I must return - there is a strong feeling of newness to this land,
>as if you are observing the rough beginnings of great mountains.
I just got back from Banff - unusual amount of rain this summer, but the place
is spectacular. As to foothills, well that is deceiving. The tree-level in
the Canadian Rockies seems to be in the 6000-7000 foot range, and the highest
mountains are less than 12000 feet, with most being in the 8-10,000 foot
range. But the area above tree line is very steep and rocky.
The Colorado Rockies have many peaks above 14,000 feet and the tree level is
generally in the 10-11,000 foot range or a bit higher. The peaks above tree
line are generally not so steep, and there seems to be quite a bit more alpine
vegetation in the Colorado. Our travels in the Colorado Winter Park area
started at 9,000 feet and went up from there. In Banff, we generally started
at about 5,000 feet.
Mark Huth
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