Steve Cole Photography

Having returned from my first trip to Banff, I had 450 photos to wade through. It has taken me almost a week to sort through them all and select which ones to process. But that was the easy part! I’ve had a hard time coming up with the write-up part. In some ways, the Canadian Rockies have some familiarity for someone who stomps around the Cascades. There are just enough common plants and trees to identify with but plenty of new ones to throw into the mix.

It seems as though every creek you witness runs clear & cold. Actually, many rivers run the same. Those that aren’t clear are turquoise in color due to the glacial flour suspended in the water. During my time in Washington State, I’ve spent plenty of time admiring dramatic peaks such as Mount Shuksan, Mount Rainier, and Mount Baker but their scale and magnitude just isn’t the same compared to what you see in the Rockies. The amount of relief from valley floor to mountain peak is often close to 5,000 feet plus and LOOKS it.

To get to Banff, I drove by way of the Trans-Canada Hwy (Hwy 1) as well as the Hwy 5 option from Hope to Kamloops (also known as the Coquihalla Hwy). I’ve visited Canada once before on a trip to Whistler but I would say that this was my first “real” trip to Canada. Driving Hwys 1 & 5 provide a great overview of the diverse landscape found across western Canada. Starting in the wet coastal environment of the Fraser River valley, the route transitions into the drier pine forest found in the rain shadow of the Coast Ranges. This area very much reminded me of the high country along Interstate 80 as you approach North Lake Tahoe.

Beyond Kamloops lies a transition zone with larch, pine, aspen, and even cedar. The region between Salmon Arm and Revelstoke holds the transition to the Rockies. Revelstoke also marks the beginning of many National Parks of Canada- Mount Revelstoke, Glacier, Yoho, and finally Banff National Park. Wildlife abounds- during out trip we saw mountain sheep, deer, moose, bald eagles, and elk without really trying. The abundance of wildlife does create problems for motorists and so Canada has invested a lot of money (and continues to as evidenced by several construction projects we saw) in wildlife fencing, under- and over-passes to direct wildlife away from the highways towards more controlled & safer crossings.

We made the drive over the course of two days and spent our first night in the town of Revelstoke (which is situated along the banks of the Columbia River). Since this was 2/3rds of the way to Banff, I decided to poke around Revelstoke to shoot a little bit of the local scenery. One of the local print guides from our hotel mentioned Begbie Falls so I did some quick research on the internet about it and set out for it first thing the next morning. Despite the lack of vegetation due to fall leaves dropping, this area was amazing! The trails were a bit confusing so I actually ended up exploring the stretch of Begbie Creek upstream of the falls.

I could have easily spent much more time here than the 90 minutes that I did spend here. If you do find yourself in Revelstoke, I would highly recommend visiting this little gem of a park. Be aware that the information on the internet talks about the rough road leading up to the trailhead. I found this to be true so if you don’t have a high clearance vehicle, you might want to heed the advice about parking your car and walking the road to the official trailhead. Some of the potholes on the road are almost the entire width of the road (a one lane road) and filled with water.

Anyone contemplating a photography trip to the Canadian Rockies owes it to themselves to pick up Darwin Wiggett’s awesome guidebook: “How to Photograph the Canadian Rockies.” I picked up my copy through Darwin’s website 2 months ago but it has sadly gone out of print (his website claims a PDF variant will be available in November 2010). This book, along with his coffee table photo book “Dances with Light” helped me identify spots that I wanted to visit. This area is BIG so you definitely need some help to prioritize and maximize your time there!

One of the locations Darwin recommends are the Vermillion Lakes just outside of the town of Banff for sunrise. Darwin’s description is spot on! I went here for the 3 sunrises I was in town for and 2 of them had color despite gray overcast skies. I highly recommend making this a morning ritual as part of your trip. If at all possible, make a visit during the day so you can get a sense of what’s there and pre-plan where you might want to set up for your shots. I wasn’t able to do this and so I settled for a sub-par location for my first sunrise when a much better position was just down the road. I wish I could combine the light of my first sunrise with the location of my second morning! These are the lessons we learn when out in new locations..

Another lesson I’ve learned is that the beginning of November is not the ideal time to visit. Much (if not virtually ALL!) of the National Park trails and attractions are closed for winter by now. This renders many scenic locations such as Moraine Lake near Lake Louise inaccessible. On one of my days, I wanted to travel up the Icefields Parkway towards Jasper. Somewhere between Bow Lake and the Peyto Lake turnoff, winter driving conditions made an appearance. Conditions for photography were dubious in the sleety conditions and the driving was getting sketchier. The Bow River valley, however provides many roadside scenes such as the dramatic Castle Mountain and even year round attractions such as Johnson Canyon.

Johnson Canyon provides access to several beautiful waterfalls in a tight canyon. The trail is pretty crazy because the first third of it is a catwalk which is anchored to the canyon side wall. The forest is very pretty and the creek runs crystal clear. At the upper falls is a large deposit of travertine limestone which adds some colorful interest. The best locations for photos are definitely off trail but aggressive signage reminds visitors to stay on the trail. And so I did.

Banff Mountain Festival

There was another reason for my visit, of course, and this was to attend the Banff Mountain Festival. As I’ve mentioned on my blog a few times, I was fortunate to have been awarded an honorable mention for the photography competition. All of the entries were on display in the lobby of one of the Banff Centre’s many buildings and they did a wonderful job of printing and presentation for all the photographs. Just because you couldn’t attend the event in Banff doesn’t mean you can’t see them! Now that the event has ended in Banff, it will begin a tour across the United States and Canada. Follow this link to find the date and location nearest to you.

We attended the invite-only gala event and spent some time talking with the woman responsible for the photography portion of the festival. She’s what I would call a longtime resident of Banff and it was very interesting to hear her talk about Banff and its history. Banff is literally surrounded by the Banff National Park and I was not aware that people living in Banff do not own the land they live on; they lease the land from the government in 42 year renewable agreements.

The evening of our last day in Banff was the “Best Of” and awards presentations for the film portion of the festival. I was only able to stay for the encore screenings of two films, the first of which was called “A Life Ascending.” It’s a very well made biography film of Canadian mountain guide Ruedi Beglinger. His guide service in the Selkirk Range of British Columbia was involved in the tragic 2003 avalanche that killed 7 people including professional snowboarder Craig Kelly. The film introduces you to Ruedi, his background, what he does, and then gradually incorporates his reflections about the 2003 avalanche and the healing process that had to begin afterwards. I really can’t recommend seeing this film strongly enough!

The last film I stayed for was called “Eastern Rises” and I’m quite frankly surprised that I loved it so much! You see, it’s a film about fly fishing on the Kamchatka region of eastern Russia and I don’t fish. At all. This is really a testament to how well made the film is that it can hook (no pun intended) even people who don’t fish. Anyways, the film accomplishes this through lots of humor and beautiful scenery. Once again, I highly recommend this film! Visit the festival’s website to find out the nearest dates & times for the festival’s world tour.

The next morning it was time to head home. I tried for one more sunrise from Vermillion Lakes but despite the clear skies, there was no sunrise like the previous two. The weather was cold & frosty so I started to think about driving straight back through to Seattle. We eventually decided to do this since I had some concerns about the snowy sections of Hwy 5 turning into ice the following morning. We only made a few brief stops along the way back for a quick photo or two. Just outside of Kamloops, the most amazing sunset happened in the most UN-photogenic location.

I quickly pulled over next to a railroad crossing which gave me just a little bit higher vantage point to help “hide” the busy Hwy 1 traffic in the foreground. This really was a great introduction to the Canadian Rockies and I’ll definitely have to add it to my list of places to return to.