Though the sight of the deer carcass on the frozen river was a sobering reminder that the Canadian Rockies are not just picturesque and benign but are nature in the raw (the previous blog post), Thursday’s rambling along the Bow and Spray Rivers and up Tunnel Mountain was a graphic reminder of just how dramatic this landscape is. This blog post is just a series of images from those walks.
Looking downstream to the bridge across the river at the top of the Spray River Loop Trail
Snow blows horizontally off Mount Rundle in the strong wind
Looking across the Bow River to Cascade Mountain North East of Banff
Wind-blasted trees at the top of Tunnel Mountain, looking northwards along the Bow Valley as the sun dips down towards Sulphur Mountain
Some trees are well-gnarly and not all survive
Looking upstream to the frozen Bow Falls, water still powering down on the right
The edge of the river-ice thaws and refreezes in jagged icicles
The wind whips up the snow which a few seconds later engulfs me as the sun sets behind Sulphur Mountain
Looking eastwards from the top of Tunnel Mountain along the Bow Valley towards the Fairholme Range with Mount Rundle on the right
Looking across the jagged river ice eastwards towards the Fairholme Range from alongside the Bow Falls
Looking across the Spray River to Sulphur Mountain beyond the monolithic Banff Springs Hotel
For much better and exceptional quality of images from this part of the world I recommend ‘Canadian Hiking Photography by Patrick Latter, a guy who lives around here and obviously knows what he’s doing technically and photographically. See for example his ‘Lake Minnewanka by night’: http://hikingphoto.com/2012/11/12/lake-minnewanka-by-night/
Barry's Ramblings 