Cascade Meadow

Wildfires in the area have created a lot of smoke, making it difficult to photograph in the area. The main source of the smoke is an area of Kootenay and Banff National Parks, about 50 km (30 mi.) to our west. One evening last week, I took advantage of clearer skies to visit a location known as Cascade Meadow, just outside the Town of Banff. My purpose was to capture some mountain scenes in which I could include some wildflowers.

In addition to finding some wildflowers (primarily oxeye daisies) I was rewarded from some interesting skies and no smoke! This photograph features the Fairholme Range which borders the northeast side of the Bow Valley.

Looking in the opposite direction, westward up the valley, I captured this interesting cloud formation. The scene includes a glimpse of Mount Rundle on the left and the Massive Range in the background.

The weather was a little unsettled, creating rapidly changing cloud formations and a little rain. My reward for enduring the wind and rain was this photo of Mount Rundle. The lighting was really good, some rays of sunshine getting through the cloud to illuminate parts of the mountain and create a beautiful rainbow.

I don’t visit this location often, the last time was in 2011. Curiously, conditions were very similar and on that occasion I was also able to capture a rainbow over Mount Rundle. You can see it here Another Rainbow Over Rundle.