Most Scenic Road in Canada

 

The most scenic stretch of road in Canada, is the Bow Valley Parkway (Highway 1A on the map). That’s an audacious, provocative statement!

I refer specifically to the stretch of the Parkway beginning just west of Banff to Castle Junction, a distance of 24 km. The road continues on to Lake Louise and despite it’s beauty, I favour the first section. I’ve had the good fortune to reside in 5 of Canada’s provinces and I’ve visited all 10 of them. I can’t claim to have seen every road in the country but I think the combination of mountains, canyons, forest, wildlife and the Bow River make the Bow Valley Parkway a formidable candidate for most scenic. It’s beautiful year round, but particularly so in the autumn.

Today’s blog features photographs taken along the aforementioned section of the Bow Valley Parkway, just as the autumn colours are approaching their peak. I begin with this picture of Sawback Burn, the site of a prescribed (controlled) burn in 1993, intended to reduce deadfall and the consequent risk of a more serious, uncontrolled conflagration. I like this photograph for the variety of colour of the ground cover, contrasted with the blackened remains of the burned area.

As you will note, the scenes are complemented by some spectacular cloud formations. We’ve had a long spell of heavily overcast, cool, wet weather. Yesterday, I benefitted from the break-up of the heavy cloud, creating a patchwork of open sky and robust, cumulus cloud. This next picture is the best example. It’s Moose Meadow, in full autumn splendour with Pilot Mountain in the background, largely obscured by clouds.

Another beautiful scene along the route is Hillsdale Meadow, backgrounded by Mount Ishbel (left) and Cockscomb Mountain (right).

Just to the east of Hillsdale Meadow is this great view of Cockscomb Mountain. The bright gold foliage on the flanks of the mountain are larch trees. Although they are conifers, larches are deciduous trees that turn gold and lose their needles in the autumn. On the left side are the ubiquitous aspen trees that populate the area, interspersed among the even more commonplace pines.

On our way back to Canmore, we stopped at a roadside pullout on Highway 1 as we approached Banff. This location provides a stunning view of Mount Rundle, viewed from the west. Although not as colourful and not situated along the Bow Valley Parkway, I couldn’t resist stopping to photograph it and include the shot in today’s blog. I took this picture using a 100-400mm, telephoto lens to get a closeup view of the clouds forming along the cliff’s edge. Clouds form as the wind blowing across the flank of Mount Rundle picks up moisture from the snow. We see this happening often, mountains forming clouds! Mount Rundle is a huge landform, extending from Canmore to the east to the Town of Banff, a length of 12 km (7.5 miles). Consider those trees on the mountain’s flank (just below the snow line), inconspicuous in relation to the mountain.

That’s my case for the Bow Valley Parkway. If you believe there is a more scenic road to be found in our country, I’d welcome hearing about it!