My declaration that I had completed all my autumn scenes is perhaps premature. I recently went on a photo excursion with longtime friends and photography companions, Bob Bear and Stewart Hamilton. Our destination was Kootenay National Park, about 1 hour distant from Canmore. Although the calendar says it is still autumn, this area is getting a good start on winter.
Our first destination was Vermilion Crossing where I captured the next four photographs. I began with this first scene, a black and white image taken from the shoreline just below the highway bridge. That’s the Kootenay River in the foreground and the Vermilion Range of mountains in the background.
We moved a short distance upstream, to a location on the roadside where we could get some better shots of the re-emergent forest following a series of wildfires in 2018.
The next two images show the damaged area from the river up onto the slopes of the Vermilion Range. The fires are usually natural events which can wipe out a lot of forest and leave the area looking quite ravaged. The plant life is resilient and does grow back over time, as evidenced by the new growth on the opposite side of the river.
This photograph was taken looking down river. Like most rivers and lakes in the Rockies, the waters of the Kootenay River are turquoise in colour. At this time of the year, its snow-clad banks frame it nicely.
We moved on from the Vermilion Crossing area, backtracking to Marble Canyon. As I prepared to venture out from the parking lot, I spotted an interesting patch of ice on the asphalt. I took a couple of close-up shots and they came out pretty well. With a little touching up in Photoshop, I was quite pleased with the result.
I took a number of photographs near the Marble Canyon campground, including this one. It’s a small stream that flows into the nearby Kootenay River. Daytime temperatures have not yet been consistently cold, so it has not remained snow covered. I’m sure it won’t look like this for long; winter is coming soon to this area.
We made one last stop near the summit of the Vermilion Pass to get a shot of Vista Lake. From this viewpoint we were looking eastward toward Banff and the Sawback Range of mountains, visible in the distance.
From here, it’s short descent to the Trans-Canada Highway and a relaxed drive home.