Sunday Drive

Earlier this week, Rolande and I went for a drive in Banff National Park, just west of Canmore. I took some photographs along the Trans-Canada Highway and the Bow Valley Parkway, our ultimate destination.

This first picture was taken along the Parkway, at a popular stop, Hillsdale Meadow. The meadow is a wide, grassy area with a large population of aspen trees. With Mount Ishbel in the background, it’s always a popular place to take a photograph. It was a very sombre, overcast day and colours were muted to a large extent. In some cases, I was able to draw out some colour; in most cases it made more sense to simply go with black and white.

We made a brief stop at the Castle Mountains Chalets store, where I did find come colour but my attention was really drawn to the icicles.

This picture was taken earlier, along the Trans-Canada Highway as we approached the Town of Banff. It’s Cascade Mountain, which I’ve often photographed from at home but not from this close-in vantage point. It’s a big mountain, towering over the highway. I took the picture through the windshield as we approached, using a 70-200 mm lens at it’s minimum focal length. My timing was on, any closer and I would have chopped the top off.

This is another of the Town of Banff’s landmarks, Mount Rundle. This picture was taken from the roadside pullout and in this case, I chose to go with black and white. It was an easy choice, since the only available colour to be found was on the signs in the lower left hand corner.

This picture was also taken from our moving vehicle. The photograph includes the surge tower of the Trans Alta Cascade generating station, near Banff. The mountains in the background are Mount Astley (left) and Mount Aylmer (back right).

This is another shot of Mount Rundle, taken just east of Banff with Sundance Peak in the background.

We enjoyed our Sunday afternoon drive along the Bow Valley Park. It’s always a favourite, no matter what the season.