Final CR Post: Emerald Lake, Banff, Lake Minnewanka

Saturday and Sunday, our last two days were just as special.  We got up at 4:30 AM on Sat. and drove to Emerald Lake to see the sunrise, and it was everything we could have hoped for.  The day was brilliant, the lake a perfect mirror, and the hike around the lake (5.2K) was, for me, the most beautiful day of the trip, even though it was the day I fell on the trail, bruised ribs, and wound up the next day at an emergency room in Golden. 
Here are the remaining photos, for the end of a trip of a lifetime of memories.

Before sunrise on Emerald Lake, a Loon and youngster.

The top of the mountain across the lake, just getting sun

Don waiting for the sun to hit the peaks

And the sun rises

Truly as beautiful a sight as one could wish for.

And immediately after I shot this photo, I turned around and fell on my face.  The damage wasn't apparent

until the next morning, at the emergency room.

We continued on our hike around the lake, and the light continued to glow

This is an iPhone pano

 Th

Wild flowers all along the trail, including these "Doll's Eyes"

One more shot across the lake looking northwest.

This is a remarkable picture looking northeast.

And here is the Emerald Lake Lodge, and as great a breakfast as I have ever partaken of.

(The Three hour hike before hand must have helped)

A final shot of Emerald Lake from the lodge front porch.

We drove Rt. 93 north from Radium Hot Springs, to Castle Junction on Rt. I.  The scenery must have been

overwhelming, but we saw little of it, because of thick smoke from local forest fires.  The Northeast

has seen no rain since May, and the fires are constant.

As we got closer to Rt. I, the skies cleared, and we got to see some of the scenery.  And what scenery.

Very difficult to photograph Mt. Rundle with all the forest fires.

A great sight viewed from the Vermillion Lakes

And lastly, Lake Minnewanka, just another spectacularly beautiful sight.

Takakkaw Falls, etc.

Perhaps Don's favorite trip was up into the valley that contained Takakkaw Falls, the tallest falls in the Canadian Rockies.  It has to be visited to be able to appreciate the force, the noise, the spectacle.
The road up to it is one of the great drives.  Here is the trip.

The road is worth the trip in itself. 

On the way you pass the "Meeting of the Waters" site.  The trail down to this view is

not marked, and so there were few visitors.  This is a place where fresh water (cascades on the right) meets

the milky glacier-fed water(from the left) to provide two distinctly different colored waters.

At the very beginning of the road up there is the "Natural Bridge" site

where the entire river is funneled through a narrow gap about 5 feet wide.  The gap

is the slot in the right of the picture.

And here is the opening, the "Natural Bridge"

The sound was extremely powerful.

Here is the first glimpse of Takakkaw Falls from the road up.

Don entertaining a stranger, and the bridge were I took Ken's picture

23 years ago!

I don't remember seeing the whole falls before, so it is quite possible

Scott, Ken and I didn't go this far up the trail.  You got soaking wet this close.

This is the view going up the valley north.  Don struck off on his own, and got a

magnificent shot of the valley in the other direction.

Looking down valley, and down stream from the falls.

We saw the best examples of Indian Paint Brush on this road.

Again, the road itself was worth the drive.  Jaw-dropping.

And more.....

The fact that we had such a beautiful clear day just emphasized

the beginning and end of our trip which was so filled with forest fire smoke,

making vistas such as these impossible.  But we had some glorious days!

Don and the Canadian Rockies, Blog 4 Icefield Parkway

Photos from Bow Lake, Lake Peyto, Mistaya Canyon, etc.  A camera can only try.
Enjoy

Opportunity for photographers are every moment

The road to Moraigne Lake.  We never got to see the  famous view, backed by the

ten  peaks (that's them up ahead).  The crowd was impossible to believe.

An Osprey surveys Bow Lake

One of the great Ice Field Parkway sights, Bow Lake.

Bow Lake

Crowfoot Glacier, much dininished

Don at Mistaya Canyon

Mistaya Canyon

Mistaya Canyon

Mistaya Canyon

A very special vista, Peyto Lake

In case you don't know, the water is really that color, a milky blue, created by glacial silt

suspended in the water.  People think "Photshop" but, naaah.

Just another view down the road

I'm not sure what these are, but they must be a kind of Western Dandilion.

The Ice Field Parkway has to be the most spectacular drive in North America.  I am sure there are others that compare, and

I hope I see them in this lifetime, but if not, I will have no complaints. 

I've been there three times now, and I would not hesitate to go back.

Don and the Canadian Rockies, Blog 3: Lake Louise

I convinced Don to get up at 4:30 AM to drive to Lake Louise for the sunrise on the Glacier, one of the truly great sights in the CR's.  He seemed adequately thrilled ("Go-lee!","Holy @#%#!" " Caramba!"  "Mon Dieu!" and so forth). It was everything I could have wished for him.

This is Victoria Glacier,  part of the enormous Columbia Ice field

The view inside the "Chateau"

A Columbine in the gardens

Grey Jay panhandling

Stellar's Jays

One final view.