Vacation Pics - Canada *lots*

[GoTerps]

Hi guys! In September I went to Canada and Montana for two weeks. I've got tons of shots to go through but I edited and uploaded some while on vacation whenever we had internet access.

I started by flying from BWI (Baltimore/Washington International) into Chicago to meet Nick. From there we continued on to Edmonton in Alberta, Canada. There Nick and I met up with Ann and Skippy. We left the airport directly for Jasper National Park. I gotta say, the "mountains" in Maryland are NOTHING like the Canadian Rockies!


We rode the tram up The Whistlers (approx. 7000-8000') and then we hiked up, up, around, and up some more. This shot was from about 400' up from the tram, you can see Lake Patricia and Pyramid Lake in the foreground. We shot sunrise at both of those locations.


We got away from the people by walking along this "path" that took us around the side of the mountain. We had an awesome view and saw NOONE else. It was slightly scary walking over there with no big rocks, no rails, no trees, nothing to stop you if you fall...and we were all carrying our gear of course.


When we got around to the far side there was a nice (WIND FREE) area that was slightly flat and featured a nice big rock! We set out cameras down and I grabbed my point and shoot to record a "product shot". Remember that there are only 4 of us. The two Nikons are mine, everyone else was a Canon shooter.

[Baron Samedi]

Love that second shot. More please.

[GoTerps]

Our first animal siting were three young male elk. The gorgeous blue water in the background is the Athabasca River.


They ran into the woods and I walked down river. I ended up on some rocks and all of a sudden the three bucks came running out of the woods. They were probably about 20meters from me while this was going on and I was the only person there, in sight. It was quite neat!


Our only moose of the whole trip was this young fellow in Medicine Lake. Sadly a 200mm could NOT do justice and this itty bitty crop was it.


We decided to hit Pyramid Lake for sunrise...the sun did not behave. It was overcast and stormy so I decided to take a 5 second exposure and get some milky lake water.


Later that afternoon we went for a hike along Maligne Canyon and spent a nice time by this section of the Maligne River.

[Baron Samedi]

Stunning.

[Ghostsuit]

Those are stunning. love the last two shots.

[GoTerps]

As we headed out to Lake Louise we stopped at Athabasca falls.





Continuing on the Icefields Parkway we stopped at the Athabasca Glacier and we were able to climb up and walk out on it. It's amazing how quickly the glacier is melting. Here's a shot where I took my camera at arm length and took a self portrait. It was COLD and WINDY and little ice pelts were falling down so I'm quite squinty. Woo the air is thin up there and biting cold.

Originally Posted by Ghostsuit

Those are stunning. love the last two shots.

Oh wow! Thanks

Thanks also Baron Samedi!!

[0x21]

The first shot is breath taking

[GoTerps]

We spent the night at Baker Creek Chalets. It was rainy all night and the AM forecast wasn't promising. We decided to sleep in until about 7ish and then we couldn't NOT stop by Lake Louise so we made the trek up and it actually looked pretty nice! The wooden walk ways were very icy. I was lamenting not having my Cokin Grad ND.






The weather improved as we headed south and by the time we got to Kananaskis the skies were blue!


The big horn sheep travel in families and they will come down onto the road to lick the salt from the pavement.


We caught sunset in Claresholm.

[Purplerose]

Some really striking photos, I love the mountain, falls and lake louise photos

[Fremlin]

Stunning photos, looks like a lovely place.

[GoTerps]

Our next stop was Waterton Lakes National Park. The Prince of Wales is one of many beautiful railroad hotels we saw along during out trip and it was our first site upon entering Waterton.


I played a little with the RAW files to try to make it look spoooky. Not sure it's spooky, but


The next morning we caught sunrise on the road to Red Rock Canyon.


A nice stellar jay poses on a tree branch.


And now that the sun is out we can better see the Prince of Wales and it's backdrop.


One of the best sunrises of the whole trip was over the elk fields.


There were 5 families of elk in this one field and with big bulls bugling every morning. And bashing antlers for the spectators!

[Baron Samedi]

Loving the gingerbread hotel.

[GoTerps]

Our next stop was in Montana, USA at Glacier National Park where we spent a whole week. We found a mama grizzly and her two yearling cubs.


This coyote was right up by the road, pounced on a little critter of some sort and then continued on into the woods.


Birdies = lunch!


Our first sunrise in Glacier was at Wild Goose Island.



We did a nice hike to a couple different waterfalls. This image is actually three shots put together, taken with the 70-200.


We saw lots of bald eagles but they normally just sat in the trees with little or no intrest in the humans.

[Awright]

Aye, really fucking good pics.The first photo is stunning. I like how you got the people on the edge in that one. Awesome. I'm away to Canada next year for 4 months. If its anything like that then wow.

[GoTerps]

There were TONS of black bears in the parks and we ended up being quite close to two of them. One we were outside the vehicle shooting and it decided to walk by us. This one we were actually inside the vehicle with the doors open and it was eating bears and walking around. He looked at us and then went back to eating.


Sunrise at St. Mary's Lake



Moonset at St. Mary's Lake this is a 10second exposure.


A chipmunk at Grinell Lake. This was a looong hike, but fairly level. A chipmunk actually climbed into my jacket pocket.


Chipmunk trying to get BACK into my pocket. Taken with the 12-24 because he was so close.


*I've got to run home from work now...but I'll respond when I get there!!