Mountains In My Mirrors

The true temptation is to post all 130 of the “keeper” photos from today. Cutting it to fewer than 20 took a long time, and while I could and should cut it a whole lot further- I don’t feel like it! The run from Banff to Jasper, of which we completed about half today on the Ice Field Parkway, is the most amazing drive I have ever taken in my life- bar none. In miles it wasn’t all that long a day, but hour wise it took some serious time. Not because the drive was scary or difficult, but because with every bend in the road, the scenery, which was already spectacular, became even more so. Mountains bigger and more breathtaking. Snow cover more solid. Glaciers closer to the road. Wildlife we’ve not spotted before. Multiple photo op stops were necessary! And then I realized that there were mountains in my mirrors- an important life lesson no doubt. We had been so intent on looking forward to the next mighty vista, that we had forgotten to look back to see where we had been. The first time I noticed what was already behind me, I realized it was as good as what lay before. The same mountain from the other side is a different mountain all together.

Most of the photos used for this post will speak for themselves. You can blow them up for a somewhat better idea of what we saw, but honestly a photo cannot portray the sense of majesty and scale of the Canadian Rockies. Talk about awesome! They line both sides of the road we travel. Essentially we are weaving our way through the entire chain of them, so high mountains on the left, on the right, immediately ahead and bringing up the rear at all times. Transitioning from about 3000 feet to 7000 feet elevation, the highway is an engineering marvel and the changes were gradual and nearly unnoticeable. If we weren’t here and seeing it for ourselves, we might just find it unimaginable. But here they are and here we are.

A note on the critter shots. This is wilderness, not a zoo, so you get what you get for a photo opportunity. You can’t jump out and go walking up to the nice bear for a better shot, so pardon the “posterior” angle and slight blurriness. Thanks to the digital zoom just for allowing me to prove I really saw him in the wild! And as for the Big Horn Sheep, well, we worked darn hard to find them but when we did it was an “oh My God” moment to be sure.