OK, buckle up! And welcome to my new favorite place!!! You don't need to be a photographer type, you don't need a good camera, hell, you probably don't even need a camera!!! to get awesome photos of this place! For me, this is a jaw-droppingly beautiful place.
For maybe the first time, my sacrifice in getting up super early and going out into the cold, cold air was rewarded with very pretty colors - the sunrise show!
Sunrise over the incredible turquoise Athabaska River.
(the view on the other side of the bridge)
A mama elk and her babe on the way back to the Whistler campground.
And...Daddy? Fall is the Time of The Rut. This season is notorious in areas that elk frequent. The boys (bulls) are busy rubbing off the now-itchy velvet coatings from their antlers and getting possessive over the dames (cows) and pissy with any potential competitors. They are so full of testosterone and attitude, it can be both good and bad for tourist types. You can get unusually close to them at this time - they seem largely oblivious of all the people lurking around, cameras in tow. But...they can also be very aggressive. I heard several stories of them chasing people and doing them harm (or at least attempting to), although I never experienced it myself (and yes, you can bet I was often in the throng of on-lookers! Ready to run and usually hovering near cars or other large objects so I'd have some kind of cover/protection).
I changed my mind and drove back out the Icefield Parkway for a little ways. It was such a pretty morning, with that fresh dusting of snow on the peaks.
And what peaks!!
And bits of autumn popping here and there.
And there...!
The Athabaska again. Some of the names are Alaskan too!
Sepia-toned mountains.
Regular photo but still golden light.
Such cool uplift, weird pushes and shoves moved these mountains! So many of the peaks here look like they came up sideways (maybe because they did!).
More golden light...
Cool (cold!) reflections.
This was an amazing stop. The one other time I visited Jasper was eons ago (maybe 20 years or more?! anyways, back when I was a kid!), and I only remembered little bits of that trip. One memory was white water rafting the Kicking Horse of Yoho. One was of a beautiful hike. Another was of waking up to strange sounds outside the tent, only to look out and see elk everywhere, just feet away in some instances! But one mental image was of an incredible waterfall/river, where giant bowls had been carved in the canyon walls due to logs carried by and swirling in the water. I couldn't remember the name of the place, but I recognized it right away when I saw it again - the Athabaska Falls. This photo is actually from a road, a viewpoint only a few find (because it's not part of their visitor/trail complex - go figure, it's the best view there!). And as usual, the photo doesn't do the actual sight any justice at all! It was so much more breath-taking than my puny little photo can translate. But you'll just have to take my word for it. Or, better yet, go see it for yourselves some day!!!
Just a pretty little scene on the way back.
Any fall color has the power to stop me in my tracks! Well, truth be told, anything pretty has the power to stop me if I have camera in hand!!!!!
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