A Winter Portrait of a National Park

[Art]

Here’s a taste of a photo essay that I put together from recent visit to Banff National Park. The park can be just as enticing and stunning during the winter months as it is during the rest of the year.

Our route to BNP usually involves a northern bypass of the City of Calgary via Carstairs, Cremona and Cochrane. By using this shortcut, we’re able to cut down on our driving time to Banff.


Where prairie meets mountains. The snowy hay bales echo the peaks of the mountains in the distance.


Approaching the outskirts of Canmore, the rugged snow capped crests seem quite a change from the flatlands that we left behind just over two hours ago. By now, the car is covered in grime from road slush and will stay that way for the remainder of the trip as you’ll soon see.


View point from the base of the Sulphur Mountain Gondola



The scenic drive along Lake Minnewanka


Cascade Mountain can be seen jutting out from behind in the photo.


Along the frozen shoreline of Lake Minnewanka


You just never know who or what you’ll run across on some of the backroads. We encountered several herds of these big horn sheep as they lazily plodded along licking the salt from the road.


Apparently, these creatures preferred using the XC as a salt lick. We hastened our departure once the alpha male came into view. You can see him just entering at the right of the photo.


Cascade Mountain front and center


A snowy section of road leading to/from Johnston Canyon.


Frozen in time. The Fairmont Springs Hotel seen perched above the frozen banks of the Bow River.


A shot of the meandering Bow River on a sunny but cold, wintery day.


Snow blowing off of the peak of Mount Rundle.


Well that about ends this chapter of my road journal to BNP. I hope to take you on more visual tours to some of Alberta’s lesser known heritage parks in future threads. Stay tuned.

[AWD*V70XC]

Very nice Art

Can't wait to see some more in time to come.

[XCMark]

Great pics Art. I've always thought the Canadian Rockies looked more extreme (and 'newer') than what we have here in Colorado. Haven't made it to Banff yet, but I expect I will as long as my inlaws are in Canada.

Mark

[birddog]

Such a beautiful place. Makes me want to move west. Wish there were mountains and scenery around here like that.....

[ifnt420]

Awesome photos Art!! Keep them coming so I can dream on...

[gary]

Great pictures Art! Canada, and especially the western part of the country, is certainly on my short list of places I'd like to visit. I'll be in the German Alps next week, but I think any pics I take will pale in comparison to yours!

[Art]

Appreciate the feedback guys and glad to know that you enjoyed it.

The park’s scenery during the winter months is really quite spectacular that it’s really worth the three hour drive from our central location.

One of the nice things about touring the park during the off season is that there are noticeably fewer number of vehicles and people which, during peak periods, tend overwhelm the town site.

BN Park is just one of four national parks located in Alberta and has been designated by UNESCO as a world heritage site.

[XC70Geo]

Art, your fantastic winter scenes are better then the official Volvo images!

[Big]

Originally Posted by Art

I hope to take you on more visual tours to some of Alberta’s lesser known heritage parks in future threads. Stay tuned.

Looking forward to it. I love the mountains. Next time, though, clean off your car before each shot--it looks like mine!

[dlr97]

Beautiful! Thanks for posting; it takes me back to summer 1997 when my wife and I did the bicycle trip from Jasper to Banff on the Icefield Parkway. One of the world's great highways.

Dave