As we drove towards B.C. we heard on the radio that at the recent G7 talks when the subject of climate change came up on the last day, President Donald Trump left the room and the meetings. There was nothing he felt he had to learn on the subject. He knew it all. The country that has emitted more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than any other country in the world is now led by a simpleton who does not understand the significant dangers of failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As the actions of the G7 countries are currently on track to lead to increased average global temperatures of 4°C rather than the agreed upon maximum of 2°C, with likely catastrophic results, the failure of the American President to take the issue seriously is profoundly unsettling. But no one should be surprised.
Mount Robson
The Rocky Mountains contain the highest mountain peaks in central North America. The highest peak in the Rocky Mountains is not in Canada, as I thought. The highest peak is Mount Elbert, which is found in Colorado and is 4,401 metres (14,440ft.) above sea level. Mount Robson, which we saw today, is the highest peak in Canada, but it is “only” 3,954 metres (12,972 ft.) above sea level.
When we saw Mount Robson today I was immediately brought back to my days as a Canadian National Railway porter in the summer of 1970 and 1971. I got the job to work in the summer. On every trip to B.C. we stopped right here and our passengers clambered out to gawk at and photograph Mount Robson. I did not have a camera so I never got a single photograph it. I made up for that today.
Mount Robson is special.
Helmcken Falls
After a fairly long drive in to the park from the main highway we had been following in BC since we left Jasper, and a wonderful stop for Ice cream and directions, we found the falls. They were not a disappointment.
Helmcken Falls is 141 m (463 ft.) high. It is located inside of Well Gray Provincial Park. In fact, the park was created partly to highlight the falls. And I am glad they did!
Helmcken Falls is the 4thhighest waterfall in Canada measured by total drop without a break. The three higher falls are Hunlen Falls in T in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park, Takakkaw Falls in Yoho National Park and Della Falls in Strathcona Provincial Park. Interestingly, all of these water falls are found in British Columbia and we have a chance of seeing the Takakkaw Falls. It is found on the Murtle River. The falls were easily accessible by a drive of about 47 km out of our way. I felt this was a small price to pay for such spectacular falls. Chris was not totally convinced. It did not help that we approached them sort of late in the day and were a little worried about a hotel in this area as a result of the Labour Day Weekend starting today. I figured it was worth the risk. Of course, I am a waterfall guy (just like I am a wild flower guy, a bird guy, a lighthouse guy, a bog guy, a….
The falls were named after John Helmcken, a physician with the Hudson’s Bay Company who was instrumental in bringing British Columbia into Confederation in 1871. He never actually saw the falls, so I consider this an inapt designation. But, of course, I am a waterfall guy, not a guy trying to honour politicians.
The falls drop over the western escarpment of the Murtle Plateau. The escarpment consists of a huge lava deposit that occurred about 200,000 years ago and filled the Clearwater River valley. At the end of the last Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago, the massive floods that occurred when the continental ice sheets started to melt, carved out a huge canyon in the area. When water gets trapped behind ice if the ice damn later dissolves, as they tend to do, they can emit an awesome deluge. This happened many times in North America creating astonishing canyons. The canyon here is called, of course, Helmcken Canyon.
Wild life in the Rockies
For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth.
– Henry Beston
An “animal traffic jam” on the highway in Jasper National Park led us to this elk. A long line of cars were stopped beside the road and we noticed many people out with cameras. This was a sure sign that there was some wildlife on display.
The Male elk was keeping a close eye on this female elk and 3 more that made up his harem
Down the road we found a Rocky Mountain Goat.
We also saw a Bighorn Sheep. The Rocky Mountains are a fine place to find wildlife.
Rocky Mountain High
The Rocky Mountains are, in my opinion unsurpassed by almost anything I have ever seen before. I wish I was a much better photographer than I am so that I could show you what I mean.
Notice that many of the pines are red! That is the deadly work of the Mountain Pine Beetle. This photo was taken just south of the town of Jasper on the banks of the Athabasca River.
The colours of the lakes vary from blue to turquoise, to green , depending on the sediment.
Maligne Lake has a totally inappropriate name. It is not malign at all.
Medicine Lake is better named. It is medicine for the soul.
This photograph was taken near Spirit Island when the spirit of the lake was calm.
Rocky Mountains
John Updike, one of my favorite writers, said, absurdly, that in golf the walls between the natural and the supernatural are rubbed thin. But that is spectacularly true of the Rocky Mountains.
Spirit Island
Spirit Island
I am an island guy. I love islands. Well I love islands, and lakes, and rivers, and mountains to name only a few. But islands are special.
A week before we got to Jasper National Park we had signed on for a photographic cruise of Maligne Lake. This is something I have wanted to do for about 20 years since I was here last. That time we could not go on the cruise because we were here on the wrong day. It only goes 2 days a week. The other cruises don’t bring you right to Spirit Island. This time we lucked out. This time we were here at exactly the right time. Not only that but when we signed up about a week ago we had no idea what the weather would be like. We took our chances. On a gray or rainy day it would not have been much fun. Some days it is so rainy you can’t even see the island. But today it was a magnificent day. Blue skies and puffy happy little white clouds. Justice was served! The universe was unfolding as it should.
Maligne Lake of course means “bad lake.” This is a terrible name for such a beautiful lake. It is the largest and deepest lake in Jasper Park. The lake is reached by driving a lovely but winding 46 kilometer drive which starts near the town of Jasper and ends at Maligne Lake.
Our guide on the cruise was Jeff Lewis who was a young professional photographer but he could talk to the rankest of amateurs too. People like me. He also acted as a guide in the fall at the Seal River Camp in northern Manitoba. That was a position that Dennis Fast once held.
It is blissfully easy to see how Indigenous people found a profound connection between them and the spiritual on Spirit Island. It is difficult to deny here that the spiritual infuses the material.
At most times of the year it is actually not an island at all, but an isthmus or peninsula. Only when lake levels are high is it an island. This usually happens in spring when the snow melts off the mountain. Then the tiny trail to the island is submerged.
Spirit Island is right in the middle of what is called a “box canyon.” That is a flat bottomed narrow canyon with vertical walls. This part of the lake is highly unusual in that it is surrounded on 3 sides by one mountain range–the Queen Elizabeth Range. She is lucky to have such a gorgeous mountain range named after her.
The artist and explorer Mary Schäffer was probably the first known European person to see the island when she visited Maligne Lake in 1908. She called the box canyon in which the island is situated the “Hall of the Gods,” an absolutely appropriate name. Although she never mentioned the island, she also said of the lake on which it is located, “If Lake Louise is a pearl, Maligne is the entire pearl necklace.”
The island is a spiritual place for the Stoney Nakoda First Nation, or more properly, Ĩyãħé Nakoda First Nation who believe mountains are physical representations of their ancestors. The Indigenous people have 8,000 years plus of ecological knowledge of the lake and island. They know the land and creatures and organisms on it intimately. As a result they knew long ago that it was important for the area to be burned from time to time. They practiced controlled burns, long before conservationists and ecologists realized their importance.
As we have seen throughout the Rockies we saw massive devastation caused by Mountain Pine beetles. Everywhere in this area the forests were largely red and green. Until recent times when the twin forces of climate change and a lack of burns created perfect conditions for the Mountain Pine beetle they existed in the west but never posed pestilential problems as they do now. Because Indigenous people practiced regular controlled burns and did not cause climate change they never had a problem with Mountain Pine Beetles. Now they are a very serious problem and it is all thanks to forces unleashed by modern white society.
Indigenous people believe that policies of non-Indigenous people have led, to a lack of balance in nature. The natural balance is out of whack. Nature needs to be healed. It was sad to see that even on this small island many of the trees were red. That meant they were dead or dying from the effects of the Mountain Pine beetle.
In 1960 Peter Gales made a famous photograph of Spirit Island which was later used in Kodak’s Colorama in New York City’s Grand Central Station as part of an international introduction to Kodak products. Gales was the first to suggest that this island captured the spirit of the Rocky Mountains. Since then many have agreed with this assessment. Who am I to disagree? This really is Spirit Island.
The photograph he created, and which countless photographers, including me, have tried to emulate, or heaven forbid, improve upon has inspired many people. Were it not for that photograph, we likely would not have gone on this boat ride. It triggered a wave of creativity.
Apple also used an image of Spirit Island when they launched their iPad model in 2014 to demonstrate how it had extraordinary photographic capacities.
The colour of the water around the island is different than other places in Maligne Lake. The closer one gets to glaciers, the more emerald green the waters get as a racial of “glacial flour” in the lakes. The colours also vary depending on the time of year. Today the colour varied from blue to emerald green They also vary depending on the time of day. They changed dramatically in the half hour we were on the neighbouring island.
I think it really is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.
Jasper Waterfalls
Athabasca Falls
The beauty of Jasper National Park matches the beauty of any place on earth. It astounds the senses. My photographs are a poor attempt to show that beauty.
In particular I love the mountain waterfalls. I can never get enough of them and hate to pass any of them up.
Athabasca Falls is one of my favorites in the park.
Sunwapta Falls is also outstanding.
I will never have enough of waterfalls.