Day 17 - Monday 7th September, 2015

UP EARLY!! Well, firstly last night's sunset was not too bad. Only a couple of us stayed up at Lake Moraine, as the rain set in big time and it was pretty dismal. We event went into the Fairmont, all loaded up with our packs and we were soaking wet – not an ideal “look” for the Fairmont! As there was 12 of us, none of the restaurants or bars could accommodate us, so we split up – half went back to Canmore, and the rest of us went back to Lake Moraine again.

So Tim, Steve, Shaun & I sat in the car park for an hour or two and talked about photography stuff, and then we realised the rain had stopped, so we high-trailed it up the rock pile and climbed over slippery wet rocks and we stayed there until the light went dark. I was pretty happy with the images I got, Steve was too.

We went back to Banff for dinner to meet up with the others and we didn't get to bed until midnight.

So up early – 4.25am wake up, and check out of the Ramada, and then we were all back on the road back to Lake Moraine for sunrise!

Much better light and no rain, made for some stunning images from the OOAK group! We were sprawled out all over the lake and up the rock pile. The images we have should work a treat!

After breakfast we made our start on the Icefields Parkway. Hmmm – not the best start, only because the weather had set back in and it was full of rain and heavy cloud and we couldn't see any mountains for ages.

Unfortunately the 3 cars split up and we lost everyone. Steve, Shaun & I were in with Tim's car. We were supposed to meet up at Waterfowl Lake, but no one was there.

We found a little Tarne (pond) called Silverhorn, which we shot. We were trying to do panorama's – although I am sure mine will be pretty crappy, but eh, you gotta start somewhere.  This is a very quick edit of a single shot looking towards a mountain.

We all made it to Bow Lake together. WOW, only days earlier Steve and I were here and it was our "winter wonderland" full of powder snow - what a difference it made with no snow!  Still beautiful, but totally different.  We all ran around the lodge taking shots where we could - having to wait for bus loads of asian tourists to get our of our shot!   Took ages to get this shot of the small bridge as hundreds of people had to use it to get from the lakes edge back to the lodge!  But we got the shot!

Look at the bunch of us OOAK'ers on the foreshore of Bow Lake - what a bunch of pro's!  lol
Left to right:  Sarah, Hannes, Will, Shaun, Vicki & Clair

We were supposed to eat lunch at the Athabasca Icefields, but we kept going and stopped at Sunwupta Lodge. There are a few waterfalls in the area, which we were coming back to shoot tomorrow, so we kept going until we made it to Jasper.

We lost a bit of time at the campground setting up waiting for the other cars to arrive which had the tents. Yeah – tents, that was a lot of fun – NOT. Stupid camp ground only has rules for a particular number of tents per site and where you can set up. Would be nice to have known this BEFORE we set up - (can you tell we are starting to feel a little tired?  Things that normally wouldn't annoy you suddenly start to become a bigger deal!)  but we soon got over it.

Our rented tent wasn't the easiest or quickest to set up and we had to move it twice. But all good in the end.

Then we were all off in a flash to find Patricia Lake for sunset, as the weather finally broke. Most stayed at Patricia Lake, and I went with Tim & Craig over to Pyramid Lake. WOW – now that's a gorgeous lake! Huge mountain - no snow, but stunning texture in the rock, and the water was so smooth, it was a stunning scene.

This is Patricia Lake

And this is how I first saw Pyramid Lake at sunset.

By the time we had dinner in Jasper and back to the camp site, it was late – again. Off to sleep at 11.30pm, with another early start in the morning.  Loving it, but the pace is non-stop!