Life on Ice

Life on ice fields parkway, the more common ones first...

and then the rare sight!!.. the Grizzly bear couple!

And having found the opportunity .. I dared to go within 5-10 ft of a wild animal in the wild for the first time in my life :)

Icefields Parkway

Beyound all doubts, the Icefields parkway connecting Banff and Jasper national parks is the best scenic drive that I have driven so far.. for more reasons than one!! Herez a glimpse of the road alone .. all the lakes, waterfalls and wildlife u see as u drive the following posts..

Icefields parkway is a 230 km drive from lake Louise to the town of Jasper.. all along the road and on both sides of the road are glaciers or their remnants ... long long ago the whole place was covered by ice and now the glaciers have left behind an impressive footprint on the landscape, carving the hard rocks as they retreated and leaving behind steep topography... the glacial melts have formed a plethora of lakes.. of different colors and sizes all along the road ... and summer is the "cool"est time to visit the place coz thats when the wild life in the park can be spotted all along the road!

Checkout the power of ice!!!

More lakes... Moraine Lake

Ek Gilahri

Be there @ the right place @ the right time

Photography, as I discovered is all about being at the right place at the right time! The very fact that I was @ Banff satisfied the first condition.. but checkout the difference in the snaps of the same place (Louise lake in Banff National Park) at 5 in the morning (the first 4 pics ) vs 4 in the evening (the last pic) to appreciate the significance of the second part of the condition!!

British Columbia highway 93 in Kootenay National Park

The Canadian Rockies

Its been a long time since my last post now.. was busy with lots of things .. getting used to a totally new and kinda special research environment at MSR and "entertaining" the family people (my in-laws in a place where I landed a week b4). It was all fun but not much to post about. Most places I went to in the last month have been a repeat of those I had been to last summer.. and most of them (mountains, rivers, waterfalls, lakes, parks, downtown and even fireworks) don't change with time :P.

Last weekend, however, I'd been to this amazing (god damn gorgeous) collection of parks collectively called the Canadian Rockies. Its a collection of four (4 that I had been to and some more) national parks of Canada. Banff and Jasper National Parks in Alberta (State) and Kootenay and Yoho national parks in the state of Bristish Columbia). Was again a 10 hr drive each way (hmm .. i've become a pro in long drives now :) )

The whole place was just soooooo scenic that probably every pic that I took was worth a post. and probably thats what I'll do from today .. a post a day !!

I'll probably start off with the "second order" beautiful pics from the collection .. so as to give some warmup time for u guys ;)

Here r the pics for today, of whats called the "Castle mountains" in Banff national park