Very early October I made my way into Canada for the first time in three years. It was an adventure living out of my car exploring the area surrounding Banff but I had one thing gnawing at the back of my mind over the first week there. Assiniboine! Assiniboine Provincial Park is roadless. In fact, the only way to get there is to hike or fly in and since it was off season the latter wasn’t an option. Seventeen miles in was what separated me from arguably the most beautiful spot in Canada.
Quick snapshot of almost a full moon near the start of the long hike in
Well after a rough late morning one day from drinking too many beers the evening before at a bar/restaurant in the middle of nowhere Kananaskis Village, I decided I had wasted enough time and planned the hike into the park the next day. The weather couldn’t be more perfect for now being almost the middle of October. I drove into Canmore that afternoon and bought the needed supplies, including a lot of blister protection as I had boots bought that week in the town of Banff that were a half size large and not fully broke in yet. More on that later….
About halfway hiked in just after the turn off to go the Wonder Pass route
I drove that night the hour south of Canmore on gravel roads to the trailhead after having a massive dinner at a local Thai Restaurant. It scared me a little seeing only one other car in the entire parking lot. Beings there were many trails from that spot I realized I could be entirely alone back there. I slept in my car at the trailhead and woke up very early to finish the last of my packing and head out in order to reach my destination before nightfall. Just as it went from darkness to light a small car pulled up and a gentleman about my age stepped out. I yelled over “I’m headed to Assiniboine”, he yelled back in a thick Scottish accent “me as well". I continued “my pack is so full of sh%t, I’m a photographer". He yelled back “me too!'“. And right there and then a friendship was struck as we hiked together deep into the Canadian Rockies….
The incredible colors of Marvel Lake as I headed towards Wonder Pass
About the halfway mark you have to decide whether to go over the harder but more scenic Wonder Pass or the almost as hard but not quite as scenic Assiniboine Pass. At this point we were both ready to part ways from each other and enjoy some solitude. Some of us photographers and nature lovers are like that. We find ourselves when we are alone in the wild. I had been planning Wonder Pass the entire time and he had been planning Assiniboine Pass so it was a fairly easy decision once we both were finally honest about how we wanted some time among ourselves.
As I hiked along Marvel Lake I was struck by how beautiful the colors of it were. It went from a deep blue to a lighter in the large sandbars and small islands dotting its presence. Soon enough I came to the dreaded switchbacks to attain the pass. A few short miles before this I had developed blisters on both of my heels and was trying to doctor them as the miles piled on…
Just before the start of the switchbacks looking across Marvel Lake
I quickly made it up the mile long section of switchbacks with a good fifty pounds on my back but it drained my energy for the next day. After a couple more miles I made it atop the pass and looked down upon an entire forest of alpine larch. Sadly a windstorm two days before had blown all the needles off so it was more of a bleak pass at this point to me than a wonder. I made my way down the other side past the mountain called “the towers” and Lake Gog before rounding the corner to Lake Magog just before sunset. Lake Magog sits at the base of Mount Assiniboine and is just past the Naiset Huts I was planning on staying at. Before I got to Magog I was wondering what all the fuss about this place was. But as I turned the corner and Assiniboine presented itself I thought I understood. Turns out I didn’t just yet…
The view that presents itself just after the switchbacks
Near the top of the pass looking south towards the way I had come
The path winds along the forest of needle-less larch once over the other side
Mirror reflection on Gog Lake as last light hits the Towers above
A small larch that still had it’s needles overlooking the last rays of the day hitting Mount Assiniboine
I made my way back to the Naiset huts after watching sunset over the lake and found my long lost friend had already settled down into one hours earlier. I was so exhausted I said goodnight but didn’t sleep the greatest as I woke up sweating from the fire I had built in the small stove provided in the huts. Me and Henry Gaston, which is the name of my Scottish friend, had made plans to wake up way before light to hike a ridge named The Nublet in order to photograph sunrise above the Assiniboine Range.
6:30 came way too early for me. Henry however is an early bird and was knocking at my door before I was ready. Bandaging up my nasty blisters had taken some time. I quickly finished packing up and we were on our way. The first mile and a half is flat but after that the trail goes up and up. Henry is a small figured man who goes running daily. Needless to say he led the way up that mountain at a ferocious pace to me and I found myself weezing from effort before the top. We set up our gear at a spot he had found at sunset the previous day (that’s right, Mr. Gaston had hiked all the way into the park and then hiked up The Nublet for sunset). The view was out of this world! This is what all the fuss was about. But we decided we wanted a higher vantage and I frantically ran to catch up to a seemingly inexhaustible Scottish Highlander. Then we decided the view wasn’t as good from up there so I again ran frantically but this time back down the mountain, just before the first rays landed on Assiniboine…
Dawn over the Assiniboine Range from the vantage of The Nublet
First rays of the day on Assiniboine from The Nublet
Mount Assiniboine with Sunburst Peak in front
Portrait Panorama. Do you see Gaston in the lower right?
Henry took this image of me atop the nublet
Henry
After a somewhat tiring and painful blister ridden hike down I visited with Henry for a bit and then took a two hour nap. My plan was to hike back up The Nublet for sunset and stay up there waiting for the Milky Way to come out. Then I’d wait on the moonrise for some nightscape scenes. This would be done all alone as Henry had already got his sunset shot the day before and there were no other photographers there.
I woke up, packed, and was on my way. I had given myself plenty of time so I leisurely made my way back up the mountain. There was fresh bear sign but I never seen any actual bears. This still was a bit unnerving as I was going to be hiking down in the dark. This time I hiked to the very top of the Nublet and then back down a ways before finding the vantage that suited me. Sadly the clouds didn’t do what I had hoped for at sunset but it was still a thrill to sit there and watch everything unfold. I then had to wait for the stars to come out so I did my neglected devotions for the day and ate some snacks as I had not eaten dinner. The stars eventually came out around 9pm and then the moon shortly thereafter. It was very difficult to not get any shake in my tripod as the wind was almost constantly blowing. I hovered my body against the wind over and over as to block it for my tripod. Still only about one in every three long exposures from this night ended up coming out clear.
As I sat there after sunset but before full on night I pondered what I was doing in this adventure photography all over the place. Exploring beauty is what I surmised. Then a thought, not of my own, suddenly broke through, and God himself spoke to me “you are exploring My heart”. This revelation brought tears to my eyes. I had never thought of this in that sort of way. Growing up I knew the story of creation but also the fall of man. Yet these words chiseled my understanding of what I was doing faster than any theology of scripture. God was on my side and I was exploring His heart!
Sunset from The Nublet
Self Portrait
Do you want to explore His heart? The moon hits the tall peaks as it rises behind me and the Milky Way shines on
Vertical shot of the Milky Way before moonrise over the Assiniboine Range
I stayed up there shooting just past ten o clock and encountered no wild animals on my hike down. However I did have to stop about a half mile from the hut and grab one more scene as the nearly full moon was just lighting up Assiniboine in such a perfect way.
The next day I woke up before sunrise once again and made my way down to lake Magog. This time I was treated to finally beautiful colors in the sky above the mountains. I then cleaned up my hut, did devotions, and made my way the seventeen miles back to my car. Believe it or not my day was not yet finished! As I was driving in the remote rockies headed to the nearest hotel the sunset that gifted me was one of the most spectacular and unique i’ve ever seen. Before the sunset colors the sun was hitting the high peaks in such bright, yellow light they were almost hard to look at. The peaks had beautiful puffy white clouds atop and once the colors started they all turned to fuchsia. The fuchsia and orange tones were an almost 360 degree panorama around me as I stopped at lower Kananaskis Lake for the view. It was pretty much impossible to capture everything in a image as the scene was so large. There was another photographer there capturing the scene as well that I made quick acquaintance with. He said he had never seen a sunset like this here and he had been coming there years. I told him these sort of things happen to me. He said “your really living the life”. I said “It’s God”.
Nightscape scene about a half mile from my hut
The morning I left over Lake Magog
Just before sunset near Lake Kananaskis
Small part of sunset from Lake Kananaskis
Another section of sunset from Lake Kananaskis
Sunset on Lake Kananaskis
Photographer John Anderson caught me in my element at Lake Kananaskis