The Columbia Icefield

We took a day trip yesterday two hours north to the Columbia Icefield. It's a remarkable place. A huge shelf of ice set among mountain peaks feeds six large glaciers. The center is the world's only triple continental divide - the glacier runoff drains into the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic oceans. One of them, the Athabasca Glacier, ends not too far from the highway, although it is receding at 3 to 6 meters a year.

You take a behemoth ice bus from near the bottom right up in the middle of the thing, where you can get out and walk around. Below, Mrs. C makes sure everyone know where she's been. 

Note the bottom photo. There are markers for the end of the ice in years past. I was using a telephoto and the edge of the ice is a lot farther away than it looks. This glacier system provides much of the water for western Canada. If it shrinks much more there will be trouble.                

Around Banff

Monday turned out to be a much nicer day than was forecast.  We just stayed in town. Several of these pictures are of the Bow River, It starts in a glacier to the north and was one of the rivers responible for the inundation of Calgary a few weeks ago. The second photo is the Banff Springs Hotel, established well over a century ago by the Canadian Pacific Railroad. It's an historic place where you can quickly empty your bank account for a small room. The last three pictures were taken after dinner just outside our hotel room.

Long drive today up to the Columbia Glacier. You can take a special vehicle out on the ice and actually have a walk around. The weather should be perfect.                        

In The Canadian Rockies

Looks like Ansel Adams wannabe time. We're up in the town of Banff in the spectacular Canadian Rockies. Mrs. C thinks that is Mt. Cascade in the top photo (but how would I know?). I'm sure the bottom one is Mt. Rundle, taken from behind our hotel room at The Juniper Hotel just outside of town.

The middle picture is Lake Louise, one of the main local photo ops. The skies have been rather dull, not ideal for photography, but this shot will do. It's pretty, but unless you are a serious hiker there's nothing to do but exclaim "How beautiful!' and take some snaps. And the place is bloody overrun with tourists. 15 or 20 minutes circling the parking lots.

Some observations about Canada:

The people are simply delightful. I have to add the Canadians to my list of the sweetest people on earth, up there with the Irish, Nepalese and Costa Ricans.

The average body mass index of people at the Calgary Stampede is a fraction of those at Fair St. Louis.

There are far fewer people with tattoos than the US. Not none, but not many.

The speed limits on Canadian highways are way slow compared to the US and Europe. Safety first, eh?

It's supposed to rain off and on today. Don't know what we will do.                    

Rodeo

You might want to click this for background music while you read this post.

One of the not-to-be-missed events at the Calgary Stampede is the afternoon rodeo. First time for me. I'm not well acquainted with horses in general. The last time I sat astride one was when I was 5 and my mother had my picture taken on a pony. I've ridden a camel more recently. Anyway, it was a terrific show, even if I had no appreciation for the finer points.

There are lots more rodeo pictures on my hard drive. (There are a lot more pictures of everything.) We're in Banff now,in the spectacular Canadian Rockies. Supposed to be rainy today but it might make for some moody, atmospheric shots.                           

It's Yahoo!, Not Yee Haw!

Greetings from Calgary, Alberta, where it's still Friday. Our first few days here at the Calgary Stampede have been fascinating and exhausting. I hit a personal best or worst on Thursday, taking 2,123 photos, although many were repeated shots of the same subject, trying to get exposure and composition just right.

There were so many exciting things to see that I can only touch the surface in this post. That's me and Mrs. C in the top pic, doing the hi, kids, pose. Below, several shots from the ceremonies of the Canadian indigenous peoples. Farther down, two young women promoting a local radio station snack on the famous Canadian delicacy, chocolate covered bacon on a stick.

By the way, at least half of the people around here are wearing cowboy hats. It's no more unusual than baseball fans wearing a Cardinals hat at Busch Stadium. And we were instructed that the proper etiquette is to cheer someone on by shouting yahoo! The expression yee haw is for those, um, Texans.

So much more to come.               

Thursday Arch Series

Last pic from The Lou for a while. This was taken last Saturday night before we watched the fireworks from a 40th floor downtown restaurant. There's a lot of water down there. The view looks east toward the Mississippi and the plains of Illinois.

Out and about at the Calgary Stampede today.                         

Meanwhile In St. Louis

Meanwhile in St. Louis . . . what? Who cares? I'm outta here for eight days. A somewhat unusual Thursday Arch picture tomorrow and then cowboys and Indians, bustin' broncos, ten gallon hats and prize steers, followed by mountains, glaciers and icy, pristine lakes. Trip theme songs here and here.

The photo is from Paint Louis, the recently redecorated part of the Mississippi River floodwall.