Advice for Trip to Glacier, Banff and Alberta

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mendo
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p.1 #1 · Advice for Trip to Glacier, Banff and Alberta

Taking a two week vacation in July and heading first to Montana (Glacier Park) and then heading to Alberta for the Stampede for 3 days. Thinking of going to Banff and maybe Jasper, if there is enough time. Hoping to get some input on great spots to shoot in any of these places. Those who have been please share your insight. Thanks

Jun 09, 2012 at 07:10 PM

Camperjim
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p.1 #2 · Advice for Trip to Glacier, Banff and Alberta

I don't want to sound too flippant but pretty much any direction you point your camera will be great. I especially liked the Many Glacier area. I also camped at the Cut Bank campground and really liked the hiking and lack of crowds (no campers over about 22)'. I skipped Banff but did the mandatory sunrise photos at Lake Louise. All the areas of the iceroad highway and around Jasper are spectacular. There are some current threads on Peyto lake.

Jun 09, 2012 at 07:25 PM

Scott Stoness
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p.1 #3 · Advice for Trip to Glacier, Banff and Alberta

Mendo:
It is a little over an hour to Banff from Calgary
It is about 3 more hours to Jasper. But photographers would take 8 hours.

Realistically if you want to take in both Banff and Jasper - plan on 5 days for both. 4 could be done but less than that will not get good pictures, just travel shots. If less just visit Banff area.

Let me suggest:

- Go to Banff Park - the best easy shots at this time of year are Vermillion Lake, Herbert Lake (5 km up Icefields Parkway), and 2Jack Lake (near Minnewanka). Moraine Lake is nice but low on water for another month. Vermillion sunrise one day. Possibly sunset looking the opposit way down Bow River (under Castle Bridge).
Grizzlies best bet is early or late on Bow Valley Parkway
Bighorn on highway 1A near exshaw on the way to Banff
Elk on minnewanka road in early morning

- Drive to Jasper. On the way - Catch Herbert Lake at sunrise, then drive to Peyto Lookout for an early morning shot. And then just stop along the road to Jasper whereever it looks good (which is most everwhere).
- In Jasper - I suggest - Medicine Lake (close end in the rocks for sunset) and Mt Edith Cavel (sunrise near hostel). Medicine Lake is easy to get to and a great sunset. Edit Cavel is great sunrise. Watch for bears.

Look for mountain goats near athabasca falls on the highway and just short of Columbia Glacier on the way back.
Watch for bears on Edith Cavell Drive and Maligne Lake drive
Lots of elk everywhere near jasper late and early

Jun 09, 2012 at 08:11 PM

johncmc
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p.1 #4 · Advice for Trip to Glacier, Banff and Alberta

Mendo,
This is not landscape exactly, but it seems many landscape photographers are also railroad photographers and trains often look really nice in landscape photos. If you have any railroad interest at all, when you arrive in Glacier find the Isaac Walton Inn. This is the site of one of the many James J. Hill stories. The continental divide runs thorugh Glacier. His Great Northern Railway had to have pusher engines to help the regular trains across the divide. In the winter the railroad maintained a large crew to keep the tracks free of ice and snow. The engine crews and the track crews were housed in a barracks building right outside the park. Hill returned to Minneapolis/St. Paul from an inspection tour one summer and told his marketing VP that there was a barracks at Glacier less than half full. (In the summer, only train crews were housed there.) Find some way to make money off that building, he demanded. The VP called the big hotels in the area and asked who if anyone was going to Montana but refusing to pay the price for four star accomodations. The answer was consistent--the fishermen. The VP renamed the barracks The Isaac Walton Inn and started selling railroad/fishing packages. The place filled up and has been full ever since. The restaurant is good. The decor is 100% railroad. It is one of the most welcoming hotels I have ever visited but never stayed in. And, in order to enlarge the sleeping capacity, about a dozen caboose all painted in the classic design for their road sit in the forest surrounding the Inn. The main line of the BNSF crosses the continental divide along U.S. Highway 2 (Theodore Roosevelt Highway) very nearby. There are a lot of trains and the highway parallels the track. Thanks to Montana's extremely high speed limits, you can outrun the trains, stop on a rise, set up and be ready to shoot when the locomotive passes.

John C. "Captain Adventure" McLemore--Franklin, TN

Jun 09, 2012 at 08:59 PM

pliukait
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p.1 #5 · Advice for Trip to Glacier, Banff and Alberta

And don't forget Waterton Lakes National Park, across the border from Glacier National Park.
http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/ab/waterton/index.aspx

Take the Chief Mountain Highway, Montana 17 off of US 89.

It is worth the drive. From Waterton Lakes it is 3hrs to Calgary.

Jun 09, 2012 at 09:13 PM

time2clmb
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p.1 #6 · Advice for Trip to Glacier, Banff and Alberta

All the areas of the iceroad highway and around Jasper are spectacular

It's not an iceroad. It's called the Ice"fields" parkway.

Jun 09, 2012 at 09:34 PM

Go4Long
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p.1 #7 · Advice for Trip to Glacier, Banff and Alberta

johncmc wrote:
Mendo,
This is not landscape exactly, but it seems many landscape photographers are also railroad photographers and trains often look really nice in landscape photos. If you have any railroad interest at all, when you arrive in Glacier find the Isaac Walton Inn. This is the site of one of the many James J. Hill stories. The continental divide runs thorugh Glacier. His Great Northern Railway had to have pusher engines to help the regular trains across the divide. In the winter the railroad maintained a large crew to keep the tracks free of ice and snow. The engine crews and the track crews were housed in a barracks building right outside the park. Hill returned to Minneapolis/St. Paul from an inspection tour one summer and told his marketing VP that there was a barracks at Glacier less than half full. (In the summer, only train crews were housed there.) Find some way to make money off that building, he demanded. The VP called the big hotels in the area and asked who if anyone was going to Montana but refusing to pay the price for four star accomodations. The answer was consistent--the fishermen. The VP renamed the barracks The Isaac Walton Inn and started selling railroad/fishing packages. The place filled up and has been full ever since. The restaurant is good. The decor is 100% railroad. It is one of the most welcoming hotels I have ever visited but never stayed in. And, in order to enlarge the sleeping capacity, about a dozen caboose all painted in the classic design for their road sit in the forest surrounding the Inn. The main line of the BNSF crosses the continental divide along U.S. Highway 2 (Theodore Roosevelt Highway) very nearby. There are a lot of trains and the highway parallels the track. Thanks to Montana's extremely high speed limits, you can outrun the trains, stop on a rise, set up and be ready to shoot when the locomotive passes.

John C. "Captain Adventure" McLemore--Franklin, TN

Also for the Railroad Enthusiast, the Bow Valley Parkway from Banff to Lake Louise has one of the great railway corners for trainfans, Morrant's Curve. Depending on the month and time of day (whether or not the track is shut down for maintenance for a couple hours a day etc) you can expect to see trains through this section of track at least once an hour.

The corner is closer to Louise than Banff, there's a little pull out to the right if you're coming from Banff.

January 23 by Steven Szabo, on Flickr

Jun 11, 2012 at 02:42 PM

mendo
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p.1 #8 · Advice for Trip to Glacier, Banff and Alberta

Guys-

Thanks for all the great info.

Jun 11, 2012 at 06:49 PM

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