Fine Art Travel Photography Archives - Page 2 of 11

Castles, Mountains and Lakes in Switzerland and Germany

May 14, 2016 by Prem Leave a Comment

If you’re interested in seeing pictures of castles, mountains and lakes, keep reading!!

This trip started because my friend Ben and I just turned 40 this year. We’ve been doing landscape photography trips together for nearly 20 years and decided to go somewhere good! Cheridy and I went to some of these regions on our honeymoon but that was before I knew how to take good pictures so I was really excited to go back.

Here is a highlight slideshow that also contains video clips that I did not include in the blog post below.

5/3/16 Day 1
Today was strictly a travel day. Here’s a helpful tip for Michigan folks; Check pricing on Air Canada from Windsor or Toronto. I was able to get my flight for $650 instead of $1300 by flying from Toronto instead of Detroit. It was worth the 4 hour drive to save that much money!

5/4/16 Day 2
We both were coming from two different parts of the United States but we were able to get flights that landed within 30 minutes of each other and we met up in the baggage claim area of the Munich airport.
The first stop on our trip was Schloss Linderhoff which was a roughly 2 hour drive from the airport. It was a quaint little castle with beautifully manicured grounds in southern Germany.

Our next stop was Lake Plansee in Austria. It was roughly 20 minutes away but the direct road through the mountains was closed for construction so we had to drive 1.5 hours around. It was a pretty gloomy and gray day so the beautiful lake did not shine like it could have. We move on to our evening stop in Hohenschwangau Germany which was one of the top highlights for our trip; Neuschwanstein Castle.

There is a long and fairly steep walk to get up to the castle but it’s definitely worth it. There is also a bridge over a nearby waterfall that gives an unobstructed view of the castle with the valley behind it but unfortunately that was closed for construction.

That evening we also photographed the neighboring Castle Hohenschwangau which is also a very unique castle that is only a few hundred yards from Neuschwanstein Castle.

There is a small lake right next to the castle that is a beautiful place to enjoy nature.

That night I planned to get a few more aerial shots of the castles but I accidentally crashed my drone into a tree during a bad takeoff and it broke the camera off so that was unfortunate on our first day out photographing.
That evening we stayed at Pension Albrecht which had a balcony view of the castle (Room #5). Neuschwanstein Castle is 620m from the balcony according to our host. That evening we had a fantastic dinner at Alpenstupen Restaurant and did a few night shots of the castle once it was lit up.

5/5/16 Day 3
In the morning we woke up and did a few more castle photos before heading out on a long drive.

We drove from southern Germany into southern Switzerland as we headed towards Zermatt. On our way, one of the mountain passes (Furka) was closed and we had to put our car onto a train and have the train take us to the other side of the mountain. That was unexpected and interesting to say the least!
Zermatt is known for three things. It has amazing skiing and outdoor activities. It is a car free town so you have to park in the next town over (Tasch) and take a train in. It is at the base of the world famous Matterhorn mountain.

We stayed in the Superior room of Hotel Alpenblick which gave us a nice view from the balcony of the famous mountain. This gave us the chance to photograph it with the stars at night.

5/6/16 Day 4
We woke up first thing in the morning with the sunrise light (6:10am) to photograph the mountain once again.

After breakfast, we took the train back to our car in Tasch and then drove on to Sion. Sion is a beautiful city that mixes modern with medieval. There are two hills that rise up right in the middle of the city. One has a fortress, and the other has an old cathedral and chapel.
As we drove in, we found a spot on the expressway with a gorgeous view.

We then spent some time hiking up both hills and taking photos from different perspectives.

Our next stop was Chateau D’Aigle which is a beautiful castle surrounded by vineyards with a background of the Alps.
We found a good view from a road in the vineyards away from it.

Then we drove into the nearby Parc Naturael Regional Greuyere Pays-d’Enhaut. It was very pretty with towns speckled along the hillside. We drove out of the park towards the town of Gruyers. There was a pretty hilltop castle. It was REALLY crowded at the castle so we drove out by the air strip for pictures but we need to come back earlier in the day when the light is better.

We then drove to Lausanne which is an incredible city on the north shores of Lake Geneva. We spent a long time trying to find the cathedral which is one of the famous sites in Lausanne. It was easy to spot but difficult to drive to as we found the roads to be quite confusing even with GPS. We eventually made our way there and it was worth it!

Lausanne was the farthest west we would go on this trip. We then had a nice drive along the waterfront towards Montreux which is on the eastern end of Lake Geneva. Montreux is known for the famous Chateau de Chillon which is an incredible medieval castle with a jaw dropping mountain backdrop perched right on the shores of Lake Geneva.
Parking in the areas where the best views are was a bit challenging so we spent some time driving around to make sure we knew where to go at the right time of the evening for the best photos.

This evening, we stayed at Hotel du Port which we were not impressed by and we had dinner at their restaurant across the street; Restaurant Oasis. We did not love the food but the location right on the lake was very impressive.

5/7/16 Day 5
We got up nice and early to start a long day and also to photograph the beautiful morning light on the lake.

We headed back to Gruyers for some morning castle shots with the mountain backdrop. It was definitely worth going back to!

One of the things that kept catching my eye were the stunning golden fields. I googled it and found that they are fields of Canola flowers. The colorful fields and blossoming trees were gorgeous.

We then drove to Lake Thun where there were three beautiful little castles. The first was on the west side of the lake; Castle Shadeau with beautiful flowers and perfectly manicured grounds.

On the North side of the Lake was Schloss Oberhofen. It’s a really cool castle that sticks out into the water. We weren’t there at the best time of day for photography but I was still able to get a good shot.

I really liked the tunnel of vines on the opposite side of the castle.

On the South side of Lake Thun was Schloss Spietz. My favorite view of this castle was from the flower gardens in the front.

Behind the castle is a beautiful old chapel.

We then drove up the Lauterbrunnen valley with the towering peaks from the Alps on both sides. We stopped at Staubbach Falls which is a nearly 1000 ft. waterfall plummeting off the cliff. There were actually multiple falls in this area but this one was the most impressive.

The next stop was Grindelwald which is a quaint mountain town deep in the Alps. One of the main touristy things to do in Grindelwald is to take the Jungfrau railway to the top of Jungfraujoch. We planned to do that but although it was a clear day outside, there were deep clouds at the very top masking all the views so we stopped at Kleine Scheidegg and got some good mountain and snow pics. The train up the mountain is an impressive cog railway system. The big bank of clouds in the background are where the train goes to if you take it all the way to the top. Jungfraujoch is the highest train station in the world.

This picture blows me away. I didn’t notice when I was taking the picture but when editing it, I had it blown up large on my monitor and noticed right near the middle of the picture is a hut. What a crazy place to build!!

Around Grindelwald, they have some hotels that are really high up in the mountains that you can only get to by cable car. Unfortunately all of those were booked already (or possibly not open for the season yet). We found a hotel that was ok, not worth blogging about, and after checking in, we ended up driving back down the mountain towards Interlachen and then on towards Lake Brienze which is another huge lake on the opposite side of Lake Thun from Interlachen. We stopped at Schloss Isetwald for a few quick photos.

It was late in the day and we were hungry so we headed back to downtown Grindelwald for dinner and then stayed around to do some evening photos of the town.

Wow, that was a lot of stuff for one day!

5/8/16 Day 6
In the mountains, there is often not much of a sunrise because the mountains block a lot of the light so we slept in a bit this morning before we got up to get on the road. As we were driving towards Engelberg we stopped at an overlook with the little town of Lungern below.

On our way there, I had to laugh when I looked up at the GPS and saw THIS:

It was a circular corkscrew like tunnel in the mountain with a set of switchbacks on top of it!!

Anyway, we then drove up the Engelberg valley and took the Mt. Titlus cable car up to the top of the mountains. There were LOTS of people!!! It was also extremely windy up there!! It was beautiful but really cold at the top.

The last section of cable car is actually a rotating cable car. It rotates 360 degrees by the time you get to the top. Although that seemed awesome at first, when you cram it full of 30 people and you’re all smushed together…it’s not as enjoyable as you might think.

At the top of the mountain, they also have a suspension bridge called the Cliff Walk that you can walk out on. It is at an elevation of about 10,000 ft. However, we were up in a cloud and couldn’t see much of anything…although it was still pretty cool!

If you watched the video at the top of this post, I put in a quick time lapse clip from the cable car on the ride down to Engelberg.

Next we drove to what ended up being one of my favorite spots on the trip. We found an unexpected surprise with Schloss Meggenhorn on Lake Lucerne. It’s a small Chateau built on a hill with an incredible view of the entire lake. The grounds are amazing and behind the castle is a hill that you can go up with even more magnificent views. We were blown away by how beautiful it was there on this perfect 75 degree day with blue skies and white puffy clouds.

Just up the road was Neuhabsburg Castle but that is private property so we could only get a quick photo from a few blocks away.

From there we headed down to Vitznau on the coast of Lake Lucerne where we would connect with another cog railway that would take us up Mt. Rigi. The train ride up has spectacular views as you get higher and higher above Lake Lucerne.

Mt. Rigi has a hotel right at the very top but it wasn’t open for the season yet so we stayed at Hotel Alpina at the train stop called Rigi Kaltbad-First. It’s a nice little hotel and restaurant with some pretty views of the Alps. Just know that despite the creative photos they advertise with, there are obstructed views due to the train station and an apartment complex. It was still a nice place to sit and enjoy the evening.

We took the train the rest of the way up to the top of Mt Rigi. Everything was closed so we just took some pics and enjoyed the fresh mountain air.

That evening we had dinner at the hotel and just watched the light color change in the mountains.

It’s pretty awesome to be able to get a photo like this from your hotel balcony!

5/9/16 Day 7
The next morning we took the first train down the mountain and then drove to Naturpark Thal which had an old medieval castle on a hill above the town.

From there, it was on to Aarburg which is a medieval city built on a hill. We didn’t go into the city but just found a couple of unique vantage points.

We drove on to Schaffhausen with the Kleinfall waterfall. It was like a mini Niagara Falls with boat tours that would take people out to experience the mist and power of the water.

The next stop is Sigmaringen Castle looming above the river. We had light and color to capture this amazing scene and even had a white swan floating in the river.

Next we went to Hohenzollern castle. It’s a huge castle on top of a hill with a view of the town below. To view the castle we went to the next mountain over which was called Zellerhorn. It was a 20 minute walk from the parking lot to a beautiful overlook with the majestic castle in the distance. This is one of my favorite views from the trip.

I misplanned the last day of the trip and didn’t leave us enough to do. Instead of having a relaxing day to unwind before our flight home, we decided to drive all the way over to Austria so that we could have one more day exploring the Alps. It was too late in the day to drive all the way so we had a long drive back towards Munich and stayed at a nice hotel called hotel Mutz where they had a terrific breakfast spread.

5/10/16 Day 8
We got up early and drove in Munich rush hour to head towards the mountains in Austria. Unfortunately the weather was pretty miserable and it was grey and raining all day. Our first plan was to drive up the Grossglockner high alpine road for a true mountain driving experience. We had a few stops that led to some fun pictures. We saw this waterfall on a mountainside across the valley.

When we got to the top of the mountain pass, we were definitely up in the clouds! It was neat to look down and see the switch-backed road below.

The occasional breaks in the clouds were beautiful!

As we drove back down the mountain, we had a quick stop in a town called Hieligenblut which has a high steepled church that commands attention.

Next we drove a few more hours to Hallstatt. Hallstaat is one of the most photogenic towns in the world. It sits right on a beautiful lake. BUT…it was pouring rain and the only good viewpoint of the town we had to walk to so we skipped it because the photos wouldn’t have been good anyway.
Here is a picture that I had taken from there about 10 years ago.

Today we spent almost 12 hours in the car and due to the rough weather, we really didn’t see much but…all the other days on our trip were fantastic so we shouldn’t be complaining!

We started driving back to Munich and I had to stop for one more photo of the yellow Canola fields.

5/11/16 Day 9
Today was a travel day to fly home. The only thing I want to add to this blog post is just a couple of travel tips for if you are traveling in Germany, Austria or Switzerland.

1) The booking.com iPhone app is fantastic for booking hotels quickly while in Europe!

2) Make sure to read your rental car agreement carefully. Ben found a deal for $150 for a car for the week. When we got to Germany we were told that we had to pay an additional $600 due to other local fees and insurance. Even though Ben’s credit card provided insurance, since we didn’t have anything in writing, they required us to buy their insurance which was almost $450 of that extra fee. The paperwork that he received in the Stats said that we didn’t need the insurance as long as we were covered but they never mentioned bringing written documentation. They would not give us the car unless we signed up for the extra fees and if we didn’t, we would have lost the $150 that we had already paid. I advise that you don’t rent from Dollar, Thrifty, or Hertz if you go to the Munich airport. They are partners out there.

3) Some countries require you buy a vignette which is a driving pass which allows you to drive on the highways of that country. You can only buy them at gas stations near the borders and they are typically inexpensive. The vignette for Austria lasts for 10 days and I think it was around $10. The one for Switzerland is good for a year and that one was around $40.

4) If you need to take any trains or cable cars or anything, The google maps app typically has current schedules for everything.

5) If you want to use your Verizon phone while traveling? They have a travel pass which is $10 per day which allows you to use your standard minutes and data with no additional roaming or long distance charges as long as you are calling home or calling within the country that the pass is for. It worked really good for me. However, it didn’t always do a good job picking up the right carrier and sometimes I had to switch the carrier from auto selection to manually select one and I would then get a much better connection. When I landed in Munich I had no service which I couldn’t understand. Meanwhile Ben was picking up a full LTE signal from a different carrier. Once I switched, I was fine.

6) Many hotels will have a free breakfast included which typically has bread, meats, cheeses, hard boiled eggs, croissants, jelly, cereal, milk, orange juice, tea/coffee. Definitely try to stay at a place with a free breakfast as it will save quite a bit of time and money.

I hope these travel tips were helpful!

Family road trip around the southwest national parks

March 19, 2016 by Prem Leave a Comment

In early March, we decided to bring the boys on a family road trip around the southwest national parks. It was a perfect opportunity to teach them about the southwest region of our country along with some history lessons and some hands-on photography classes. THIS is just one of the reasons we were excited to homeschool.
Here is a journal of where we went and what we did. These photos are a blend of images taken by me (Prem) with a Canon 5dMK3 and an iphone 6s along with a few photos that the boys took of each other using Canon Rebel xti cameras.

3/1/16

Today was strictly a travel day. We flew to Phoenix, rented a minivan, met up with my friend Ben for dinner, and then drove one hour to Camp Verde where we stayed the night.

3/2/16

This morning we woke up nice and early, had breakfast at the hotel and then went off to explore Montezuma Castle National Monument.

The boys have been learning about the Anasazi Indians so being able to see some of their cliff dwellings first hand was pretty cool.

Next, we drove half an hour through Sedona and over to Red Rock Crossing and did a short hike and took some photos. The light was really bad for pics, but the kids had a blast.

On our way out of the area we drove back through Sedona and stopped off for a beautiful view of Sedona from the top of Airport Rd.

We then drove out to head to the Grand Canyon. A little ways south of the Grand Canyon is an old Chevron station that will often have some old classic vehicles. Today that had an amazing old motorcycle.

We arrive at the Grand Canyon around 3:30pm and jumped on their shuttle that goes around the rim loop. We got off the shuttle at Powell Point and then hiked along the rim trail to Navajo Point with lots of stops for pictures. The afternoon light wasn’t fantastic for landscape photos but it was perfect for some good family time.
http://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/upload/sr-pocket-map.pdf

As sunset got closer, we took the bus to Pima point and planned to watch the sunset at Yavapai Point but we ran out of time and couldn’t make it back there before sunset. So, we went back to Mohave Point for sunset.

Mayz was really getting into the photography and getting more comfortable working with his camera.

We then took the shuttle back to where the van was and then drove one hour to the Cameron trading post for a very mediocre dinner. However, there were no other options and we were super hungry! Rather than staying in Cameron, we decided to continue on to Page which was another 1.5 hour drive. It had already been a long and tiring day but getting to Page would allow for us to see the sunrise at Horseshoe Bend tomorrow. On our way to Page, the night sky was just magnificent!! Cheridy and the boys saw an amazing shooting star. I missed it because I was setting up for this shot.

We drove the rest of the way to Page and stayed the night in the hotel.

3/3/16

The next morning we work up at 5:15am so we could go watch the sunrise at one of my favorite places…Horseshoe Bend!
It was a pretty rough morning. Yesterday was a REALLY long day the kids didn’t get to bed until 11:00pm and then getting up super early was difficult. But, we made it! The Horseshoe Bend parking area is only a 5 minute drive outside of Page and then it’s a roughly 20 minute walk from the parking area to get to the cliff edge. The walk was fine, but the wind at the cliff edge was really cold and it was not the most enjoyable stop. However, it was very beautiful.

The kids were cold and tired and other than Mayz, they didn’t take a lot of pictures.

The funniest moment here was when Reid starting singing “I found a bag of money, I found a bag of money!!” and then another photographer out there looked at him and said “Um…that’s poop dude.” We all had a great laugh when we looked at what Reid was holding.

After the Horseshoe Bend excursion, we went back to the hotel for breakfast and to pack up. Our next stop was going to be a photography tour of Upper Antelope Canyon. We signed up for a tour, but the tour company we went with was really tough to work with, inflexible and difficult to book. They also packed our tour with way too many people. Others companies said to not do more than 6 photographers due to all the tripods and people getting in each others way. They had 9 of us in the group.
For those that aren’t familiar, Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon on Navajo land. It was formed over thousands of years by wind and water and provides photographers with limitless opportunities to capture beautiful abstract shapes. Over the last few years, it has become insanely popular and the difficult part about that is that it is a very small canyon so when you fit hundreds of people in this tiny canyon, it gets a bit crazy. It is also very expensive due to the popularity.
On our photography tour, we were grateful to be able to travel one direction without too many people in the photos. Our guide did a good job of making sure we could get some clean photos. On the way back, it was like herding cattle into a corral. It was shoulder to shoulder and there were probably 15 jeeps from the various tour companies all parked by the entrance.
The boys did great as they all used their tripods and received a lot of help from Cheridy to take photos inside the slot.
Here’s a quick iphone shot showing what the entrance to the canyon looks like.

After our tour of the canyon, we headed out of Page and stopped at the Wahweep overlook of Lake Powell for a lunch stop.

We then drove the two hours to get over to Zion National Park and our first stop was to hike the Overlook Trail which is a short and easy trail to a beautiful viewpoint with views of one section of this magnificent national park.

After the overlook hike, we drove to the main bridge over the Virgin river. I was hoping to do photos of the Watchman mountain at sunset but the sun didn’t cooperate.
The boys still had a great time taking photos by the river and playing around.

We stayed the night in Springdale just outside the park.

3/4/16

This morning started with an amazing hike to Scout Lookout. It’s just under a 4 mile hike round trip and about 1100 ft. of elevation gain/loss. We weren’t sure how well the boys would do because they’ve never been on a hike like that before and some of the areas were definitely steep and tiring. Kole did fantastic, he led the way. Mayz and Reid struggled and whined a bit at first, but then they got into it and had a blast. The view from Scout Lookout is incredible. For those that are more adventurous, you can continue on to Angel’s Landing which another few hundred feet up. It requires chains in some areas to avoid from dropping off a 1000 ft. cliff edge and is probably not good for kids, or anyone with vertigo for that matter. I even watched a few people on all 4s in some of the areas that were really narrow. The view from up here is one of the most dazzling views in the entire United States.

One of the most memorable moments on the trip was from the hike down. Reid literally high-fived every single person that we passed. That boy has an amazing gift to make people smile.

We spent the next few hours having lunch and driving around to a few other spots in Zion. Two of my favorites are Big bend and Court of the patriarchs.

In the afternoon, we started our drive towards Bryce Canyon National Park.

We stopped off at Red Canyon on the way to the park for a short hike and for a chance to just get out, stretch our legs and take some pictures.

We arrived at Bryce Canyon just in time for some beautiful sunset light at Sunset Point.

3/5/16

The next morning, we had another really early morning to photograph the sunrise. Sunrise at Bryce is an amazing thing to see. It’s incredibly beautiful there.
We started off at Inspiration Point.

All of the viewpoints are great. However, for the sunrise photos I actually wanted pics where we were more submerged IN the landscape. We decided to go back to Sunset Point as that is oddly one of the best viewpoints for SunRISE. We walked 5 minutes down the Navajo Trail towards the rock formation known as Thor’s hammer and this area was magnificent for pics.

We then drove over to Bryce point for a beautiful almost 300 degree panorama of this incredible landscape. This was probably our favorite view that really shows off all the Hoodoos and cool rock formations.

We headed out of Bryce and spent a couple hours driving through Escalante National Monument. Escalante has some really unique areas. As we were driving through, we passed a cool cave on the side of the road that was begging to be explored.

Our next stop was Capital Reef National Park. The Gifford Farm is a really neat place among the towering red cliffs.

There are also a number of Petroglyphs carved into the cliff walls. As we were looking at these carvings, I was trying to imagine life in this area at the time these were made.

One of my favorite things was the stark skeletons of the cottonwood trees with the cliff walls as a backdrop. What a beautiful abstract.

We then spent another couple hours driving towards Moab which was our destination for the night.
We were arriving just in time for some beautiful evening light at Dead Horse Point which provides a magnificent view of the Colorado River snaking it’s way through this ancient landscape.

I was hoping to catch the last evening light in Canyonlands National Park so we hightailed it out there and made it to my favorite spot which is the Green River Overlook. It was too cloudy but that still led to some dramatic pics.

3/6/16

We had a slow morning, the rain kept us from doing sunrise pics but we still headed into Arches National Park around 10:00am and we explored the Windows area which is my favorite part of the park.

After exploring and climbing around the north and south window along with Turret arch, we went a few hundred yards over to Double Arch.

We made a few other stops in Arches and then headed back to Canyonlands National Park. Our first stop was for a short hike at Mesa Arch which is an iconic photo op from this part of the world. The arch is right at the edge of a steep cliff and it frames the Lasalle Mountains in the background.

We spent some time driving to a few other viewpoints include the end of the road on the island in the sky which is Grand View Point. However, the Green River Overlook is a more impressive view so we just went back there.

We then went to the Schafer trail overlook for a quick stop.

At this part of the trip, Mayz was like my shadow trying to take a lot of the same pictures which was pretty cool.

We exited the park and went to catch the sunset at Dead Horse Point. There were beautiful skies on the way there but too many clouds blocking the sun for a good sunset.

We headed into Moab for a terrific dinner at the Spoke restaurant and then it was off to bed.

3/7/16

We started the day with a 1 hour drive to Newspaper Rock State Historical Monument which is an amazing collection of ancient carvings.

That was follow by a 2 hour drive to Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde is an extremely unique place in our amazing country. The area is riddled with indian cliff dwellings and it’s pretty amazing to see all those places where people once lived. The most impressive of these areas is the Cliff Palace which is basically a whole town built into the side of a cliff. They built in these areas because they were really hard to access which meant it was very difficult for attackers to get to them. Can you even imagine that life?

We then drove one hour to the four corners where, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado all come together. We planned to go take a quick family pic right on the point but didn’t feel like paying $25 to the Navajo just to go take a selfie so we kept driving. Another 1.5 hours and we got to Monument Valley. This is one of the most iconic locations America. We got there just in time to enjoy some beautiful evening light.

We stayed the night at the View hotel which is correctly named. Every room has an amazing view of the valley. I decided to setup my tripod on the balcony and do some star trail photos. The streak in the foreground is from car headlights driving through the valley.

3/8/16

We planned on doing a private sunrise tour of monument valley to go to some of the places that are inaccessible without a tour. However, at night, the forecast was saying that it was going to be heavy overcast most of the night and morning so we decided to not pay for an expensive sunrise tour.
When I woke up in the morning, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

We spent about an hour in the morning doing the drive on our own which was still really nice and then we had some cereal on our hotel balcony before hitting the road.

We drove 2 hours from Monument Valley to Canyon De Chelly and then spent the next couple hours on the south rim drive and checked out all the ruins and overlooks.
Mayz had been really excited to see Spider Rock so that was our first stop.

The other main location and famous stop is the White House Ruins

We then drove another2 hours to Holbrook and checked out the Wigwam hotel along with the old rundown trucks nearby.

After that, it was follow by a 3.5 hour drive back to my friend Ben’s house where we stayed the night.

3/9

Yesterday was a LONG day of driving so today was just a fun relaxing day where we hung out at the house.

Yes, we did play putt putt with a hammer.

In the evening we met up for a wonderful dinner at our friend Gail’s house and had dinner with her, her daughter Tracy, son-in-law Case, along with my friend Ben and his girlfriend Dena. The kids all had a blast swimming and playing in the yard.

3/10

Today was our travel day. After a 2000 mile road trip. we were ready to fly home. We had a safe and uneventful trip home which is just the way I like it!!

1800 Mile Northern Lights Photography Road Trip in Michigan

October 11, 2015 by Prem Leave a Comment

As many of you know, one of my passions is landscape and travel photography. Every year I try to go out and take some beautiful pictures that show off some corner of the Earth. This year my friend Ben and I decided to take a northern lights road trip in Michigan. I’ve never properly captured the beauty in my own home state. Ben and I have been on a quest to photograph the northern lights. We went all the way to Iceland last year but didn’t get to see them. We had heard that northern Michigan is a great viewing area in October so that was one of our main goals along with fall color.

Day 1 – 10/2/15

The start of our trip was very goomy, cloudy and windy. We ended up driving straight through to the Mackinaw bridge.

Gloomy Mackinaw Bridge
After crossing the bridge, we headed west and crossed over the Upper Cut River bridge. It’s a really cool area that would have looked even more impressive with some fall color. Unfortunately we learned that the fall color this year is delayed a week due to an abnormally warm September.

michigan_2015_0012

Underneath the bridge is a fun door, that was clearly put in by someone with a sense of humor.

Upper Cut River Bridge

We continued on to Manistique and stopped for a quick photo of the lighthouse.

Manistique Light House

Our next stop was Munising falls which led us down a 1/4 mile paved trail to this pretty 50′ waterfall.

Munising Falls, MI

A few miles down the road is the Miners Castle overlook that is part of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
It is a beautiful lookout point with green/blue water that is mesmerizing.

michigan_2015_0046 Miners Castle. Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

We needed to find a hotel for the night. The first place we went was out of rooms and only had a 3 bedroom vacation home. That was much more than we needed so we passed and spent the next half hour calling around. We called about 20 hotels and ALL of them were full. So, we went back inside and rented the vacation home. At the back of the hotel we were treated to an exquisite sunset over the South Bay. I really loved the little old dock.

michigan_2015_0064 Munising, MI sunset

In hopes of catching the northern lights, we woke up every hour to check the night sky but it stayed cloudy all night.

Day 2 – 10/3/15

The next morning also started out cloudy. However, cloudy days are perfect for photographing waterfalls.
We started out with Tannery Falls which was an easy 10 minute hike to this beautiful 40′ waterfall.

Tannery Falls, Munising, MI

We moved on to Alger Falls which is a 20′ waterfall literally on the side of the highway.

Alger Falls, Munising, MI

Next was Wagner Falls which is another 20′ waterfall that is accessible down a short and easy path.
With easy accessibility, there were a lot of people out here so we had to wait our turn to get an unobstructed view of the falls.

Wagner Falls, Munising, MI

We then stopped at Horseshoe Falls. This 30′ waterfall is located on private property. They charge $12 per car to come in and view the falls. It was a very pretty waterfall and due to the cost, nobody else was there so it was nice to have the whole scene to ourselves.

michigan_2015_0192 Horseshoe Falls, Munising, MI

We then started driving west out of Munising on highway 28 and made a quick stop at Deer Lake where we had some still water which made for a nice reflection of the trees.

Deer Lake, MI

We headed south on the H01 / Rock River Road. It is a really pretty tree covered road where the trees make a beautiful canopy. This also would have been amazing with some fall color but it was still pretty nonetheless.

H01 Rock River Road Tunnel of Trees

Our next stop was to Laughing White Fish Falls. It’s an easy 20 minute hike out to this 100′ waterfall. However, in my opinion the only interesting part of the waterfall is the top 20′ so we didn’t climb down to the bottom, but rather stayed at the top.

Laughing Whitefish Falls, Munising, MI

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Photo Courtesy of Ben Sabo

As we started going farther west, we started to see more fall color showing up in the trees.

Fall color in northern Michigan

The next stop was Bond Falls. This is also one of the more touristy areas that we went to and for good reason. It has to be the most beautiful waterfall in Michigan. The fall colors were blazing and the waterfall was gushing.

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Walking a little farther up stream led to some beautiful scenes as well.

Bond Falls in northern, MI
Our stop for the evening was going to be in Ontonagan but we didn’t find any hotels that were in a good viewing area for the northern lights so we continued west and stayed in Silver City. The coastline provided for some beautiful scenes at sunset.

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Once again we woke up every hour to go check the sky for any northern lights. The stars were out brilliantly and the orange glow from the hotel lights lit up the trees in the foreground.

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There was a faint haze on the horizon that was definitely the northern lights. A long exposure in camera really picked up the beautiful color but to be honest, it wasn’t nearly this impressive in person. The cloud cover ended up getting thicker and thicker as the night went on.

Night sky in northern, mi. aurora borealis

Day 3 – 10/4/15

We were right on the border of the Porcupine Mountains so we drove up to Lake of the Clouds first thing in the morning. What a beautiful view!!

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We planned to visit a few other spots in the Porkies but the other main road was closed and we didn’t feel like driving all the way around. Instead, we drove out to O Kun De Kun Falls which is a 2.5 mile round trip hike. It leads to a really pretty and peaceful spot and it was nice to have it all to ourselves to get some cool photos.

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We took a long detour to Sturgeon Gorge Rd. and planned to hike out to Sturgeon Falls. However, our AAA map had the falls in completely the wrong spot and it took us a long time and a lot more driving on a dirt road to figure out where to go.
However, the road was gorgeous and led to some pretty scenes.

Sturgeon River Rd.

By the time we found the falls, we decided not to do the hike into the gorge because we wouldn’t have had enough time to make it back to go all the way to Copper Harbor before sunset. So we continued driving and made the long trek north. We arrived in Copper Harbor to a beautiful evening.

Copper Harbor, MI

Unfortunately the skies clouded over at night and obstructed any northern lights viewing.

Day 4 – 10/5/15

We started the morning with an amazing drive out of Copper Harbor and up to the top of Brockway Mountain for sunrise.
It was very windy and cold up there but totally worth it. The first turnoff is a beautiful lookout facing east for a sunrise view.

Brockway Mountain sunrise

Farther down the road is another another equally impressive viewpoint that gives almost 360 degree views.
Believe it or not but Brockway Mountain is the highest mountain road between the Alleghenies and the Rockies.

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It was very cloudy and the brilliant fall color was being muted. When checking the weather, it looked like it was going to clear off during the day and the following night so we decided to stay a second night in Copper Harbor for chances to finally see the elusive northern lights.
Since we were going to be around for a whole day and the weather was supposed to clear up later, we decided to loop back to Copper Harbor along the coast on Highway 26. This led to some beautiful coastal scenery especially at Esrey Park.

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We then looped back out to Copper Harbor and drove out on highway 41 to photograph another beautiful tunnel of trees.

Highway 41 tunnel of trees, mi

We then went back up Brockway Mountain a second time and it was completely different. The sun coming through the clear skies lit up the trees into a dazzling display of color.

michigan_2015_1140 Brockway Mountain, northern michigan fall color
We drove down the mountain and stopped for lunch at Eagle Harbor. Their pretty red lighthouse stood out against the blue sky and water.

Eagle Harbor Light House, MI

We spent most of the afternoon driving around the Keweenaw Peninsula and eventually made our way back to Copper Harbor.

michigan_2015_1163 michigan_2015_1171 Copper Harbor, MI
We seemed to be setup pretty good for the aurora tonight. Clear skies, perfect view north, and high solar activity.
We were NOT disappointed. There was a thin band of green going across the sky at 9:00pm but that didn’t develop into much more so we headed to sleep and then once again woke up every hour to take a look. At around 1:00am the band of green was much brighter and overhead so we got our cameras out and faced the windy/cold night. It was totally worth it!! Shortly after we went outside, the sky started to change and morph right before our eyes. Pointed bands of light started to show up and move across the sky and before we knew it, it looked like someone was taking a light pen and drawing patterns in the sky. It was incredible. That light show lasted half an hour before it calmed back down.

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I was chilled to the bone from being out in the cold and wind for so long and it took almost an hour to warm back up and fall asleep.
At 4:15am I got back up again and looked outside and another light show was going on. This time arched pulses of light that resembled the wifi icon on your smartphone were pulsing up through the sky. The moon was up but the stars were still bright and I had lots of opportunity for more photos for half an hour before calling it a night.

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Day 5 – 10/6/15

This morning we headed back out on the coastal drive of highway 26. The wind and waves provided some beautiful Lake Superior coastal scenes.

lake superior coastline

Our first awesome stop of the day came at the Canyon Falls roadside park just off of highway 41 south of Baraga.
A short 10 minute walk led to a spectacular gorge and waterfall.

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Next we headed back to Munising and hiked out to Miners Falls which is a gorgeous 50′ waterfall. It was an easy 1.2 mile hike to get to the falls and back.

michigan_2015_1473 Miners Falls, Munising

Upper Tahquemenon Falls was our next stop. This is probably the most famous waterfall in Michigan but it doesn’t compare to Bond Falls in my opinion. What’s really interesting though is that in just the few short days that we’ve been up here, the fall color on the east side of the upper peninsula is now showing up.

michigan_2015_1503 Upper Tahquemenon Falls

After a quick stop at the falls, we continued on to Mackinaw City. We scoped out some good spots to do some star/night photography and right as we were going to our hotel, we got a text alert saying that there was really high solar activity so we headed back out to our spot and even before the sky turned completely dark, we got a nice light show.

Northern Lights Mackinaw City, MI

Even though the northern lights weren’t super bright, the stars were blazing out there!
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We stayed out there for a few hours and we were able to get a few other nice photos of more light in the sky, but in reality, these photos looked more dramatic then the aurora actually was. Ben had a great idea of getting some shots with us in the foreground.

Northern lights, MI

Day 6 – 10/7/15

This morning we were greeting by an absolutely spectacular sunrise over Lake Huron. The funniest line of the trip was when Ben saw that sunrise, he said “Quick, grab your phone for a picture, you’re going to want to see this!” instead of “Quick, grab your super expensive dSLR camera and top of the line lenses.” Somehow our phones have become our default cameras now.

Sunrise over Lake Huron

We then drove through the Tunnel of Trees on M-119. There was no fall color yet but it was still very pretty.

Tunnel of trees, MI

By noon it had started to rain and I got one more quick photo from the side of the highway with this funky colored tree.

Fall color michigan
The rest of the day it rained so it was time to head home.
This was a very successful trip and I am super grateful to have been able to photograph all the important things from our list.
Our main goal was a northern lights photography road trip in Michigan and we got exactly that!

5 Days for a 2000 mile road trip in Arizona and Utah

May 10, 2015 by Prem Leave a Comment

Last week I did one of my landscape photography trips. I flew to Phoenix and met up with my friend Ben. We usually do some pretty ambitious trips where we try to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time. This trip was no different. We did about 2000 miles in 5 days. It was amazing to say the least. Going to northern Arizona and southern Utah, you pretty much expect clear blue skies which is not great for landscape photos. However, every day we were blessed with some amazing clouds which was awesome for our photos.

Day 1 – 4/29/15

Ben picked me up from the airport and we immediately started the 4.5 hour drive to Horseshoe Bend near Page, AZ. Horseshoe Bend is one of my favorite places in the world. It is unspoiled nature at it’s finest. When you walk up to the cliff edge, you get a 180 degree panoramic view of this incredible stretch of river cutting through Marble Canyon. There’s been a lot of changes here, it looks like the parking lot is 5X bigger than it used to be. Lots more people than we were used to seeing there but that didn’t take away from the spectacular view. We stayed until sunset to capture the evening light.

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After the sun went down, we walked back to the car and started the 2.5 hour drive to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. When we arrived at the Grand Canyon, it was well after dark. Rather than going to the hotel, we stopped in at a few of the viewpoints (Navajo Point and Moran point) on the east rim to photograph the canyon by moonlight. It was very peaceful there.

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That night we stayed at Red Feather Lodge in Tusayan which is just outside the park.

Day 2 – 4/30/15

After a 4:30 am alarm, it was only about a 15 minute drive to the Yavapai viewpoint to catch the sunrise. It was a very peaceful morning with no wind which made it very enjoyable to just sit and soak in the view.

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We then took the canyon rim shuttle to explore some of the other parts of the south rim. Our main stop was at Hopi point which gave some amazing views east and west.

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Next, we did a 3 hour drive over to Monument Valley where we met up with a tour guide from Monument Valley Safari.
Our tour guide was Toney who was a soft-spoken hard-working Navajo man.

He took us on a 3 hour drive up to the vista on Hunts Mesa which overlooks Monument Valley from the back side.
I asked him to stop to get a picture of the beautiful skies over El Capitan.

Arizona's El Capitan

It was a long and slow drive that was very bumpy which rattled your brain around. The trusty Suburban that we were driving in got stuck a few times but Toney managed to keep us on our way.
When we arrived at the top, the viewpoint took my breath away. It was incredible.

hunts mesa overlook

Toney went to set up camp and left Ben and I to explore for a few hours and photograph the sunset.

hunts mesa overlook

The clouds started to come in pretty thick but they broke here and there to give us some beautiful evening light.

hunts mesa overlook

After the sun went down, Toney came and picked us up and drove us to the campsite. He already had our tent prepared, a fire going, and dinner started.
He cooked us a T-bone steak, ribs, corn, and potatoes over the fire. It was AMAZING!!
After dinner was done, we just sat out and enjoyed a peaceful evening. It was so quiet out there…no breeze, no crickets, just silence.
Toney treated us to the full Navajo experience when he got his drum out and started to sing a Navajo song.

Day 3 – 5/1/15

The next morning we woke up at 5:00 am to photograph the stars. We were out there during a mostly full moon which washed out most of the night sky but just after 5:00, the moon set just before the first light of day. We were able to see the beautiful night sky with a quick view of the Milky Way.

night sky over hunts mesa

After we were done photographing the sky, Toney drove us a few miles away to another beautiful overlook which served as a perfect spot to watch the sunrise from behind Monument Valley.

sunrise from hunts mesa

We went back to the campsite where Toney cooked up spam, potatoes, eggs, fruit, etc. It’s probably been 20 years since I’ve eaten any spam.

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As we were cleaning up, I loved watching the morning light start to light up the brush and trees.

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We started the drive down back down into the valley. There was one stretch trying to get up a sand dune where we got stuck for a while. Thankfully we had some wood planks that helped get some traction. These suburbans definitely take a beating!!

Overall, it was an amazing trip and I highly recommend doing a trip with Toney from Monument Valley Safari.

When we got back to Ben’s truck in the late morning, we started the drive out of Monument Valley. Along highway 163 there is a beautiful look back towards the tribal lands.

monument valley highway 163

We spent the rest of the day driving towards Moab. We stopped at Goosenecks State Park, Natural Bridges National Monument, and the Needles District which is part of Canyonlands National Park. Unfortunately the mid-day light was flat and boring and none of these areas photographed well.
Sometimes it’s just the simple scenes that make the most interesting pictures.

puffy clouds

From there it was on to Moab. After checking in to our hotel we drove to the main part of Canyonlands National Park which is also known as the Island in the Sky.
There was a big storm coming through as we were driving into the park which made for some dramatic skies!

stormy skies above Canyonlands

We chased the evening light but we lost. Everywhere we went, we were at the wrong angle and just couldn’t get a good view of the sunset. There were lots of clouds so the sun was mostly hidden anyway. I was able to get a few pictures that I liked but we were running from one place to another trying to get the perfect spot and nothing was just right. Last time we were here was winter and the sun set much farther south than it did today so we just found ourselves in the wrong spots.

sunset in Canyonlands National Park

After the sun went down, we stopped for the evening with a clifftop view and setup for dinner. We had brought along some backpacker meals for just such an occasion. It made us realize that we hadn’t been backpacking together in 10 years.

clifftop dinner at canyonlands national park

Day 4 – 5/2/15

This morning we got up at 4:00am and headed to Arches National Park to photograph the stars over the rock formations. We headed to the Windows area where there are a number of very accessible arches. It was a another peaceful morning. The moonlight washed out most of the sky but there were still enough stars for some interesting photos. The moonlight was bright enough to light up the rocks at the North Window

stars through the north window in arches national park

From the North Window we had a nice view of Turret arch.

turret arch morning

We walked over to Turret Arch for a few images as well.

turret arch, arches national park

While waiting for the light to change, we took a few goofy portraits of ourselves. Ben mentioned that we’ve been friends for 21 years and it’s pretty cool that we can still goof around like we did when we were a lot younger.

silhouette of turret arch

As the morning sky started to get brighter, we went back over to the North Window and shared a beautiful sunrise through the arch with a number of other tourists/photographers.

sunrise from the north window, arches national park

We had already been out photographing for 3 hours and it was only 7:30am. As the light started to get less interesting, we started driving towards the exit of the park but stopped at Balanced Rock for a nice far away view of the Turret Arch along with a quick stop at “The Courthouse” for a few images of the stunning cliffs.

Turret Arch from balanced rock

the courthouse, arches national park

Around 7:30am we headed back to the hotel for breakfast and a nap. We had originally planned to spend the entire day photographing Canyonlands National Park and then leave after sunset. However, we would have had nearly 12 hours to photograph the park with boring light. Instead, we decided to head out early and change our route. We decided to head west and go to Zion National Park which is one of our favorites. There were a few stops along the way. First, in Capital Reef National Park and then over the mountain pass towards Grand Staircase National Monument. The deep blue sky and white puffy clouds mixed with the red rocks was spectacular.

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We didn’t have time to stop at Bryce National Park on this trip so we passed it by but we did stop at a few turnouts just west of the park in an area called Red Canyon.

viewpoint near bryce national park

We continued on to Zion National Park and upon arrival, we parked the car and did the 20 minute hike to the overlook trail which provides a spectacular view from up high.

zion canyon overlook trail

Then we headed to the canyon junction bridge overlooking the Virgin River and the Watchman for a beautiful spot to watch the light change over the stunning rock formations.

sunset over the watchman in zion national park

After sunset we headed to Springdale right outside the park to get dinner and a hotel.
All I can say, is don’t try to eat dinner at the Pioneer Restaurant and don’t stay at the Terrace Brook Lodge! We had heard bad reviews about the hotel so we booked in at the Pioneer instead. When we arrived at the Pioneer, there was a note on the door telling us that they gave our room away and booked us at the Terrace Brook instead. The Terrace Book deserves every bit of it’s one star rating.

Day 4 – 5/2/15

We woke up at 5:30 am to do sunrise in the canyon but it wasn’t great. Zion is not known for it’s sunrises. We were hoping to get some morning light to hit the cliffs and get a reflection in the water so we set up early, found a spot with a reflection, but it was mostly dried up. Here is a quick behind the scenes photo and the resulting pic.

zion canyon sunrise behind the scenes

zion canyon sunrise

Once the shuttle buses that go deeper into the park started to run, we rode one of those to the back of Zion Canyon and did a few photos at some of the stops along the way back.
Here’s a photo from Big Bend where the river/road wraps around this towering cliff. Photos do NOT do this place justice. It’s amazing to stand there and look nearly straight up at these towering red cliffs.

big bend zion national park

We also had a nice stop at Court of the Patriarchs. The three towering rocks were named after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. A storm with a little rain was blowing through which made for some beautiful cloud formations.

court of the patriarchs, zion national park

We then headed out of the park and drove to the Coral Pink sand dunes park. It was a neat park to see but the light was flat while we were there and footprints and tire tracks from 4-wheelers had spoiled the landscape for any professional photos so I just have a quick shot of Ben and I.

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We continued on towards the Vermillion Cliffs. There was a huge storm on the way which made a very dramatic photo.

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We stopped at the overlook for the Vermillion Cliffs and also at Lee’s Ferry overlooking Marble Canyon but the light wasn’t right for professional photos so we just took a fun pic of us.

We then continued on back to the Grand Canyon. After checking in to our hotel and having a little rest, we headed to Yavapai point for sunset. The location was VERY crowded with lots of loud and obnoxious people that ruined the atmosphere. It was definitely not a peaceful spot to watch the sunset. However, thankfully the photos do not convey that and only capture the visual beauty of the location. Here is a sequence of images as we watched the light change.
For a more peaceful experience, I would recommend taking the shuttle to Pima point and then taking a short walk along the rim trim to get away from people.

yavapai point sunset at the grand canyon

Day 5 – 5/3/15

This morning we were up at 4:15am to head out for one last sunrise in the Grand Canyon. We were at the shuttle bus stop around 4:40am and there were already a LOT of people waiting for the bus. We rode the bus over to Hopi point which provides a great view looking East. This was an absolutely spectacular sunrise! Clouds above you are key to having a good sunrise and with the storms coming today, there were lots of layers of clouds. The light changed in dramatic fashions.

hopi point sunrise grand canyon

After the sunrise we continued on the shuttle to Pima point which we had all to ourselves.

pima point views grand canyon

It was very stormy and rainy all day today which really made for a good day to drive down Route 66 to photography some old cars and such.
As we drove south out of the Grand Canyon there was a gas station that had a number of unique things to photograph.

old cars near grand canyon

We were expecting to see a lot more of that along Route 66 between Kingman and Seligman. Unfortunately we didn’t find nearly as much as we had hoped.
There ultimately were two spots that led to a lot of cool photos. The first was the general store in Hackberry.

route 66 hackberry general store

I loved all the textures on the old rusted cars.

rusted car textures

The next worthwhile stop where there were lots of fun things to photograph was in Seligman. There were lots of neat old buildings and cars to look at and photograph.

route 66 seligman

I found the front ends of some of these old cars to be fascinating.

old cars in seligman, az route 66

We then had a very rainy drive back to Sedona. Within minutes of getting to an overlook of Red Rock, we got to see a double rainbow. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect.
We started with a beautiful sunrise, had mostly gloomy weather when it didn’t matter, and then perfect timing to catch this rainbow. God was really at work today! It was one of the brightest rainbows I’ve ever seen.

rainbow over red rock in sedona, az

With the storm clouds blowing in and out of the scene we stayed here for about an hour just watching the light change.
The light on the rocks with the deep background sky was incredible. What a way to finish the trip!!

clouds over red rocks in sedona, az

A week long road trip in the Canadian Rockies

October 15, 2014 by Prem 2 Comments

Recently I had the opportunity to go with my friend Ben and his friend Steve to the Canadian Rockies for an opportunity to explore, photograph, and recharge.
We chased the sunlight from dawn to dusk to photograph the lakes, mountains, rivers and glaciers that make this region famous.

Ben and I backpacked here about 12 years ago but we realized that with all of our time spent in the back country, there were a lot of great things we missed right near the roads.

Day 1

We met up at the Calgary airport and drove from there to Banff National Park.
Our first stop was Lake Minnewanka in the mid afternoon.
It was a beautiful day with white puffy clouds. This lake ended up being a short stop.

Next was on to Vermillion Lakes. I had seen many photographs of beautiful mountain reflections in the perfectly still water at Vermillion Lakes. However, it was windy today so we didn’t get that view. Another quick stop.

Driving up the road, there was a beautiful view of Castle Mountain with the river snaking it’s way through the scene.

By now it was late evening and it was cloudy, rainy, and windy. We had time for one more stop and decided on Moraine Lake. This spot is one of my favorite places in the world. The beautiful jagged peaks seem close enough to touch over the incredible aquamarine water. When we arrived it was raining but it stopped shortly after so we did the quick 10 minute hike to the top of a viewpoint overlooking the lake. The lake is definitely more colorful when the sun hits it but it was still beautiful and we got a hint of color in the sky from the sunset light.

Day 2

The next morning we woke up before sunrise and headed out to Lake Louise. For anyone that hasn’t heard of it, it’s by far the biggest tourist spot in this region. There is an incredible hotel (Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise) that overlooks the lake, although I’ve never stayed there.
There were busloads of Japanese tourists which made it tough to get a clear photo of the lake. It’s amazing when there are 15 photographers with tripods, that someone will just walk right in front of them all and start taking pics on their phone and not move.
Once the sun started rising, we were able to find a few clear spots to get some beautiful photos of the morning sun lighting up the glacial peaks reflecting across the colorful water.

Right near Lake Louise is Moraine Lake where we went yesterday. It was a beautiful morning so we decided to go back and see if we would get a better view. The morning sun was not yet hitting the lake but the water was still and provided an amazing reflection.
This truly is one of the most beautiful views in the world.

We headed back south closer to the town of Banff and back to Vermillion Lakes. It was another windy morning which provided no reflections again so we kept on moving.
From there we took the turn off and headed towards Johnston Canyon where we found an Aspen grove lit up by the morning sun.

Johnston Canyon is a deep gorge and a beautiful waterfall at the end of the trail. It was VERY crowded there with horrible lighting on the main waterfall. The light was so bad, it didn’t even justify a photo. However, there was a beautiful scene close to the main falls that provided a nice photo opportunity. Most people passed right on by as they headed to the larger falls up the trail.

We then drove to Yoho National Park which borders Banff. We headed to the 1260 ft. high Takakkaw Falls which is a really pretty ribbon waterfall. The white puffy clouds provided some nice mountain scenery on the short walk to the falls.

We went a little farther into Yoho National Park to Emerald Lake. This is a beautiful location. Another turquoise lake buried in the mountains. The color of these lakes comes from light that reflects off the glacial silt that is scraped into the lake from the moving/melting glacier.
Emerald Lake is a very touristy area with a number of chalets for rent. You can also rent canoes and go for a paddle around the lake. This would be a very peaceful place for a romantic getaway.

Not far down the highway is Glacier National Park (the Canadian one). We had plans to drive up to Rogers pass and then keep going to Mt. Revelstoke National Park to drive the Meadows in the Park Skyway. However, the weather was getting dark and cloudy and wasn’t leading to any nice mountain views so we turned around and headed back east. On the way we found a secluded lake down a dirt road. What a beautiful piece of real estate!

We figured we should probably get one group shot while we had our tripods out.

There was a stunning mountain view off on the horizon.

We stopped in Golden for the night. Being in Golden felt just like being in America with Dairy Queen, Wendy’s, KFC, Subway, and a number of other American businesses.

Day 3

We started our next day back at Emerald Lake for sunrise. It was a misty/rainy morning which often is not good weather to photograph in. However, in the mountains, it can provide some low hanging clouds and mist that make for some eerie photos.
When the rain let up enough we were able to get out and get some great photos before sunrise.
These photos are similar but I liked them both so much I wanted to post them both.

Our plan for the day was to make our way up to Jasper National Park. It was about 4-5 hours of driving with some stops along the way.
The first stop was at Bow Lake. However, it was so windy and the water was so choppy that I didn’t even get my camera out. A few minutes up the road is Peyto Lake which is simply incredible. We drove up to the bus parking area (none in site) which is only a one minute walk from an incredible overlook. Peyto Lake is another turqoise lake underneath a beautiful glacier and a mountain backdrop. The stormy skies led to some incredible views.

We passed a few random lakes along the Icefields Parkway up to Jasper.

As we were driving I noticed this beautiful little waterfall that could have been easily missed. I guess that’s the benefit of just staring out the window while Ben was driving. This was on the east side of the Icefields Parkway about 2 miles from the border to Jasper National Park.

On the south end of Jasper National Park is the Columbia Icefields. This area is made from a series of glaciers that are the largest collection of glaciers south of the Arctic.
Here’s a shot of one of the glaciers spilling down the mountainside.

Sunwapta Falls was our next destination. This beautiful waterfall with aquamarine water and a mountain backdrop was a really nice setting.

Another half hour north and we were at Athabaska Falls which is another famous waterfall in the park. There was a network of wooden trails and metal railings for all the tourists that led to a number of different viewpoints that each provided an interesting view.

Just past the town of Jasper is Jasper Lake. We saw a number of elk hanging out off the road. The male seemed to be quite interested in all the females but the females were not so keen on all his advances.

We stopped just off the main road to photograph a grove of beautiful yellow Aspen trees being backlit by the late afternoon sun.

After checking in to our hotel it was time to get setup for sunset. Just nearby was Patricia Lake and Pyramid Lake. The buses of Japanese tourists were out in force around Pyramid Lake. Driving just up the road around the south side of the Lake, we came to a little island that looked like a nice spot to setup for sunset without many people around. We took a few photos around the area as we waited for the sun to go down.

Waiting for the sunset was worth it. It was spectacular!!!!

As we were heading back to the hotel, we passed a small marshy area that was providing a mirror of the evening sky.

Day 4

Early the next morning we woke up well before sunrise and drove the 45 minutes to Cavell Lake. It was a beautiful cool and crisp morning. It was only a 5 minute walk from the car to get to the lake, but it didn’t go smoothly. I turned my ankle pretty bad stepping on a tree root and Steve ended up having both feet slip into the glacial water. Poor guy had a 5 hour drive and a flight to catch right after the sunrise was done.
Although it wasn’t smooth getting there, it was totally worth it. The lake was still and gave us a nice mirror reflection of Mt. Edith Cavell with some warm sunlight lighting up the clouds just before the sun came up.

It was a beautiful morning and a really nice spot to be at.

Steve left to head back to the airport so Ben and I went on our way. The next spot was Medicine Lake which seemed to have very low water levels.
There was a group of wildlife photographers with gigantic lenses all pointed at the nearby rocks. I guess they were photographing a Pica which is like a small squirrel. I’m really glad that’s not what we were there for. Everyone has their different interests and I’m sure many people wouldn’t be interested in photographing what we were doing either. Medicine Lake didn’t photograph very well at the time we were there.

Farther down the road was Maligne Lake. Maligne Lake is known for having a boat cruise that takes you to the south side of the lake for an amazing photo op of Spirit Island. However, the boat had just recently stopped for the season so we were a bit too late.
Although, with no boats and a calm day, the water was perfectly still, giving us a mirror of the dramatic clouds overhead. We also had an opportunity to see a large moose on the other side of the lake but he was too far away to photograph.

By this point, we were only halfway done with our trip and we had already photographed everything on our list of places to see. Therefore we knew the second half of the trip would slow down a bit. We relaxed on the side of the lake, skipped some stones, and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

On our drive away from Maligne Lake and back to the town of Jasper, we stopped off at Maligne Canyon which had a pretty incredible waterfall. The noise of the falls thundering through the canyon was awesome.

It was only mid-day and we were looking for more stuff to do. The weather was pretty miserable but we didn’t feel like just sitting around all day. Instead we drove to the west side of the park near Mt. Robson. Our first stop was Rearguard Falls. It was a 10 minute walk down to the waterfall. The falls were loud and booming!! Just as we arrived, we got to witness a kayaker kayak over the falls which was pretty amazing. Too bad our cameras weren’t out yet.

Next, we went to Overlander Falls which is famous for being a place to watch Salmon fighting their way up the river during the proper season.
The falls were beautiful but not easy to photograph as it was dark and overcast and the gushing water was washing everything out.

We were able to see two moose far off in the distance but too far to photograph.
We drove to Mt. Robson. It was pretty to see but didn’t photograph well due to the heavy overcast and dull lighting. Mt. Robson is a 12,000 ft peak that is used by climbers as they prepare for Mt. Everest. Unfortunately, the top of the mountain was not visible due to the clouds.

It was another day to see a lot of wildlife. We saw a ton more elk along with a wolf just trotting down the highway.

Day 5

In the morning, we went back to our favorite spot at Pyramid Lake and waited for the sunrise.
It was a calm morning with some nice clouds so it looked promising.

The sky was on fire! It was an incredible sunrise.

On our way out of the Jasper area we passed a number of Elk on the side of the road. This time the camera was ready!!

We drove back south on the Icefield Parkway and stopped at a number of beautiful lakes and rivers on the side of the rd.

Next, we stopped at Tangle Falls right near the Columbia Icefield. It’s a waterfall tucked into the side of the mountain thats impossible to see when driving north but easy to see when driving south. It’s a beautiful waterfall that is a must-see right along the side of the highway.

It was time for lunch and there was a nice pull off the highway by Waterfowl Lakes.
I’ve had worse lunch stops than this before!

Since we were driving right by Peyto Lake again, we decided to make another quick stop to see if the light was better.
It was very beautiful there as always.

It was mid-day and we decided to go back to Lake Louise since the last time we had been there was early morning. The parking lots were all jammed full and there were people everywhere. However, we were still able to setup an a nice spot for a photo. We got a 1 minute patch of sun that burst through the clouds and lit up the lake which is all we needed.

For the third time we drove out to my favorite place at Moraine Lake and hiked up to the viewpoint again. It was another cloudy day with no lake reflections and no sunset light so I think the previous visits were better. But…it’s still incredible and I surely didn’t mind a third visit.

It was mid afternoon and to kill some time, we drove an hour south to the town of Banff and took the gondola up the mountain for incredible views of the whole valley. It was neat to have that vantage point over some of the places we had seen from the ground.

We drove to the town of Canmore where we were staying the night and got all checked in to our hotel. Unfortunately we didn’t realize that the sun sets 20 minutes earlier here than it does 4 hours north up in Jasper, so we mistimed the sunset. By the time we started heading out to our pre-picked spot at Goat Pond, we realized we were too late. The sky was lit up with brilliant colors just over the mountains where we were supposed to be. By the time we arrived, most of the color was gone, but we still had a peaceful setting for a few photos.

Day 6

The next morning we got up well before sunrise at did the 30 minute drive out to Goat Pond again. It was a cool morning with some mist coming off the still water.

I just loved watching the light change as the sun came up.

On our drive back in to Canmore, there is a reservoir which also provided a beautiful mirror reflection.

We had now seen pretty much all we came for in Banff, Jasper, and Yoho National Parks but we still had another day and a half so we decided to head farther south closer to the U.S. border.
We drove into the Kananaskis Country wilderness area and made a stop in a little secluded area called Wedge Pond. It was another peaceful stop. As odd as it is to say, we were starting to be done with lake reflections.

We headed into Peter Lougheed Provincial Park and when we went to the visitor center, we saw a grizzly bear and her cubs in the valley far away.

We then came across a number of goats licking the road to store up salt for the winter.

We continued on down to Waterton Lakes National Park which is on the U.S. Border on the north end of the U.S. Glacier National Park in Montana.
Our first stop was the bison paddock which is a short loop drive where you can see some bison.

Our next stop was an overlook with a nice view of the Prince of Wales Hotel with the mountains and lakes in the background.

The hotel, like most everything else around Waterton in October, was closed for the season. However, we could drive right up to it and enjoy the view.
I think this is seriously one of the most beautiful pieces of real estate I’ve ever seen. It’s a gorgeous hotel on a hilltop all by itself with a view down below of the town of Waterton, Upper Waterton Lake, along with the surrounding mountains. This would be a nice place for a romantic getaway.

We then went and checked out Cameron Falls which is actually right in the town of Waterton.

Trying to find the best spot for the sunset, we decided on the view from the hotel on the hill. It seemed to be the best spot so we went and hung out up there until the sun went down.

Late at night, we decided to go out and get some star/night shots. With a full moon lighting up the sky, the stars were washed out, but it was still really cool to get some shots of the hotel at night along with the town of Waterton below.

Day 7

Today we had planned to drive into Montana and enjoy Glacier National Park but we found out that most of the eastern side of the park along with the hotels in the area were all closed for the season. The biggest disappointment was the Going to the Sun Road was closed which is the main highway that goes through the park. We decided to stay in Waterton for the day.
We started the morning getting another morning view of the Prince of Wales Hotel.

Then we drove up to Cameron Lake to enjoy a peaceful and quiet morning.

We drove along the Chief Mountain Highway but with blue skies and no clouds, the views were just not that inspiring. We then drive into Red Rock Canyon which was also not that great with the harsh lighting on a clear sunny day. We decided to drive into Calgary and just spend our remaining time relaxing. It was about a 3.5 hour drive back to Calgary and we got there in time to watch the beautiful evening light envelop the city.

It was a great trip but it was nice to relax for the night and fly home the next day.

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