Banff Hoodies

I'm not sure if I will ever find a road I love more than the Icefields Parkway (although the Spray Lakes Rd/Smith Dorrien in the Kananaskis comes a close second). I find a new angle on the mountains every time I drive it, and fortunately in winter, you can stand in the middle of the road for quite a while before a car passes by!

MORAINE LAKE - Rocky Mountains Canada Sunrise glow.

When we passed 7,000ft on our way uphill to the Larch Valley, the green pine trees started to give way to the gold of larches. The view of them stretching into the distance with the mountains behind was something else!

From about halfway up the C-Level Cirque track on the side of Banff's Cascade Mountain, we found a lookout with my favourite view of the day. While Lake Minnewanka is gorgeous to visit, its waters are often rough; this angle smoothed them out as well as showing just how large the lake really is!

No matter what time of year, the view from Morant's Curve is stunning, with the mixture of natural (the mountains, the Bow River) and the manmade (the train tracks). The frame of golden aspens in late September just makes it even moreso.

A small side road off the Icefields Parkway, meandering off towards a campsite that was closed (as everything on the Parkway is at this time of year). There was the perfect amount to pepper the roadside and mountains while still leaving the road clear for easy driving.

The huge rock faces of Sundance Canyon, towering high above the small stream below. Such a short hike from the town of Banff but it seems so far away!

An illustration of the valley of the ten Peaks, with the rocky mountains reflecting in the water of Moraine Lake. A landscape illustration for people who love to explore in the mountains of Banff National Park.

Winter reflections can't be beaten, partially because of the stunning landscape they reflect, and partially because they are so rare! Luckily this area of Lake Louise often has a small area of open water, and this afternoon in late January was the perfect time to be there.

Emerald Lake, Alberta, Canada

I made two trips to Jasper in September, and on both trips, I needed to be in Jasper at a certain time so I wasn't able to dawdle along the Icefields Parkway like I usually do. It's a travesty to drive the Parkway without stopping though, and I found that on both trips, I made one photo stop: at Mount Chephren and the Waterfowl Lakes. Both times presented me with completely different scenes; the first was a smoky sunset, and the second was this gorgeous, foggy scene just after sunrise.

Can you see the person standing on the edge and enjoying the view? He's so hard to pick in the seemingly never-ending landscape of trees and mountains stretching out beyond the Bow Summit. I never get sick of this lookout because it seems to change every time I visit -- in the time I've lived in Canada, the lake has morphed from milky green to blue to white!

The crags of Castle Mountain lit by the sun of an early November morning in Banff National Park. I find this mountain to be one of the most fascinating on the drive between Banff and Lake Louise; with every corner turned, it reveals a new face more interesting than the last.

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Sometimes you can just tell that the sun's had it after a cloudy day. I could almost hear it yelling from behind the mountain, "let me out! I just want to light up the sky once today!"

Even though the moon disappeared behind Mount Fairview, the view across Lake Louise on this night was just unreal. The full moon lit up swirling clouds at the end of the lake as its turquoise waters lapped at the rocks at our feet -- and the best thing was, our group was one of the few to witness it after the daytime crowds disappeared completely at sunset. To get the full effect of the moving clouds, I shot for 3 minutes; hence the faint star trails you can see above.

Canoes set up on the shoreline of Two Jack Lake, ready for a morning of paddling out on the lake.

A cloudy sunrise and Mount Rundle perfectly reflected in one of the Vermilion Lakes on a calm November morning. I didn't even mind standing calf-deep in mud to see this! :)

Moraine Lake is one of my most popular workshop destinations, so over the summer, I watched the sunrise nearly 20 times there. It was fascinating to see how the lake changed over that time, as well as all the different sorts of lighting that can occur at that time of the morning. I captured the light on the Ten Peaks behind the canoes at the end of my second "All-Nighter" workshop in July. It was a great place to end our long night of shooting around the park!

MORAINE LAKE - Rocky Mountains Canada stunning day with reflections.

I woke up on the last official day of summer in Banff National Park to a winter wonderland. Even though the snow all melted by noon, it was fun while it lasted! I captured this image of the mountains surrounding Lake Minnewanka as the mist started to clear around mid-morning.

Doesn't this look like a scene right out of a Christmas card? Lake Louise was gorgeous under a blanket of late October snow. I love early season snows that pepper the trees in white while the lakes are still unfrozen!

The trees of Lake Louise are always an amazing sight to see, and by far my favourite time to see them is at night -- when you can look up past the snow-encrusted branches to see the stars glittering above. Add in a moonrise to light up the trees and a halo around said moon and you get a memorable sight indeed.

The Bow River doing its best to fight off the freezing effects of winter. Its shoreline was partially frozen, but the river itself -- despite having chunks of ice floating down it -- was still running strong.

Snow and ice battling to cover the Bow River at Lake Louise in mid-November. It did eventually win in sections of the river, but the Bow was still flowing strong on this day. The thing I noticed most in this scene was how the snow covered the rocks on the island, turning what would have been pristine, flat snow into white blobs all along the riverbank.

I headed out from Cave & Basin with a small group of fellow hikers on an overcast morning, but by the time we made it to this spot on the Bow River, the weather had turned. The river was calm, Cascade Mountain was white with fresh snow, and the sun was warm. Perfection!

What a day this was. We started by hiking 10km through Paradise Valley to the stunning Giant Steps -- a place that was worth every step of those 10km to reach. From there, we climbed over Sentinel Pass, reaching the top right around the time a blizzard bore down on the area. As we made our way down the (much easier) path down the other side of Sentinel Pass, the larches peppered gold across the Larch Valley below while the Ten Peaks stood imposingly behind. Having spent the day surrounded by breathtaking scenery, I wouldn't say it was a sight for sore eyes -- I think it's a better description to say it was a sight for sore feet!

Golden hour in any part of the world makes everything look just that little bit more beautiful. Golden hour in the mountains is spectacular and seems to make for completely different scenes every few minutes as the light catches different parts of the mountains. This is one such scene, with the craggy slopes of Mount Rundle, covered with a recent snowfall, lighting up in pure gold.

Lake Louise and Victoria Glacier in Banff National Park Alberta Canadian Rocky Mountains Canada photography by Andy Evans Photos

I went to Morant's Curve early one afternoon looking to capture a timelapse that perhaps featured a train. 45 minutes later, no trains had passed, but in that time, this cloud crossed the entire sky -- just a single streak with hardly a cloud around it. It was truly unbelievable to watch...and very exciting because I managed to capture the entire traversal in my timelapse, which you can watch at https://vimeo.com/202296789.

The Larch Valley track, which climbs to 8,000ft above Moraine Lake and the Valley of the Ten Peaks, is one of the most popular hikes in Banff National Park in autumn. It's no wonder, since the pine trees turn to golden larches as soon as you hit 7,000ft and you're absolutely surrounded in autumn colour. What a place!

Gorgeous reflections of summer on the Bow River in Banff. Who would have thought that only weeks before this river was in flood?

Johnson Lake in the Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada.

Bow River flows through Banff, Alberta, Canada. 25 August, 2013 Canon EOS 550 D, ISO 400, f/13, 1/250 sec, 42 mm Featured in groups The Addicted Photographer Canon DSLR Americas Rural, Urban, Wild and Free Superbly Visual Canadiana Northern Landscape

I'd driven past Herbert Lake a number of times on windy days where the lake was rough, but on this morning, all was still and it was absolutely perfect. I called it Herbert Lake's Last Hurrah because this was only days before all the lakes in Banff National Park began to freeze; on my next visit two weeks later, it was frozen solid!

While much of the rest of the Icefields Parkway felt more like autumn than winter, the Bow Summit didn't quite fall into that category. We had to plow through a bit of snow just to park and then were treated to a winter wonderland of frosted trees and snowy tracks on our way up to the Peyto Lake viewpoint. It was one of the highlights of our drive!