Kootenay Rockies Canada Pins and Buttons

Kootenay Rockies Canada Ski travel logo in a beautiful vintage or retro style.

Abraham Lake is often seen up-close, with the detail of its famous methane bubbles front and centre. This lookout gave a bit of a wider view of the lake, which looked like a blue, icy plain stretching far into the distance in both directions, with tall mountains marking its southern shores.

There's no doubt about the fact that the bubbles of Abraham Lake are spellbinding -- but I found the myriad cracks in the ice, created from the lake level changing throughout the winter, fascinating as well. This triangle of bubbles and cracks was the best of both worlds!

Marble Canyon is one of my favourite spots in the Rockies. It's not far from Banff but feels like it is a world away from the tour buses and crowds you'll often find there. Plus, every time I visited this summer it was different: the water levels started high and gradually tapered off (as expected), but for a few weeks in late August and early September, the water turned glacier-silt-grey before turning back to the deep aquamarine colour it had been previously. I'm still not entirely sure why!

The famous methane bubbles of Abraham Lake. I make a yearly pilgrimage to this spot, which is one of the best places to see the bubbles in the Rockies due to the incredibly windy nature of the region that blows all of the snow off the ice. Case in point: the winds were about 60km/h when we were out shooting this sunset, and were strong enough that if you put down your tripod and let go, it would slide in a mad dash away from you across the ice! The bubbles themselves are methane from plant life on the lake floor that gets frozen on its way towards the surface. They are absolutely fascinating, and I easily spend hours shooting on every visit!

The famous methane bubbles of Abraham Lake. Every year, this man-made reservoir freezes, causing the plants on the bottom of the lake to decompose and release methane bubbles, which freeze in place in the ice. The result is a mesmerising display all across the lake.

When I visited Abraham Lake to seek out the famous bubbles, these cracks ended up being one of my favourite things to photograph. They fanned out all across the lake, sometimes obscuring bubbles but more often creating stunning scenes like this.

Kootenay River with Mitchell Range in the Background in Kootenay National Park of Canada

The eerie stillness of a forest shrouded in mist and snow, made that much more foreboding by the trunks of trees long-ago burned but somehow still standing.