Canadian Rockies - Johnston Canyon, Sunlit Tree

As we were headed for the entrance gate I saw these leaves lit up by a ray of sunshine peeking between the trees.  Clouds were on the move so I had to scramble to make adjustments on the Bigger Cahoona to capture the moment.  Three seconds after this was snapped the clouds again obscured the sun, making this guy look like just another tree...

Canadian Rockies - Johnston Canyon, Entrance Sign and Crow

We all eagerly anticipated visiting Johnston Canyon, as others reported that it's one of the best hikes in the entire Banff park system.  Turns out they were absolutely correct.  This is what greeted us on our way in after parking.

Also here was a very large crow which was obviously used to being in the presence of humans, as it allowed us to get very close:

Canadian Rockies - Emerald Lake, Reflection Shot with Canoeists

A new word for me, canoeist.

Another look across the lake, reserved as one of the best-for-last of the Emerald Lake posts.  This was a magical shoot for me, on a par with the Byland Abbey in Yorkshire.  The location ticked several of my photographic boxes:  way, way out there in the middle of nowhere; great place to take pictures of all kinds; mountainous terrain with ample trails, etc.

Just two more locations to cover; the next place we visited was Johnston Canyon.

Canadian Rockies - Emerald Lake, Evergreen Silhouette

Out of the bazillion silhouette shots out there...there's still room for one more.

Canadian Rockies - Emerald Lake, Canoe Rental Focus Shift

Were it not for the mop bucket...

De-saturated the color by 30 percent to reduce its distractability, but still, it's there...

Canadian Rockies - Emerald Lake, Firewood Delivery Method

The remaining few posts from Emerald Lake will be random shots captured here and there, beginning with this conspicuously modern method of delivering firewood up to the cabins.

Canadian Rockies - Emerald Lake, Bi-colored Evergreen Sprigs

This I found interesting with the two colors along the same stem.  And it appears that the phenomenon occurs on more than one species, per below:

Captured one with three colors, to be posted later with the Moraine Lake pictures.

Canadian Rockies - Emerald Lake, Open Field on Western Shore Hike

Much of the land in the Banff National Park is wild, and fortunately protected.  This scene greeted us while hiking the trail along the western shore of the lake.  I overheard a guide saying that not one, but two grizzlies were sighted recently close to one of the trailheads here, and it's easy to imagine seeing them romp in terrain like this.

Later in the day we hiked another trail that supposedly led up to a waterfall.  It was just the six of us and the trail was a little rough, with lots of roots and rocks, so it was slow going.  A little more than halfway there I began to get anxious, because if a bear - or anything - popped out of the forest we would have no chance to make a quick getaway.  Thus, we turned around to play it safe.  As it turned out the "waterfall" had pretty much dried up anyway for lack of snowmelt, so no worse for the experience.

Colorado Rockies - Emerald Lake, Quaint Bridge

Winding our way along the western shore, caught a few such as this one with a zoomed-in shot of the bridge below; reflections untouched in both:

Canadian Rockies - Emerald Lake, Western Shore #5

Used the tree on the left to play with depth of field a little bit, though the mountains were left alone and retained the bluish haze that was largely repaired in most other posted photos.