John & Anne Wiley

For whatever reason(s), during the flight through Jasper we started calling our destination, the great little town of Valemount, by another name: Voldemort. Maybe we were tired, feeling the effects of altitude, or more likely just feeling playful because we had some trouble remembering the real name. So in looking at the pix for this post, I couldn’t resist using the nickname at least one more time. 🙂

2371 Giant Landscape Art

Along the way we greatly enjoyed scenes like this. I love how the trees contrast with the rock skirt. My brain imagines that it has to do with solid volcanic rock making the skirt shape, and softer adjoining soil allowing trees to grow. But my creative heart thrills to the visual effect. Near the tiny town of Jasper is a tram that goes far up the mountain, where people can enjoy the feeling of being on top. Of course, we were looking down at it and out beyond to higher mountains they couldn’t see marching in jagged rows far into the distance.

2375 Down To Top

There are so many spectacular peaks, valleys and glaciers it’s no surprise we have 421 pix from this one leg of the flight home. Just be glad I’m not going to share them all. 🙂

2392 Alpine Range

Clearly I’m going to share a few like the one above tho, demonstrating the dance between sky and terrain, stone and life, peak and valley, shadow and light.

2396 North Southwest

Many spots look so much like the Southwest, only the miles of glaciers and tall conifers let you tell them apart. Somehow I imagined the rocks would look different due to the climate, and maybe they do up close, but this slice of color and texture looks exactly like something from our pix from flying in Monument Valley or the Grand Canyon. As for the “Matterhorn” of Canada they call Mt. Robson, here are a few more pix from our semi-circumnavigation.

2417 Robson Back

2421 Robson Feet

The dwindling glacier on the “back” side (away from the highway) melts into a lake at the feet where it once carved out a basin from the solid rock. As always of course, you can click any pix here to see larger versions.

Here’s another pic I like of the “powdered wig” atop the opposite side of the peak. It’s fun to look at, but also gives an impression of how severe the weather and avalanches are up there!

2432 Robson Wig

After our closeup look in rare clear weather (and above most of the smoke from distant wildfires), we descended into sweet little Valemount. It was warm and welcoming to our overflowing eyes, and once we saw it the name Valemount lodged permanently in our memories.

2462 Valemount

After tucking Tripp in for the night, we looked around the edges of the deserted airport with expanded eyes. Everything seemed magical, as if we’d been wandering an especially creative art gallery for several hours and now all we saw was art. The alpine flowers seemed both huge as if we were microscopic insects, and tiny as if we were giants.

2464 Scale

We had landed in that place where beauty is all around, among, between and within us because our eyes are open to it.

OK, I’ve finally taken time to share a few more pix from our 8/18 flight out of Edmonton and past Mt. Robson in the Jasper area. I’ve actually had the pix edited down ready to share, but couldn’t seem to find time among everything that’s been happening lately. For one thing, we flew to Santa Catalina Island this week so after finishing up this review of the AB Joy Adventure to share a few more fav pix, I’ll be posting some Catalina pix. So for now, here’s a continuation of the scenes we enjoyed after entering the Rockies at Jasper.

2295 Main Gate

Just past the solo sentinel in the previous post is this “Main” gate from Hinton into the valley of wonders named Jasper. If we didn’t know about the even more striking peaks and valleys to come, this would be worth the trip. But look what’s next.

2301 Texture

No, this isn’t Wyoming. The shape and texture of this peak, like the innumerable nameless (to me at least) peaks to come, is world class and almost lost amid the amazing sights in this valley. I think this next pic was at the treeline below, where I spotted some caves that surely have been used over the millennia by ancient peoples and maybe even the European settlers who came so much later.

2304 Cave People

So many stunning vistas we’ve already seen in the few minutes since entering the valley, as you can see from this glance back toward Hinton.

2307 Glance Back

Even in a car this distance from Hinton beyond that distant rocky peak is maybe an hour, and for us from the airport this side of the town we’re talking less than fifteen minutes. Amazing. Looking back to my left along our path I notice the extreme tilt of the rock layers on yet another peak.

2328 Tilt

Reminds me of the tectonic shifts that created the mountains here in California, yet it’s probably far older. There’s a variety of “story” in these rocks, that’s well illustrated by the variations in texture and color we enjoyed in scenes like this.

2353 Peak Colors

What created those dark bands like the one near the top-left? When I “step back” from this pic, the huddle of peaks takes on the quality of a mountain family with some peaks leaning in and others standing tall. The whole group clutches a blanket of forest, and stoically bears the scars of melted glaciers.

OK, I’m waxing lyrical. Time to stop for now, but I have more pix already prepared and hope to share them soon…