The Rocky Mountains ~ Alberta ~ BC ~ Canada

We have a lot of beautiful scenery in our world and some of those are of the Rocky Mountains along the British Columbia and Alberta’s border.  A perfect opportunity for some great photos would be a sunny day with lots of a blue sky as a background for snowcapped mountains.  And that is exactly what happened for our travels through there!

Rockies on the horizon

We head west following the Trans Canada Highway from Medicine Hat, AB on this beautiful day.  Once we pass through Calgary, we begin to see the Rockies off in the distance and my camera begins to shutter!

Swans, ducks and cattle

I do manage to get a photo of a pond with several swans on there plus cattle up in the field beyond but that was because Keith pointed it out to me in time to get a photo.  I was fixated on those mountains up ahead of us.

Rockies getting closer

Finally we are up close and the sights are incredible.  The traffic is light and the roads wind between the mountains allowing us to get some incredible views of the Rockies.  

More Rockies

I am not able to name any of these mountains that we are seeing but there are over 50 peaks that are higher than 3,350 metres (11,000 ft)!  This is only in the Canadian Rockies.  Mount Robson is the highest at 3,954 metres (12,972 ft) and that is in B.C.

Incredible Rockies

These incredible sights can be enjoyed in Alberta at the Banff, Jasper and Waterton National Parks on the eastern slopes and on the west side in British Columbia are the Kootenay and Yoho National Parks.  Several camping places and viewpoints, I am sure.

The Rockies in all their glory

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, and I’m beholding so much beauty in these Rocky Mountains today.  It is absolutely amazingly beautiful.  Did I mention these mountains are beautiful? Lol

Rivers in the Rockies

The headstreams for the Kootenay, Columbia, Fraser, Peace, Liard, Athabaska and Saskatchewan Rivers are all from the Rockies.  I do not know which ones we are seeing but we did see a few scenes of rivers or creeks, most of which are either covered with snow or surrounded by.

Wildlife Walks in the Rockies

There are seven of these wildlife walkways built over the highway and 41 underpasses.  Fencing along the highway prevents animals from crossing the road but still allows the wildlife to get from one side of the road to the other without being hit by cars.  It seems to do the job perfectly, and looks nice, too. These crossings have reduced collisions by 80% and those who have benefitted the most are the deer and elk with a 96% reduction!  That is amazing!

Beautiful drive

The drive between Calgary and Golden, BC is approximately 4 hours and about 2 hours of those are in the mountains.  I did get over 100 photos taken as we drove those 2 hours but will refrain from sharing them all here, as tempting as it is.  

Great welcome into B.C.

It was such perfect timing for us to be able to see these sights as they are.  The beginning of April the roads are great, the snow is still on the mountains, and the sun is shining!  We couldn’t have chosen a better time to be here.  A beautiful welcome home!