On our way up to Lake Louise the first day, we stopped to hike up the side of the ridge. We had planned to continue up to a reported overlook, but the steepness of the slope and the thinness of the air defeated us.

Our first full day in the mountains, we went up to Lake Louise.

From the head of Lake Louise, we took a hiking trail up to the Plain of the Six Glaciers (left)

Looking down on the surface of the glacier and the debris left behind as it retreated. (right) Lake Louise is just visible down at the foot of the valley.

(Left) The water of the outflow is milky from rock dust.

(Right) We saw a lot of both larches and aspen painting streaks of gold across the mountains. Larches are an evergreen that changes color in the fall.

Two more pictures looking down on the glacier.

Moraine Lake was so named because the discoverer thought that the piles of rock at its margins were left by a glacier, but subsequent geologists concluded they were caused by rockslides from the steep peaks surrounding the lake.

At the foot of the lake we saw enormous piles of wood washed down during the spring runoff.

This shot particularly shows the stunning color of the water. It really was this color!

Looking down on Banff and the Bow River Valley. The picture on the right was taken from Sulphur Mountain.

More views from Sulphur Mountain. The picture above on the right is looking down the Bow River Valley.

The following five pictures were taken along the Icefields Parkway. The bands of yellow on the mountain are larches and aspens. The river is a tributary of the N. Saskatchewan.

Athabasca Glacier

The tiny row of black dots just to the right of the center of the picture are people walking up onto the glacier.

From Bow Summit we could look down on Peyto Lake. The water was an amazing shade of robin's-egg blue and had a flat opaque quality that made it look for all the world like a valley full of blue paint.

The Inkpots are a group of glacial springs that were a short hike from the head of Johnston Canyon. They are stunning array of shades of emerald green to blue-green. The photo unfortunately really doesn't do it justice.