Inversion – 2020

This landscape photograph was captured in Kananaskis Country at during the peak of the fall season in the Canadian Rockies. In 2019 a friend and I decided we would like to accomplish our first back-country camping trip together into Tonquin Valley. What resulted was mud-filled boots, a wet tent, tired legs, but happy faces and lots of adventure. It wasn’t long before we were planning our next adventure in 2020. We decided early on that we wouldn’t attempt another back-country camping trip but instead, camp front-country, attempting day hikes during the day instead. 

My goal for the trip was to capture a sunset photo from this location. What I didn’t expect was that the Oregon wildfires would throw a wrench in my plans. We were going to be in the Canadian Rockies for two days so we planned to do this hike during the evening with the best cloud forecast. Unfortunately, when we arrive in Banff National Park, the smoke from the wildfires filled the sky, obscuring the mountains from view. After a day of hiking in Larch Valley, we waited for the smoke to clear but it didn’t that first evening. With a smoke forecast in our favour for the next day, we planned to do this hike on our final evening in the Canadian Rockies and hope for the best.

We were greeted at the trailhead with clear skies and we were excited to see what the hike had in store. As it was the fall season, the hike was full of people. But as is usually the case, the area cleared out completely in the hour before sunset. Unfortunately, the sky did not clear out but instead began to fill up with clouds, evening attempting to rain on us twice. In the waning moments of sunset, I grabbed a photo when there was a bit of colour in the sky behind the mountain and some beautiful reflected light on the mountain and the fall foliage in front.

If you’re interested, there is a YouTube video that goes behind-the-scenes on this location and our Canadian Rockies trip.

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