A summer project, finally completed

©2015 Lydia Hinshaw

Mt. Chephren and Waterfowl Lake, Banff NP, AB

 ORMOND BEACH, FL -- Some years ago, shopping with my aunt in a bargain-basement-type store in Southern Pines, NC, I ran across a large color print of a mountain and a lake.  The label included the photographer's name and "Canadian Rockies" but no more specific location.

 I was sure I'd seen this mountain and this lake before.  The price of the picture was right.  I bought it, brought it home to Florida, framed it, and hung it on the wall, where it has been for 15 years or more.

 I love the Canadian Rockies, and I had visited the the area a couple of time before I bought the picture, and many times since, nearly every summer starting in 2002.  I had always meant to search out this view along the Icefields Parkway, as I believed I knew where it was.  It seemed like I never got around to it.  There was always some reason to keep on driving past the location I thought I recognized.

 Last August, Prince Charming and I finally stopped at the Waterfowl Lakes Campground in Banff National Park.  I had camped there on two bicycle trips in 1992 and 1997.

 We parked, and, as often happens, the Prince found some friendly fellow tourists and began trading stories, while I wandered the lakeshore snapping pictures.

 I soon had more than a dozen frames.  The other day, I finally  remembered to compare my computer images to the print in my bedroom.  The picture above is the closest, clearly the right location, although the time of day is different and the water level is lower.