Day 1 in Banff National Park

This was our first full day in Banff National Park.  It was our nation's holiday but there were no signs of it here.  I kinda missed some fireworks or maybe a parade.  Oh well.  I was easily distracted by the surrounding beauty of the Canadian Rockies.  

At 5:30am, Colin WOKE ME UP!!!  Sheesh.  I was dead tired but managed to roll out of bed, grab a quick shower to wipe away the cobwebs, and gather the necessary camera gear for this early morning magic hour for photographers.  

After we started driving to the same Vermillion Lakes just outside of town to check out the sunrise, I was immediately thankful for the painful awakening.  It was a beautiful, crisp, sunny morning with pleasantly few other people around.  Here's a reflection in one of the lakes:

Here is the sunrise view of Mt. Rundle.  Not bad.  I like the small, medium and large objects reflected in the lake.  The "medium" object in view is Tunnel Mountain.  The "small" object is a rock ;)

We drove a bit further down the road to 2nd Vermillion Lake and I spotted a loon.  I set up my new D300 with the longest lens I had, a 70-200mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter, and began to try to photograph the loon.  It was nice to have a stable tripod!  Here's a crop of one of the photos.  

 
As I was watching the loon I noticed a small gray blob in the water next to him/her.  It was a chick!  Then, as I was taking photos of the parent and chick, the other parent swooped in and landed on the water right next to them.  I was too far away to get a good photo of the youngster but here is a shot of the proud parents and the gray blob to the right is the chick.

All the while I was photographing the loon family, Colin was about 30 yards away from me focusing his lens on an American Coot family along the shoreline - both parents and 3 chicks.  You'll have to wait for his blog post - I think he got a few good ones.

After an hour and a half, we had to pull ourselves away from the magical morning scene and get some breakfast.  We picked up Mom and Dad at the hotel and then ate at Evelyn's coffee shop for a pastry and coffee.  

Then, we visited the Cascade Gardens in town and strolled the nicely landscaped gardens.  I have not downloaded those photos yet so I have nothing to show for it.  Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed this stop quite a bit.

Next, it was onto Tunnel Mountain Road to get a view of the Bow Valley and the Hoodoos.  The photo below shows the Bow River and a couple of the hoodoos.