Smokey Banff

One of the most unusual experiences on my trip to Alberta was the amount of smoke in the air.  Usually as we approach Cochrane, just west of Calgary, we have a view of the mountains in the distance.  Not this time.  Everything was shrouded in a haze of smoke.  On Sunday the smoke was enough to obscure the mountains in the distance.  Monday it had cleared enough to see them, although not the pristine white snow covered mountains we have come to expect of Banff – but they were there – as if covered by light clouds. So far this smoke was coming from fires much farther away than Banff – mostly in BC.

On Thursday, my sisters and I went for a day trip up to the area around Banff and Canmore.  As we approached the Banff area this is what we saw    just about one ridge of hills from the highway.  We had planned a trip up to Johnson lake to see if the trail around the lake was open.  It wasn’t – due to the presence of Grizzly’s in the area – not the fire.  We spent some time there watching the interesting process of getting water to fight the fires in helicopter carried buckets – each carrying about 45 gallons.  Seemed a bit like spitting at the fire to put it out!  As we watched I captured this interesting shot – Helicopter picking up water while close by a canoe passes and if you look closely, the head of a very foolhardy swimmer is seen out there too.  Wonder if anyone has ever been scooped up and dumped on a fire.  It seems to me that happened somewhere.