Stark and Rugged - Waterfowl Lake, Banff National Park

Mount Chephren and Waterfowl Lake, Icefields Parkway, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

Over the past month, I have been posting some photos of the amazing lakes that line the Icefields Parkway in Alberta. It is hard to pick a favorite lake, as they all are different in their own way. This lake is Waterfowl Lake, and it is literally mere steps from the highway. What makes this lake different from the rest is the stark and rugged Mount Chephren in the background that dominates the scene. The mountain's original name was Pyramid Lake, but was renamed (after an Egyptian Pharaoh) because of confusion with Pyramid Mountain in Jasper National Park, a few hours to the north. 

We visited this location quite a number of times during our time in Banff. The scene can be dramatically different depending on the light, weather and sky. This image was taken when the skies were overcast, but the clouds were pretty decent and did not obscure the mountains peak. I scrambled down to the shoreline of the lake, where there were some great reeds that I felt would be a great foreground. Because of the light, I processed this in black and white, as it brings out the starkness of the scene. Click on the image itself to get a better look at the details in it.