Lonely Tree in the Snow Dunes

Heading to Jasper, we stopped at a nondescript part of the Icefields Highway and got our gear out.  All around the area, there were huge snow mounds that looked so unnatural.  I looked around and found out the reason...massive rock slide!  You can look up the mountain valley and find the same pink rock out crop where the uncovered boulders of the same color lay resting.  With practically no disturbance, snow can cover the boulders and create some interesting mounds.  I couldn't help but notice this little tree sticking out of the snow with the interesting mounds and shadows.  

© Matt Graham 2010 - Lonely Tree in the Snow Dunes

Endless Chain Ridge

On my photo tour with Darwin Wiggett and Alan Ernst, our first day was driving up the Icefields Parkway towards Jasper.  After the Columbia Icefield, the Endless Chain Ridge comes into view. It was named by Mary Schaffer, one of the first non-native women to visit Jasper National Park, when it opened in 1907.

A great resource for mountain names and history of the Canadian Rockies is Peakfinder.com.  When I looked up the history of the ridge, it quoted Schaffer wrote:

"A short distance beyond the rock-slide and on the river''s right, begins a low, rocky ridge, which for length and unadulterated ugliness cannot be beaten. We trailed it for a day and a half and then named it ''The Endless Chain'' well named too, for on reaching the Athabasca shores, we found that it still stretched on in an unbroken line for miles down the river."

©Matt Graham 2010 - Endless Chain Ridge