On the Way to Banff

We stayed in Canmore, Alberta when hiking in Banff National Park.  Often we travelled west on the Trans Canada Highway to Banff and beyond.  East of Banff, we’d come to what I believe to be Cascade Mountain.  At one point, as you are driving west, the mountain is directly in front of you, powerfully beautiful.  Finally, one day when I was in the passenger seat, I decided to photograph the mountain through the windshield of the car to have some image of what I so loved seeing.

Cascade Mountain.  Photo taken east of Banff on the Trans Canada Highway, Sept. 2012

Cascade Mountain. Seen east of Banff on the Trans Canada Highway, Sept. 2012

I didn’t, however, photograph the most dramatic scene on that leg of our journey which we had encountered on an earlier day.  We awoke that day to dense fog.  Our bedroom window looked out onto mountains which were completely hidden that day.  As the morning wore on and we drove toward Banff, the clouds began dissipating. Occasionally, they revealed pieces of mountains and glaciers high above a white blanket of cloud.  What a haunting, wonderful sight that was.  We had glimpses of Cascade Mountain in such a fashion–as though a piece of what we think is reality had been torn away to show life that we hadn’t known was there.

Cascade Mountain, east of Banff. On the Trans Canada Highway, Sept. 2012

I think of our human blindness here.  Perhaps you can relate to this yourself.  I know I often go about my life in a fog, not knowing the huge presences that await beyond clouded veils that surround me.  I am startled when they reveal themselves or bits of themselves, signs asking me to notice life more closely, signs that forces beyond my normal consciousness are at play and at work in my life and in that of all nature.