P172H – Hector Lake – Alberta, Canada

Hector Lake is a small glacier fed lake located in western Alberta Canada. It’s one of the many lakes that line the Icefields Parkway between Banff National Park and Jasper National Park. Glacier lakes are exceptionally beautiful because of their aqua colored water. The water becomes this milky aqua color from the glaciers rubbing along the lighter colored mountain rock. As the glaciers move across the rock, small rock dust is rubbed off and mixes with the melting ice, thus causing the water to appear this aqua color. When the light is at the correct angle, the water appears almost fake like.

I spent two weeks driving through western Canada in the fall, but ended up staying in western Alberta most of the time. Planning the peak of fall colors is always a challenge, but even more so in the rugged mountains when weather conditions can change quickly. The day after I took this photograph a heavy rain and wind storm went through the area and blew practically all the fall colored leaves off the trees. Those that remained turned black within a day or two because they had become wet. It was odd seeing completely black leaves still attached to their trees.