On the 23rd I made the drive over to Prince George to spend Christmas with family. The massive winter storm that hit farther south near Banff and into the Kootenays over the weekend didn’t hit as hard on the northern route on Hwy 16.
In the winter I always take the northern route along Hwy 16 versus the more direct route from Calgary through Banff and Jasper Parks on the Icefields Parkway, mainly for safety, as there is no cell coverage or services of any kind on the parkway. I also stay in Hinton on the 2 day winter trip because of hotel costs. I can always get a decent 3 to 4 star hotel for under $100 in Hinton at Christmas, 2 to 3 star hotels in Jasper are all more than $200 a night.
Monday was a spectacular travel day, I left Hinton AB around 9am on a decidedly cool -22C clear morning. By the time I got to Jasper and stopped for coffee the temperature had dropped to -26! At least it was sunny, and the highways were bare and dry.
The trip through the Rockies is always spectacular, but it’s even more so when the snow is hanging on the trees and the skies are blue. Normally I can do the Jasper to Prince George segment in about 4 hours, Monday I took an extra couple of hours and made some photographs along the way. The traffic was light so it made for a beautiful, quiet day in the park. I’ve included my favourite shots from the day.
I’m going to settle back into shooting some film in the new year, for now I’m just enjoying making photographs again. Shooting digital this holiday season is giving me some ideas where I can go with film and letting me try some things to see how they feel before investing the time I’ll need for a film project. More on this in another post soon!
Have a very merry Christmas!
Dean
