While the cold weather and especially the long winters can be a drag in Canada, there are some days when the beauty of the scenery almost makes it worth while.
Banff National Park is one of my favorite places in the world. My wife and I headed out there with our dogs a few weeks back (dogs on leashes are welcome in Canadian National Parks), and were rewarded with beautiful mountain landscapes.
Most of these photos were taken around Lake Minnewanka, the largest lake in the park, which was frozen sold. Lots of people were walking on the ice and, it being Canada, a hockey game was being played on the lake. The building in the middle of the ice (above) is the boat dock where in the summer you can take cruises of the lake.
Equally impressive was Cascade Mountain (below), the most prominent mountain that you see from the Banff townsite. One of the most interesting features of the mountain is a frozen waterfall which you can see it left of center below, where you frequently find ice climbers although when we were there there were none (it was quite windy — perhaps that’s why).
