Wrinkles in Time
Wrinkles in Time
E55: Photo essay - Road through the Rockies Banff-Jasper: Glaciers, Lakes, Waterfalls, Mountains
Wrinkles in Time
When the mountains, rocks and glaciers are carrying wrinkles much older than mine, I understand my place in the grand scheme of time. I am humbled to exist for what is, in reality, a hiccup, a microsecond in the long journey of life on earth.
You can do the drive from Banff to Jasper in a day. It is 280 km / 180 miles. Not a long drive. Google maps says you can do it in 3.5 hours. But it will take you a lot longer. Because you cannot resist stopping and gaping with awe as you journey across 100 million years.
The entire drive - particularly the Icefields Parkway between Lake Louise and Jasper - has to be one of the most beautiful and enjoyable drives in the world. Many of Tribe Tilt know my global travel history, so this is high praise indeed. (And no, unfortunately, Alberta tourism is not paying me for this shameless plug.) We travelled during September. The traffic was lighter, the fall colours adding neon yellow highlights to the beautiful horizons and expansive skylines.
You have a choice at this point:
Rapid read: Check out my photo essay of a wonderful trip
Linger longer: Join me in a discussion. This journey has me questioning if the climate conversation is essentially moot. Life on Earth will persist. The conversation isn’t about saving the Earth. It is whether the human race wishes to stay part of that eco-system.
Schedule your own date with Nature. Whether it is a 10-minute forest bathing inbetween meetings or a longer immersion in Bali (Leo) or Everest Base Camp (proud of you Russel). It is grounding. Rejuvenating. And humbling.
Thank you for journeying with me on edition 55, Tribe Tilt. And a warm welcome to all our new members. You are joining a group who believe that we can make a difference to the people and places that are precious to us.
Stay healthy. From there all else becomes possible. See you next week.
Karena
Photo Essay:
Most of the photos below are Canva collages to ensure that this email will open in your inbox. This is early morning over Lake Louise:
It all started with a similar photo of Lake Louise cut out of a calendar and taped above my desk for the past eight years. Talk about subliminal messaging! I first come across the beauty of this region while chaperoning my children to Buffer Fest 2014 and Ben Brown’s Canadian Canoeing video came up. The scenery on screen was stunning! (My most enjoyable adventures come from curiously pulling on a thread my kids have left hanging).
A Play on Blues
Our drive took us through those distinctive teal blue lakes that you only find in glacial regions because of the rock flour that runs off the glacial melt. It refracts the sunlight, blocking the reds and allowing the blues and greens to shine through. On its own, one would be a treat, and Lake Louise was spectacular. But Moraine Lake — tucked out of the way — was by far my favourite.
Collecting Glaciers:
The Icefields Parkway delivers! As you enter the Lake Louise area, you notice cirques where the snow has all disappeared, but this big bowl once held metres of packed snow. Starting with the plain of six glaciers dripping into Lake Louise which includes the Victoria Glacier, you see icefield after icefield. Crowfoot, Bow, Saskatchewan, Columbia, Patterson, Dome … they hang by the highway like an extravagant string of rare pearls, an abundance. It gave me so much joy to see these “living” glaciers.
But the message came through loud and clear when we visited the Athabasca Glacier on the Columbia Icefield. “You can see the outline of the original glacier from the moraine (rocky debris) that extends across the current highway. It is now 5% of its original size and will disappear within 50 years,” said our guide. I have to fact-check, but I think he said 40 feet of snow had to fall, and stay frozen for a year to become 1 foot of glacial ice over time. Odds are not good.
So much else
You have to drive it to believe it. To the east of Calgary, the prairie land is flat, flat, flat as far as the eye can see. Head west towards Banff and the Rockies, and suddenly you are surrounded by lakes, broad U-shaped glacial valleys, powerful gushing waterfalls, and snow-kissed peaks stacked like the spine of an ancient dinosaur stretching languidly into the distance.
The sky was that crisp blue that comes with -2C starts and highs of 19C (70F). I caught an amazing array of cloud formations on my Samsung S21 camera. And in the cold of a cloudless night you could feel the Milky Way dropping into your lap. Jupiter flashed gloriously. It was intoxicating! I kept chasing and missing the Northern Lights in Jasper and Edmonton. Sufficient excuse to visit again.
Are you inspired? Schedule your own appointment with nature.
Save Our Selves
Ask the dinosaurs. Size will not matter. All that is left of that ancient civilization that dominated the landscape is … bones. So the question is - do we care enough to change our behaviour so that we can answer that SOS and save ourselves?
That became clear on our first stop in Drumheller, AB. You drive along the flat open prairies when suddenly the earth drops from under you and you descend into a series of squirrely canyons. For many years, the fertile soil that was once an ocean floor also concealed the fossils and bones of million years of fauna and flora on earth. The digs are still happening in the Alberta Badlands. Dinosaurs gone. Planet Earth persists.
The next stop was the Canadian Rockies. 100 million years old.
It is sobering to stand on so much history, to place your hand on the folds of rocks and wonder what came before. And what will come - after our species has argued our way into oblivion?
“See the abundance once on Mother Earth?” the glaciers seem to tease us. With cell service absent in most areas, we slowed down to a glacial pace of time, as we explored the piercing blue moulins and sipped on water that fell to earth tens of thousands of years ago.
A force-filled waterfall is a wonder to behold. Until you realize it is fed by the melting ice caps above. The Columbian Icefield feeds into the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific oceans. I felt compelled to search for the tap and turn it off. And scream to the politicians “Stop bickering. We are running out of time”.
It is left to the remaining 7.75 billion people on earth to take our own actions if we want to persist in this universe.
Because this trip reminded me that Mother Earth embraces and celebrates her wrinkles. She is generous with her resources. But she will push back and regain her equilibrium. There will always be life on Earth. Will we humans be part of it? We are now in a race against time.
Get inspired. If you live in a concrete jungle, find a moment to stand on bare Earth and reconnect to the fight. Take a drive. Hike and breathe the air. Stand in the rain. Stare at a bee. Savour a plum. Find your reason. Make your own difference. Share it and inspire others.
Nature shows us that an accumulation of particles can make a difference. Enough snowflakes compact to create the beautiful ice of glaciers. Persistent drips of water gather momentum to gradually cut through centuries of rock and create amazing waterfalls. We humans now need to gather in force to fix what we can while we can.
Is this your first visit? Come join our Tribe of Tilters …
© All photos Karena de Souza. No filter. Samsung Galaxy S21.
Other climate essays:
This is such a beautiful opening, Karena:
“When the mountains, rocks and glaciers are carrying wrinkles much older than mine, I understand my place in the grand scheme of time.”
Very poetic and calming. Such a therapeutic read.
“You can see the outline of the original glacier from the moraine (rocky debris) that extends across the current highway. It is now 5% of its original size and will disappear within 50 years,”
This is so scary. It's exactly what happened in Pakistan and is happening right now resulting in super floods.
Your newsletter brings me so much hope, Karena. The planet will take care of itself...it's if we want to be a part of the future or not. So well said. This edition was such a beautiful coming together of you as a traveler, nature-lover, climate change agent, and the future of work.