Dramatic Photos: The Sun and the Sky on Alberta’s Icefields Parkway, Amidst Smoke From Forest Fires in British Columbia

By MALIK MERCHANT

On my 2nd day of a four day stay in Jasper last October, I noticed that the stars and objects in the sky looked much fainter than they did upon my arrival into town the previous evening, October 16th, when I headed straight to Lake Annette where a Dark Sky event was underway. I arrived late for the event, having spent a considerable amount of time at the Columbia Icefields on the 230 kms route from Lake Louise to Jasper, known as the Icefields Parkway, which is considered to be one of the best scenic drives in Canada and indeed the world. It was almost 09:30 PM when I arrived at Lake Annette. I got out of my car and saw the universe lit up with extremely bright stars, the likeness of which I had never seen anytime during my lifetime.

The light smog in and around Jasper during my second day in Jasper was blamed on smoke from forest fires in British Columbia. It was the main reason why I didn’t take the Jasper Sky Tram to Whistlers Mountain. The smog situation vastly improved during the evening of my third day in Jasper, and I spent a few hours after sunset at Pyramid Lake, watching the spectacular starry night and Milky Way with photographer Ron Richey of Edmonton, who shared the pictures he took with readers of this photo blog.

Some visitors I met had expressed a sense of frustration over the smog, but it wasn’t all that bad.

During my drive back to Calgary through the Icefields Parkway, after visiting the Beauvert Lake located next to Jasper Park Lodge, a Fairmont Hotels and Resorts property, I did not notice anything unusual in the sky until I began approaching the Saskatchewan River Crossing. The sky began to look vastly different from the blue skies that I was leaving behind. It was around 5:00 PM. That made me think that I would be seeing a marvellous sunset in about 90 minutes, at around the 6:30 PM. There were moments during the drive when I felt I should stop the car and take a few photographs, but whenever I reached a lookout point, the sky appeared normal. That was the case until I finally arrived at the Saskatchewan Crossing’s hotel and restaurant parking area.

As I got out of the car and looked in the south and east directions, I did not see anything dramatic except, of course, the beautiful mountains. Then, in a matter of seconds, as I turned around to walk in the direction of The Crossings — an informative exhibit highlighting features of the area — I could not believe my eyes at what I was seeing in the skies ahead of me. I was absolutely stunned. Would I describe what I was seeing as beautiful, stunning, dramatic or what? I was truly amazed and bewildered. How would I describe the phenomenon? The wildfire and smoke that had engulfed parts of British Columbia to the west, and that had caused a smog alert in Jasper, were now affecting the environment around me in a totally different manner. Just as I had seen stars with so much clarity and brightness at Pyramid Lake a couple of days earlier, I was witnessing something new and unimaginable for the first time in my life. I was truly baffled and somewhat disturbed by the sight.

My first real education about fires, global warming and climate change took place during my visit to the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff on January 3, 2023. The artistic exhibitions that I saw on that day enlightened my senses, and I became even more determined than ever before to learn about climate change as well as pollution in oceans.

At the Saskatchewan River Crossing, the sky that I saw from smokey wildfires in a neighbouring Canadian province will always be etched in my memory. Throughout my trip, until then, I had uttered the word WOW loudly to myself several times in appreciation of the spectacular mountains I was driving through. Now, when I saw the sky, it was an alarming WOW.

The dark clouds and the colour that the sun assumed were scenes that were totally new to me.

After a short coffee break at the restaurant, I returned to the car and drove across for a short trail walk to the Saskatchewan River Crossing lookout point. There I saw three rivers meet — the mighty North Saskatchewan, the Howse and the Mistaya. The smokey sky that I had seen from the parking lot across the road, was to my right. As I continued my drive on the Icefields Parkway towards Lake Louise, I witnessed a sunset twilight. But I wondered: Was I seeing a genuine twilight or one that had been affected by the smoke from the forest fires that I had seen 30 minutes earlier at the Saskatchewan Crossing?

I will never be sure.

Date posted: January 20, 2023.

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