ROCKIES ROAD TRIP 5
Even when you know they ’ re coming — that it ’ s a geographical certainty , an indisputable and fully expected fact — they take you by surprise . I ’ ve taken this journey many times . But , rolling out from Calgary , the rounded foothills west of the city growing steeper and higher with every curve in the road , I still draw a sharp breath when they first appear .
ABOVE LEFT : ELK IN JASPER NATIONAL PARK ; ABOVE RIGHT : JASON CARTER AT THE CARTER-RYAN GALLERY
The frontal range of the Rockies . Snow-capped summits , rising into the clouds . Evergreen forests , with an electric blue , rushing river running through the valley below . What seems like moments ago , I was exiting a busy airport parking lot in a major metropolis , joining six-lane traffic on a crowded expressway .
Now , here , all of a sudden , I ’ m riding forward into some sort of 19th-century romantic painting . A landscape so splendiferous that , honestly , you can scarcely believe it ’ s real . Thinking about the magnificence that lays ahead , with so many days to come , all of them spent here among Canada ’ s most spectacular scenery , a shiver of excitement runs down my spine .
But on this road trip , I ’ m not just here for the natural wonders . In fact , this journey will give me a whole new view on this landscape , and its people . On this trip , I will see the Rockies through an Indigenous perspective .