Canadian Rockies and Vancouver road trip gear

tygertyger wrote:

Hi all

We have our long delayed family trip to Canada coming up next week and I've been pondering over what equipment to take to best capture the majestic scenery.

We will be spending time in Banff (3 nights), Jasper (4 nights) and Lake Louise area (2 nights) and then driving west to Vancouver for a few days of city life at the end of the trip.

On the itinerary are the following - I might not hit all of them but I needed a list!

Banff: Lake Minnewanka, Banff Gondola and Sulphur Mountain Trail, Bow Falls, Bow Valley Parkway, Johnston Canyon, Ink Pots

Jasper: Icefield Parkway North , Bow Lake, Peyto Lake, Mistaya Canyon, Parker Ridge Trail, Sunwapta Falls, Goats and Glaciers lookout, Athabasca Falls, Maligne Lake and Canyon, Jasper Sky Tram and Whistlers Peak, Edith Cavell Meadow and Angel Glacier, Valley of the Five Lakes trail, Pyramid Island Lake, Miette Hot Springs

Lake Louise: Icefield Parkway South, Guided ice walk on the glacier, Tangle Creek Falls, Wilcox Trail Pass, Moraine Lake, Rock pile and Consolation Lake Trail, Lake Louise, Plain of Six Glaciers teahouse

I'm planning to take:

• X-T2 body with spare batteries and plenty of storage cards
• XF 18-55 for general scenery, street, day and evening photography and perhaps some video
• XC 50-230 for landscape and wildlife (hope to see some bears!)
• Samyang 12mm F2 prime for wide landscapes
• lightweight tripod for sunrise/sunset captures

I'm contemplating picking up a variable ND filter but in two minds... any thoughts on that welcome. Also any other must have items I'm missing or general tips - please do call out!

Many thanks in advance!

Non photographic recommendation here… you should get the GyPSy app (https://gypsyguide.com) for the Canadian Rockies. It was a fantastic driving companion which cues itself to the GPS to give relevant pieces of interesting info about the place you are driving through. Highly recommend!

As for the vari-ND filter, get one. I’m currently writing this from a trip to Mt. Rainier national park and many of my pics are either blowing out the sky or snow on the mountain or going too dark in the fore and mid ground. I have a polarizer with me and wish I had a grad ND and Vari ND too. Consider a polarizer also if you want to avoid reflections on the water.
Cheers!

Edit: while wildlife is usually seen early or late in the day, that’s no guarantee you won’t see any at other times. This afternoon around 3 or 4pm a black bear walked across the trail about a minute ahead of us. The three ladies who had just walked past us saw it and photographed it with their cell phones!!! They waved us over as they saw I was carrying a camera… sadly or maybe fortunately (as it was a close encounter), we didn’t see it. We did almost run into a deer and fawn a few minutes after that when rounding a bend. So absolutely carry bear bell and possibly bear spray too depending on how far you will hike.
Good luck.