Evening sun highlights a stand of deciduous trees for a few moments before dipping behind a mountain to our west as the Wedge rises more distantly in the scene above the bends of the Kananaskis River, near Kananaskis Village, Alberta, Canada.

Earlier this month, my wife and I spent a nice few days showing her parents some of the natural wonders of the Canadian Rockies that we had enjoyed on previous trips to the area. We were hoping to head down to Glacier National Park as well, but ended up shortening our trip and missing Glacier this time due to the terrible fires and heavy smoke there. I understand there were a number of forest fires on the Canadian side as well--some apparently not too very far from where this image was taken--but the smoke must have been blowing the other way this evening.

Perhaps what's remarkable is what I missed while I was trying to catch the fleeting light in this image. As I was hurriedly setting up for this shot, I could see my wife had spotted something interesting since she was gesturing to me without making a sound and snapping away on the superzoom she likes to use when looking for wildlife. She was only a short distance away looking the opposite direction up the river's course, but her angle of view offered a real treat when a pack of five large wolves emerged from the forest and worked their way along the river for a bit before disappearing again into the tree cover. That could be once-in-a-lifetime sighting, and a fair reward for the patience she often displays when I've got my camera and my eye on an intriguing landscape!

The good news for fire fighting was that heavy clouds rolled in the next day and socked in much of this part of the Rockies with intermittent rain and snow for most of the rest of our time there. Not too many chances for photography this trip as it turned out, but from what I heard and read, it seems like its been an awfully bad fire year all over the west, and I really hope the precipitation helped stem some of those wildfires.

I also thought it kind of cool in this image how that one cloud formation rising above "The Wedge" mountain looked almost like smoke emerging from a volcano.

Thanks for viewing!

Tags:   Kananaskis Country Village Canada Spray Lakes Provincial Park Canmore Banff Nikon Landscape Evening Sunset photobenedict River Autumn Fall Mountains The Wedge

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