The Fall Photo Weekend is a tradition that started over 20 years ago. My friend Jon and I traveled to Jasper National Park in late October of 2000. We discovered that the hotel accommodations are really affordable at that time of year. The summer tourists are gone, and the ski season has not yet started. The park and the townsite are very quiet, and its easy and enjoyable to get around and take photos. The only downside is that the days are quite short, and it can get fairly cold. Fast forward over 20 years later and the tradition is still alive. The members of the Monochrome Guild have been taking a fall trip, usually to Jasper, every year since the first one in 2000. We were interrupted by Covid for two years, and could not keep the streak alive. In 2020 a bunch of us managed to get out for a couple of day trips around Edmonton, but in 2021 it did not happen at all. This year was our return to the old tradition and six of us headed out to Jasper on Friday October 21st. Sadly, had it not been for the Covid interruption, this would have been the 23rd annual event. But, counting the day trips in 2020, at least we have managed to get the Monochrome Guild Members out in the fall for 22 of the last 23 years...!
My friend Steve arrived at my place at about 7:15AM that Friday. We loaded his gear, and the rest of mine into the truck, and hit the road for Jasper. Traffic was fairly heavy getting out of the city as the morning rush was underway. But once we got past Spruce Grove and Stony Plain, it was a nice easy drive all the way to Jasper. We stopped for a coffee and some fuel in Edson, and continued on our way.
Once we got into the National Park we stopped at Jasper Lake. This was one of those rare occasions when the wind was very light. It was almost non-existent when we first arrived, but kicked up to a light breeze as we wandered around the dunes and on the lakeshore making some photographs. Fred and Nigel met up with us there and also took some photos. The dunes are becoming a lot more overgrown then they were 20 years ago, and we ended up shooting mostly along the shore of the lake. There was some smoke in the air from the forest fire that has been burning north of the townsite for the past couple of months. At one time this fire took out the power supply to the town and for a time and it was closed to tourists. The fire is now under control, though it continues to burn. We saw and smelled smoke off and on over the weekend, even some distance away from town, but it was largely dependent on the winds.
Later we took a drive on Highway 93A. Unfortunately the road was closed for the season at the Whirlpool River and we could not continue all the way to Athabasca Falls. But the main highway is open year round, weather permitting, so we were able to access the Falls later in the weekend. We scouted around a little and did some shooting at the Meeting of the Waters, where the Whirlpool and Athabasca River meet, and also along the Astoria River.
After that we headed into town. It was now about 4:30PM and we were able to check in to our suites and drop off all of our gear. Meghan and Gord met up with us there. We had two suites reserved at the Jasper Inn and there were three of us staying in each one. This made for a very affordable weekend and the final cost was under $300 each, for three nights.
Later we walked into town and had pizza at a restaurant called Something Else. It was very good, and has become a favorite spot of ours. After that we walked back to the hotel and stayed up visiting for a couple of hours. I've attached a gallery of phone snapshots below, and will post some scans of the film negatives that I shot, in the coming weeks as I develop them.
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