In September of 2015, I joined a group of photographers to  hike in the Canadian Rockies.  Although I grew up in B.C., this was my first time visiting the Rockies.  

I flew into Calgary to meet the group.  .  You can see from the map above where Mount Assiniboine is (#157).  We left the next morning for the Canmore Alpine Heliport which was about 1 1/5 hours from our hotel.  It was my first ride in a helicopter and it was fantastic.  I had been a bit apprehensive about the flight but once we took off I found it to be an exhilarating experience and enjoyed every minute of the flight.  The flight only lasted about fifteen minutes and was over much too quickly.  

As our group was  waiting  for our flight we photographed the arriving group.  

This photograph was taken from the helicopter.  The scenery was absolutely spectacular.  Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park is located in British Columbia.  It is a high alpine backcountry park with no road access.  You can only reach the park by hiking up, cross country skiing or helicopter.  There were some hikers that we met-we were told it takes approximately 9 hours to hike to the lodge from the bottom of the mountain.  

This was my first view of the Mount Assiniboine Lodge.  The main area of the Park is at about 2,180 meters (7,200 feet).  The lodge itself had some rooms upstairs (maybe six or so?) and also many cabins as well as a campground.  Although rustic it had a lot of character and excellent food.  

This was the view of the lake that can be seen from the lodge.  The hike to the lake was only about twenty minutes or so.  However, since there are Grizzly bears in the area it was recommended to never hike by yourself and take certain precautions.  We did hear that the campground had been visited by bears during our stay but I never saw one.

Our group made our way down to the lake once we had settled into the lodge.  Unfortunately, we didn't have the clouds for the sunset.

I was very impressed by the scenery as we made our way back up to the lodge.

We were up early the next morning to photograph the lake.  

We spent about two hours photographing before returning to the lodge for breakfast.  It was quite cold out waiting for the light but it warmed up nicely during the day.  

After breakfast we started off on a hike which proved quite challenging to me.  Along the way we stopped off at a pond to take a few quick photos.

One last photo before we continued our hike.  You can see the peak of Mount Assiniboine in the background (the snow covered peak).  

We arrived at our destination after about an hour of hiking.  It was definitely worth the effort.   

I wandered around the area admiring the fall colors.

We took some more photos before heading back down to the lodge.

Much later on  in the afternoon we headed back to one of the ponds to photograph the sunset.  It was very cloudy out but finally some light broke through.