What Is Emerald Lake And Where Is It?
Emerald Lake is located in the Canadian Rockies within the boundaries of Yoho National Park. Yoho backs up to the more famous Banff and Jasper National Parks. While Banff and Jasper are in the province of Alberta, Canada, Yoho is located in eastern British Columbia. While there are much more famous lakes and photo spots like sunrise at Moraine Lake, sunrise at Bow Lake, and Winter scenes at Peyto Lake in Banff and Maligne Lake sunsets in Jasper, Emerald Lake stacks up well against those more famous places and tends to be much less crowded at sunrise and sunset, the two best times to photograph it.
Emerald Lake is closest to the town of Field, British Columbia. Aside from some lodging, restaurants and a gas station, there is not much of anything in Field. The Fireweed Hostel used to be a great inexpensive place to stay in Field, BC when spending time around Emerald Lake in the winter. Now that it is closed, you’d probably want to stay in Golden, British Columbia or the town of Lake Louise, Alberta. If you’d like to stay right at Emerald Lake, the Emerald Lake Lodge is a nice scenic and expensive place to stay.
What Is It Like To Travel To Emerald Lake At Yoho National Park?
If you don’t live in the area and especially if you are coming from the US, traveling to Yoho to see Emerald Lake takes a bit of work. The closest airport is located in Calgary. The drive from Calgary to Emerald Lake is about 2.5 to 3 hours depending on traffic. From the Calgary airport you’ll need to get a rental car and drive through Banff National Park to get to Yoho. The drive is quite scenic anytime of year. It’s a pretty smooth drive when the weather is nice but can be a treacherous drive if there are any winter storms in the area. The drive from Calgary to Lake Louise generally isn’t too bad in the winter but the drive from Lake Louise down to the Field, BC area where Emerald Lake is located can be really nasty.
What Does It Take To Get A Wall Art Quality Winter Photo Of Emerald Lake?
The first thing you have to do, of course it just get there. If you are staying in the town of Field, BC it is super easy. If you are staying in Lake Louise, AB or Golden, BC the roads to Emerald Lake can be some white knuckle driving.
Once you get there in the winter, chances are most of the lake will be frozen and not all that scenic or interesting. It’s just a landscape covered in white. When you drive up to Emerald Lake and park in the winter, there is usually an area of water by the bridge that goes from the parking lot to the lodge that is not totally frozen. This is where you can get some cool winter reflection shots. If there is some color in the skies, sunset can be pretty cool and colorful.
The building in the photo highlighted here is the Cilantro Restaurant. It sits in an very scenic spot by Emerald Lake and the photos of if may be better than the experience when eating there if you go by the Google reviews.
If you are going for a shot like this, get there a bit before sunset so you can scope out the area. It’s not a big area to scope out but if you want to get the restaurant reflecting in the water you’ll need to find a break in the ice on the water to do so. There can be a lot of people walking on the bridge in the photo. Cars and the hotel shuttle drive across it too so you’ll need to allow some time to wait to shoot when there is little or no movement on the bridge.
What Is The Best Gear For Photographing Emerald Lake Winter Sunset At Yoho?
If you are headed to Yoho to photograph a winter sunset a standard DSLR or mirrorless camera will do the trick. The scene lends itself well to a standard 4×6 aspect ratio photo. You may be able to find some scenes that would lend themselves to shooting in pano mode or stitching a few photos together for a panoramic shot but for the most part, a single frame shot will do just fine for winter sunsets.
Since it will be low light you will probably want a tripod and a cable release to keep the camera nice and steady. You’ll want a tripod that can go in the water and you might want spiked feat on it so it does not slide when sitting on snow and ice. You may want a circular polarizer to adjust the reflections captured in the lake.
What Is The Story Behind This Emerald Lake Winter Sunset Wall Art Photo?
In 2017, I spent most of the winter in the Canadian Rockies bouncing around to a variety of hostels in Banff and Jasper as well as Golden and Revelstoke British Columbia. This provided the chance to get awesome sunrise shots of Castle Mountain in Banff, do some skiing all over Canada and visit Emerald Lake.
It was during this trip that I discovered the Fireweed Hostel that is now out of business. It was an awesome place to say in the town of Field, British Columbia. Before I went down there I stocked up on plenty of food since there is not really anything resembling a grocery store in Field.
I watched the weather and just looked for somewhat clear skies in the forecast. Light winds were nice to avoid freezing to death but the water around the Cilantro Restaurant is protected by a lot of trees. Wind wasn’t an issue when going for this shot. Even if it had been windy, it wouldn’t have stirred up the water much.
I hiked around in the snow a bit to find a good scene and snapped off a bunch of photos with a Canon 5D MK II resting on an Induro tripod with the spiked feat in place.
What Formats Is Emerald Lake Winter Sunset Wall Art Print Available?
This wall art photo print of a winter sunset at Emerald Lake is available in print sizes up to 40×60 inches. It comes on a variety of premium papers, canvas, acrylic, wood and metal. For areas with direct natural light or exposed light bulbs in the room a matte canvas or paper print would look best. For that type of lighting something that doesn’t reflect the lights will look best. If it will be hung in an area that has more diffused lighting then shinier and more reflective prints may be more desirable. That would include metal prints, acrylic prints and glossy canvas or paper prints.
If you’d like a product that is useful in everyday life then a phone case, canvas tote bag, or apparel might be desirable. The canvas tote bags are really awesome and perfect for use as shopping bags.
For home decor that is not a print to hang on the wall, shower curtains and Sherpa fleece blankets are pretty awesome and cheaper than prints. They are larger than prints so the image will soften some but still look great.
Another popular item is jigsaw puzzles. The puzzles are custom made an come in 500 and 1,000 piece puzzles.
Leave a Reply