Tourists gathering next the falls in Banff, scattered & mysterious crowd at the end of the day

The waterfalls are an amazing natural site in Banff, with the peaceful impact of water, turbulent water & almost still water in the lake. Consequently, as most amazing sites in North America, access to tourists are made easy, extremely easy: a wide parking lot is full of Japanese buses on their way to Lake Louise.

The effect is rather striking when you reach the place via the small path along the river itself, with the shade of tall trees. Yes, the path itself is not wild at all but clean, perfectly & modernly set; open to any type of people; but hard to expect discovering such a wide parking lot just next to the amazing falls!

Groups of people are hanging around, walking gently, most of taking pictures of the falls, as close as possible. Kids are running, boys put their hand in the water to probe its coldness. Large agglomerates of people in the middle of the wild mountains.

Still, the place keeps its quite peace if you reach the place at the end of the day, if you walk along the lake banks to get a bit further from the foam of turbulent waters. The falls are still visible, in the background, the crowd is now made of scattered couples with a slow pace, dark shadows when seen from a distance. A bit of mystery among the murmuring people, barely understandable, whose details remain almost hidden, another kind of peaceful spell in the mountain.

June, 25th, 2010 - Waterfalls - Banff, Alberta