Hiked the Canadian Rockies

I spent eight days in the glory of the mountains of the Continental Divide. Words aren't enough to describe the experience. I was in heaven amidst the snow-capped, glacier-laden ranges of the Rockies.

It was beautiful, beautiful country. Rivers coursing powerfully by the highway. Thick, evergreen forests as far as the eye can see, like lush carpeting from mountain to mountain to mountain. And the Rockies themselves -- gray, jagged peaks long ago forced from beneath the earth by something violent and primeval; thousands of feet of rock partially draped in green and capped with a layer of white, sometimes a hesitant dusting of snow, sometimes meters-thick with hundred-year-old ice. Range after range of them, for more than a hundred miles.

I don't know what it is about the mountains that fill me with both a sense of excitement and peace.

I love the wilderness and the life it nurtures. I saw a female deer on the shores of Moraine Lake, just inside the trees as we paddled a canoe close to land. It was lean, gentle and statuesque, the most beautiful creature I'd ever seen. I saw a female elk outside our cabin, eating grass amongst the pines. I saw a group of bighorn sheep grazing by the side of the road, their horns curved and majestic. Nothing has ever made me feel so alive as unexpectedly crossing paths with these wild, innocent creatures.

I was captivated once again by mountain rivers. Born from snowmelt up high, a thousand individual streams come together to become a mighty force that carves the landscape and feeds life. It's nothing but water, gravity, and obstacles in between. And yet the sight of it is breathtaking, and its power undeniable.

I saw glaciers up close and was stunned, for I was face to face with a wonder from another time. I saw the unusual color of tranquil, glacier-fed lakes and will never forget that shade of blue. I paddled a canoe in the Valley of the Ten Peaks, and photographed scenes from high places, dangerous places, that not many people have been.

I hiked thousands of feet up a mountain just to see where it would take me. I made it through a hailstorm in the frigid cold. I scrambled up ledges and down scree slopes with a thousand foot drop beside me to carefully ignore.

I challenged myself and won, and my reward was pure bliss.

[Canadian Rockies trip slideshow]