Myself and a group of my camera friends from two of our local photography clubs made our annual winter trek to the Rocky Mountains of western Alberta last week. We hoped for fabulous ice on Abraham Lake, mild weather, beautiful sunrises and sunsets. We mostly struck out on the ice and the sunrises and sunsets and got the nice mild weather - but there is always beauty in the mountains in the winter.

We were at the Howse River viewpoint near Saskatchewan River Crossing, hoping for one of those sunsets that didn't happen. The viewpoint looks almost due west from the high vantage point near the highway, and the sunset direction looked just about perfect.

As much as we wanted the clouds to open up, they didn't cooperate. However, the high foggy overcast and bright soft light made some of the mountain details pop.

I put away my wide-angle lens and spent the rest of the available light zooming into the various mountains in the distance. I was really pleased to see the bright (almost) sunshine on the foreground snow-covered trees leading up to the mountain disappearing into the clouds above.