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The Icefields Parkway in Banff and Jasper National Parks in Canada is constant eye candy and a photographers dream. I've made the drive several times and each time the light is different offering never ending opportunities to document our beautiful landscape.
Mount Chephren, seen in this beautiful image, rises majestically to 10,716 feet, more than 5,000 feet above the clear turquoise water of Lower Waterfowl Lake in Banff National Park. It is an important landmark along the Parkway because it can be seen from considerable distances from both the upper and lower Mystaya Valley.
Originally named Pyramid Mountain in 1897, its name was changed in 1918 by the Interprovincial Boundry Commission in order to avoid confusion with Pyramid Mountain near Jasper. In keeping with the Egyptian motif, it was renamed Mount Chephren. Chephren, or Khafre, was the fourth pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt and built the second of the three Great Pyramids. His reign began in 2565 BC and it is his likeness which is thought to have been the model for the Sphinx.
In 1948, Mabel Williams wrote in her guidebook, "Even in this region of magnificent peaks, Mount Chephren stands out with a supreme majesty and beauty all its own. Among all mountain lovers it will always hold high place. Its dark frontal tower of purplish rock rounded to a beehive, its immense, deeply carved buttresses, the symmetrical bands of darker rock and dazzling snow which crown its summit give it an individuality which stamps itself at once on the memory."
Purchase this limited edition, signed print 24 x 16 on canvas, gallery wrapped and ready to hang for only $180.00.