Lake O’Hara, Yoho National Park, British Columbia, Canada

Located just over the Continental Divide from Lake Louise, the Lake OHara region of Yoho National Park offers a stunning contrast to the mob scene surrounding Chateau Lake Louise every morning at sunrise. This lake-studded basin is restricted to 300 people per day while overnight visits are limited to small cabins along the lakeshore and a campground located near the lake. As opposed to the government of Alberta which long ago protected most of the spectacular mountain lands east of the continental divide as National Parks and wilderness areas, British Columbia left much of the Canadian Rockies on its side of the divide open to road building and logging only setting aside some of the most choice parcels such as found here in Yoho National Park. In this photograph, snow-clad Mount Odaray towers above the calm waters of Lake OHara in the late September scene.