Moraine Lake, Valley of the Ten Peaks, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

Early-morning storm clouds gather over the Wenkchemna Peaks above the calm waters of Moraine Lake in Banff National Park. Perhaps the most photographed scene in the Canadian Rockies, this sublime body of water was created by a large glacier which scoured this valley during the Pleistocene Epoch. Surrounded by country where the spectacular is ordinary, Moraine Lake stands out as a jewel among jewels here in the Valley of the Ten Peaks. As summer temperatures melt a number of small remnant glaciers in the mountains above, glacier-pulverized rock adds silt to the streams which enter this lake and causes its waters to take on a brilliant hue of turquoise. The jagged ridge of the Wenkchemna Peaks forms the continental divide in this portion of the Canadian Rockies.