Whenever it is possible go to the mountains. By their look they will remind you of natural grandeur: solidificated stone Titans covered with ultra white snow caps, icebound with blue glaciers or absolutely bold without a single tree as if they were boasting of their power and stone recalcitrance.

Joffre Lakes Provincial Park.
Lost in haze

Today we are going to a provincial park called Joffre Lakes located nearby Pemberton, British Columbia, Canada. This place became out in the open for hiking in 1996

and instantly became popular with the Canadians and tourists by its three blue lakes with crystal-pure water made by a glacier constantly feeding them, which is melting down and growing in strength in winter.

I would like to narrate about one-of-a-kind day spent on the lakes which engaged my feelings and I keep on dreaming of re-experiencing these feelings.

I'm not really a bad-weather person but this was the very weather I plumed into upon arriving at the park.

I found myself at the beginning of a rout at 7 Am., the landscape was blotted out by the fog. It was so thick and white and I seemed to be wrapped by it up to the hilt as if I were going to disappear.

An unusual feeling whelmed me at the first, lower lakeside. The water of the surface of the lake is surprisingly calm as if it were icebound and it is still. It is transparent and of an incredibly turquoise blue or even light-green colour.

Tree-tops disappearing in white smoke haze seem endless. Due to the sombre sky the colour of the water absorbing all shades of reflections around is still bright and even more colorful.

On my way to the second (middle) lake I come across waterfalls running down noisily alongside of the path leading higher and higher to the glacier. Picturesque mountains are covered with snow and are hidden behind clouds. It seems it is enough to put out your hand and you will reach them. They are so close.

The sky is still cloudy. The nature is still and silent. It seems to be resting and gaining strength after three rainless months. The second lake appears in front of me in brighter shades of blue perfectly harmonizing with green evergreens and grey stones.

That very glacier seen not far from here completes the picture. It is like a silent watchful guardian safeguarding the silence and the peace of the lake where life has been standing motionless

just for a second to allow you to see all the details of the unusual neighborhood. The water knocks your socks off by its bright- turquoise colour and calm surface.

Approaching the third lake fed by the glacier proudly towering above the surface it is getting noticeably colder and I feel like putting on a sweatshirt. Stones are getting bigger and sharper, the path is gradually disappearing blocked in by stones and rampikes.

The nature is making boast of its elemental grandeur. Ice mountain lake water bites if you touch it. Pouring crystal-clear streams going down the glacier are ringing lowly and gleaming with bluish sparkles. The trees surrounding this place and overlooking remind you of their safeguarding these places hundreds of years.

Silence … Try to feel how spectaculous nature can be. It is made to clean up our thoughts and hearts, it helps to sort out your feeling and it inspires to heroism.

A person treating it with veneration and respect it can be given something special – Freedom.

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    Author and photographerAnastasia Lukonina
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