Driving along Trans Canada Highway 117, I felt impelled to stop at a bridge, to see if the river ice was worth photographing.
To my amazement, beneath the filthy bridge was the purest, clearest ice I had ever laid eyes on. I took a few pictures then, luckily, decided to view the ice from upstream of the bridge.
At that very instant, rays from the setting sun happened to pass directly through a large slab of ice. The sight was absolutely breathtaking – possibly one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen out in the wild. It bordered on a religious experience – I was intensely captivated by it. The ice radiated a turquoise hue and it was glowing intensely, as if by some alien power source deep within it.
As my pictures will attest, I was completely mesmerized. I was extremely fortunate to have pulled over at that nondescript bridge, to find this amazing scene at just the right time. Truly once in a lifetime. One week later, almost all the snow and ice had melted.
The only thing I could compare the experience to – as I sat alone, below a silent bridge, the gentle gurgling of river water keeping me company – was the Fortress of Solitude. Indeed, I had found mine.
In the brief amount of time I spent there, I was bound by the natural beauty of nature; all thoughts and worries escaped me. Maybe the light passing through that pristine ice purified me – simplified me. For those moments, my thoughts we clear as the ice. As I drove away, the sun setting behind me, I looked ahead to the next adventure.
“Fortress of Solitude – Superman” by Cihan Unalan is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Trapped on a rock floating in space 