Scale

The most exciting -- and difficult to convey -- thing about the Canadian Rockies is their sheer size and scale.  It's as though a normal giant mountain range has been separated by a few miles in every direction, so a road can pass through it and each mountain gets its due.  

To try to show you what I mean, here's the bike sitting in front of a couple of decent mountains. 

Those mountains aren't bad, right?  Nice slope on the one on the right, nice peaks on the one on the left.  Let's take another look at those two guys:

Same swoop, same peaks.  But they do look a little bigger now that they're more front and center.  You can focus on that green patch on the left mountain -- those are enormous pine trees, yet they look like moss -- to get an inkling that these are some big boys. 

Let's try again:

Aha!  A road for scale.  Yes, the road up close shows you that the mountains are way bigger than cars.  But the fun part of this photo is that the road is also visible by that little glimmery river towards the middle left of your frame.  THAT is where they road passes the mountain on the RIGHT.  The road continues for some time before it cruises past the one on the left.  And that's why I took so many pictures of this vista -- the scale was hard to even fathom, and harder still to capture -- yet in person it was beyond captivating. 

One more look at the same scene:

This shot reminds you that the mountain on the left extends in both directions, beyond your view to the left, and past the sloping behemoth on the right. 

In person, this view is something you'll never forget.  In photos, it looks like any other shot -- until you take a moment and try to come to grips with what you're seeing.