Thousands of people had been either evacuated or put on evacuation alert as smoke from out-of-control wildlife fires in northern Alberta billowed across the province. As the afternoon worn on, the iron-grey blanket moved south for hundreds of kilometres looming over Jasper, and blotting out the sun and washing out the colours of the crystal-clear morning. The surrounding mountains, like the ones over the Pyramid Lake, slowly disappeared enveloped in smoke.