We are doomed to not fully enjoy the Banff area….

    

 The day started well:  bright and crisp, sunshine, and plans to see as much of the Banff and Yoho national parks as possible in one day. We had booked a tour because several areas are closed to cars and on we went.  We retraced our trip back to Lake Louise, which was fine because you see other features and with the tour, they point interesting things to you. For instance, this well named Castle Mount (which to me looks strickingly like Edinburg Castle). 

  We had a quick stop at lake Louise, which made me feel good about staying at the Fairmont yesterday, because it’s a much nicer experience- also the reflection were better yesterday (this is a collage of both - yesterday is on top)

 

After that, we went to Moraine lake, which is one of the areas that is closed to private cars.  It is still really busy…. Moraine lake is a misnomer:  It was first thought to have been formed by the terminal moraine of a glacier.  But Moraine have very small, gravel-like rocks.  So now it is thought that this rock pile was formed by an avalanche that blocked the channel, forming the lake. 

 

It is even prettier than lake Louise in my opinion. And you can climb to the top of the rock pile for a nice view.  It is a busy climb however….(once you get to the top there are enough viewing areas that it’s not too crowded). 

This is a panoramic view of the lake, showing the 10 peaks of the “10 peaks valley”.

 As we went on, the driver pointed out several areas where there were recent big avalantes, and although the snow is gone, the damage is not!

 So far, so good.  But then, route 1 was completely stopped because of a big accident. We were on the scene literally a couple of minutes after it happened, so foolishly though it would not be too long.  It was 4hours!!!!!!!! 

People got how of their cars, walked up and down the highway, set up picnic tables…..  I have to say people stayed remarkably calm….  Toward the end, I saw one guy yelling at a ranger…..  but that’s about it…..

 The first 1 1/2 hour was spent waiting for a helicopter (I guess the person who was evacuated had it worse than us….) and then 2 1/2 hours figuring out how to move the traffic while doing the accident investigation - eventually, people behind us were turned around, they made highway 1 a 2 way highway on one side and we were able to move forward. 

 But that time, it was 3:40pm and we were hungry enough to eat each other….  But obviously, our planned lunch at Emerald lake had long passed (so was the visit to the lake).  We skipped the stop at the Spiral Tunnels- a marvel of engineering to make trains go through the mountain- but we will go through it on the train tomorrow.  We skipped a couple more stops but did manage to grab a late lunch- which was either very good wraps or we were so hungry that anything would have been good.  Also, it was almost 5:00pm by then, so we had some rosé…

   I’m really glad that we made our last scheduled stop, at Takakkaw falls, because they are truly spectacular!  1300 feet high, and roaring down a beautiful valley. 

 The drive out to the falls was quite the adventure by itself, particularly in a bus:  The driver had to back out of some of the hair pins, both on the way up and down - the woman in front of me could not even watch and buried her head in her hands……

Having had such a late lunch, we did not bother with diner, and will go to bed early, because tomorrow, we have to be up early to get on the train not Vancouver!

Here is a pretty magpie, because there are many of them around …..

A weird day in Banff….

 

I got up early in Lake Louise (I always get up early….), because I wanted to go on a hike before leaving.   I caught the first rays of the sun on the mountain over the lake at 6:00am, and headed up to Lake Agnes.  It’s an easy 2.2 miles up, but relentlessly uphill. 1360 feet doesn’t sound that impressive, but it definitely felt like a hike.  Even at 6:00am, there were quite a few people huffing and puffing their way up - by the time I came down, before 8:00am, the trail was down right crowded (and it was clear that some of these people were not going to make it to the top…..).  

 is a beautiful hike, with nice views on the way up.  As the sun came over the mountain, it casts nice long shadows on the trail. 

The first stop on the trail is mirror lake (well named), where the “beehive” casts a nice reflection.  There is a trail to the top of the Beehive, but I did not quite have the time for it.   This is a side view of it.

    

 From Mirror lake, you can hear a water fall, but not quite see it, for that, you need to keep going up to Agnes lake, which is high enough that there is still some ice floating on it. There is a nice tea house up there, famous for it’s blueberry pie, but it was too early (they open at 8:00am), so I headed down, on a slightly more challenging trail - there was even some ice on it!  But it was very pretty, and by that point, there were very few people on it.  There were however some cute woodland creatures, including a Western red squirrel and a large bunny! 

Joe choose to sleep late while I was doing that, which is a very good thing to do while on vacation!

By the time we left, Lake Louise was looking like a postcard of itself…. 

 The drive from Lake Louise to Banff is short ( less than 50 miles), on a nice highway, and with beautiful views all the way.  

 

 An interesting feature is the multiple “wildlife crossing” (this is one example of it)  to minimize wildlife fatalities (as well as car accidents), Canada parks has put fences for the entire length of that part of the highway, and has build a bunch of bridges for the wildlife - google it - they have cameras on them and you can see bears, moose, etc crossing the highway.  They also have so tunnels under the highway for the same purpose.  

As we approached Banff, We got an impressive view of Cascade Mountain, which towers over the town. 

Banff is a pretty town, in a gorgeous setting but:

 

1). It is REALLY crowded.

2).  It’s power supply cannot handle the crowd, and once in a while just gives up…..

So, that’s what happened to us today - as we arrived in town, a transformer blew up and the entire town ended up in the dark. (Well, not really in the dark since it was midday, but without stores, restaurants, or the ability to check-in in hotels….)  Half of it regained power within an hour, but the other half took over 4 hours causing all kind of issues.   For instance, the restaurants that had power were mobbed, and there were lines at the IGA, waiting for it to re-open…. For us, the main problem was returning the rental car:  to start with, the address clearly was not a place where one could return a car - it was in the middle of a very busy street - there was an Avis sign on the side, but no clue as to were an office may be.  I eventually had to call the main Avis office, and they figured out that it was in a parking garage around the corner - fine.  After going around the block 3 times, I find the parking garage (again, no sign suggesting it was an Avis return) - and remember, no electricity - so I get in the garage, where there is still a bit of day light, and there is indeed a sign that says “rental return”, pointing you to a third level basement that was in complete darkness - it was REALly spooky!!!!  I parked, took a picture of the parking spot, and then tried to find someone to whom I could give the keys - after asking the only open store on the street (all stores were shut down because dark), he pointed me to where there is indeed counter was hidden in the dark mall - there I at last found a number, called and someone came and I gave him the keys - I have actually no idea who I gave the keys to….  So keep you fingers crossed….

While I was doing that, Joe was at the hotel, about 3/4 miles away, trying to check in, which of course could not be dome….  They let him in the dark room, without light, or internet….. So that’s what he did…..  just wait.

  Since I was in town, I instead decided to take a walk along the pretty Bow river, to the waterfalls, which was very pleasant.  

 While at the falls, a guy asked for my help to zip him into his wet suit, so that he could hop on his paddle board, to paddle downstream through the rapid - he was headed 25km down river!  Here he is, in the middle of the river, heading down! 

 As I got back to town, I was pleased to find a Cow’s ice cream store, because by that time, I was tired and hungry.  Indeed, and i don’t say that often- i walked too much today - I was really tired by the time the power came back and I walked back to the hotel……

So having an early dinner and calling it a day.  We have a busy tour tomorrow, hitting all the highlights of the Banff and Yoho national parks.

Glacier, lakes and grand views!

  We left Jasper after a very nice breakfast (salmon eggs Benedict), heading south toward lake Louise, we first drove through miles and miles of devastated forest.  Every tree, on every hill, on both sides of the road is gone - for over 20 miles!  It really makes you understand what they say when sometimes the air quality in NY is impacted by “Canadian fires”.  This being said, the landscape is still magnificent, with jagged peaks covered with ice surrounding great valleys.  

  After about 20 miles, we reached Athabaskan falls, and also at last, live trees.   The falls are awe inspiring and so it the great work that park Canada has done to make them accessible and enjoyable for the many visitors.  There are multiple point of views, and you can get really close!

 

  We also stoped at Sunwapta falls, where the Sunwapta river changes course and drops dramatically into a deep canyon.  Again, the trails leading to it and the viewing platforms were impressive.

 Then we went to this stretch of highway main attraction: the Columbia ice field, where you can see as many a 5 glaciers at a time.  We took one of the heavy vehicles that can drive up the hills to go take a walk on the glacier itself.  A very unique experience indeed!  The glacier itself looks dirty, because of  all the debris that settles on it, but the water that flows out of it is cristal clear (I took a sip, it was refreshing!).

  

  Then we went to the “skywalk”, a glass floor observation platform that extends over the Sunwapta valley. 

 

 It’s cool, a bit scary (but they had a lot of sign explaining how safe it is…) and gives a great view of the valley. 

 Driving along the valley, we saw many long horn sheep.  We also saw a large black bear, but did not notice in time to slow down and take pictures….. 

  There are many glacier visible along the route south - here is an example of the cap on the mountain- it’s hard to tell from the picture, but it is over 50 feet deep.  There are people who really enjoy this snow even more than we do…  At one spot, we saw people walking up the mountain, just to ski down it - you can see the ski tracks all down the slope, and the little spot on the left is a guy walking up it!

 The road is really beautiful and awesome the entire way, and I could post 100 pictures, and we could have stopped at every view point and take a hundred more…..  but it would not do it justice, so here are just two.  

  Continuing toward Lake Louise, we stopped at Peyto lake, known for its distinctive turquoise color, and its wolf head shape. It is stunning - and the walk to it, though a snow covered forest, is very pleasant.  It was however on the very edge of being unpleasantly crowded.  It is not yet peak season - it must be just crazy in July!

 Finally, we made it to lake Louise, which is as pretty as they say.  It is crowded too, but it doesn’t matter, because we are splurging and staying at the “Chateau Lake Louise” (see top picture), the only hotel on the lake itself.  It is magnificent!

   I took a stroll along the lake, capturing some of the sights, and meeting this adorable western chipmunk), before “cocktails with a view” and a nice fondue at one of the hotel’s restaurant.  We are only staying one. Night, which is too bad because it is a really special place.  On the other hand, as mentioned above, it is a splurge…

The motto of Alberta is “ land of the wild rose”, so here is one.  

    

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