DAY 14-17 ~ BANFF, ALBERTA (May 30 – June 3)

Banff is a village in the heart of Banff National Park.  The city is surrounded by majestic snow capped mountains and it is so beautiful.  We camped at Tunnel Mountain Trailer Court inside the park for four nights.  We had very cold, overcast mornings.  Then the sun would come out and really warm the place.  In late afternoon dark clouds would come out and greet us with rain and sometimes a small thunder storm.  The clouds really added to the scenery making it dramatic and magical.

A short distance from our campground were some very scenic views.

Tunnel Mountain

HooDoos – The First Nations people believe these are the spirits of their ancestors.

Bow River w HooDoos (left) and Mt. Rundel (right)

Elk in our campground.  No, that is not our trailer.

We spent a day at Lake Louise.  It was a beautiful drive on a scenic highway with several animal overpass crossings.  What a great idea!  This highway within the park had high fencing on both sides of the highway (with several gates here and there).  This kept the animals off of the road, but gave them access to each side with the animal crossing.  However, some animals do get over (or under) this fence.  We passed a coyote wandering alongside of the highway.

Lake Louise, normally a beautiful pale blue, was still frozen over so no reflection of the mountains on the lake this time.  We had a very nice lunch at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise on one side of the Lake.  Then we went for a nice walk around Lake Louise...well only one side of the lake and only hiked less than a mile.  The walk turned off and got too steep (for me).  If you continued the walk for another hour you would end up at Lake Agnes Teahouse where you would get “stunning views while you savour a pot of freshly steeped tea and enjoy a bowl of homemade soup”.  Some day, in another life.

Animal crossings

Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise in background.

End of the trail for us.

Lake Louise at the end of the day.  A storm is brewing.

On our last day we explored “The Bow Valley Parkway”.  This is 35 mile alternate route that is very scenic with great views, open meadows and has many pull-offs to view historic markers, better scenery and lead to trailheads.  This road is closed at night so that all the wildlife can have access and wonder about without interference by the two legged wildlife.

Castle Cliffs

Bow River w Storm Mountain

A highlight of this route is Johnston Canyon.  This is a four hour round-trip hike to Lower Falls, then Upper Falls and ending at Inkpots.  We made it to Lower Falls.  Most of that hike was on catwalks elevated above Johnston Creek. 

Catwalks above Johnston Creek

Golden mantled ground squirrel

Lower Falls

Time to go back

Our last stop was back at Banff at a Natural Historical Site called The Cave and Basin.  This is the birthplace of Canada’s Natural Parks.  The cave is only a one room cave with a hot spring pool in the middle of it.  But it was the discovery of this place in 1885 that saw the need to preserve and protect these special places.

On to Jasper for our next adventure!