May 22, In and around Banff

Banff is a cute little overpriced Tourist town. Since it is in a National Park we are supposed to pay $16.70 a night for every night we are here (in addition to the campground fees).  It can add up.  So we took a look around.  First the town.

A very nice looking bench

After walking a few miles (Pauline's note: Well, at least several blocks) around town we
decided to view the Bow Parkway.  We found a few more "hills".

Lovely green Aspens just leafing out

                                                                            

Aspen groves, a symbiotic community

Then there was the mean looking Wildlide.

We are lucky we excaped with our lives.  Then we came to Johnston Creek Canyon and Falls.  That was worth the drive except we had to walk about ten miles  up in both directions (how about 1 1/2 miles up, plus the same going back down).  Notice that signs in Canada are in English and French.

This is were I discovered I did not have my car keys, in fact, no keys at all, in my pockets.  So we walked back to the car, a long distance, looking for the keys and when we finally got back to the car, we found them.

Yep, there they were

Yeah, they were sitting on the front seat of the locked up Honda, and Pauline did not have hers with her.  Guess they fell out of my coat pocket.  We found a park employee who had not been trained in the US so he was very helpful and let us call out Road service and he even gave them a name of a guy who lived in Banff to the Operator who didn't have the faintest idea where we were.  Believe it or not in about an hour some one showed up and very quickly, so quickly it scares me, had the door open.

So we had our keys back and I could not stalll anymore so off we went.  I don't know how my dear Bride can find all these long, long hikes that are uphill both ways but she does.

Finally on the way.

She is happy.

 

Anyway you get the idea, A fast moving creek cutting thru a canyon, leaving all kinds of good photo opportunities.  But I can only post so many, sorry.  But then we come to the falls.

Stella Falls

Lower Falls

Another angle lower Falls

   

From a cave above the Lower Falls

Chuck at Lower Falls

Above Lower Falls

 

Now off we go to Upper Falls which is several miles (.5 mi), yep, you guess it, UP STREAM (then again, we weren't swimming, were we).

Creek and SNOW

 

 

 Finally, several hours later we get to the Upper Falls.  The white sheet of ice to the right is caused by the spray from the falls and I guess that it is there most of the year.

Clouds descended and it started raining........ 

 

On the way home from the end of the Bow Parkway (named after the Bow river it travels beside) we got this view of Stormy Mountain..

 

May 21, Heading to Banff, AB

We left Revelstoke, B.C. for the beautiful ride to Banff National Park, Alberta, 180 miles.  Not setting any records, just doing what we want.  I don't know the names of the 'hills' we were passing by but as you can see they were pretty.

 

One of many falls, just melting snow

  And as soon as the snow is gone, it becomes construction season.

And it took a lot of construction to cut this gap for the road.  Oh, and do watch out for the Elk.

 

 

And if you don't have construction you have protection, like this Avalanche proctection tunnel.

For both the Railroad and the highway.  Here they were clearing away the last seasons debris from the avalanches.

   Wildlife overpass

On the road we saw these wildlife overpasses.  There are 23 of them in the western Provinces and they say the are saving the lives of a lot of the critters.  Cameras were installed on some & we saw a video in Banff showing wildlife using these a bunch.  If fact we saw a black bear after we just passed one of these and it looked like it was heading there.   He would not stop and pose for us.  Darn.

And we made it to Banff National Park staying 3 nights at the Tunnel Mountain II CG-- 500+ sites, many empty as this is between seasons. It's a very nice 'parking lot style' campground (for ease of snow removal, as there are many ski runs are around) with a lot of wildlife, & great views, (when it wasn't cloudy & raining or snowing).

A different view or angle at the CG

The other direction was also very nice.

  

More views

see the parking lot style sites

 

One cool looking Lady at the CG.  We will be here a couple of days to check out Banff.