The mountains in Banff with the smoke on a good day
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Heading North in to the Canadian Rockies...
It has been 12 days since we have had a good internet/wifi connection where we could down load information. We have used Starbucks and visitors center wifi to check email but because of the high volume of usage from travelers it was very difficult to get anything done on the blog.
We left Callaway Campground outside of Calgary and continued North on the Trans Canada Highway 66 miles to the Banff National Park We stayed in a park campground close to town (town was down the mountain 1 mile) for four nights so we could tour and hike the area.
Banff is the highest town in Canada with an elevation of 4, 537 ft. Banff National Park was established in 1885 as Canada's first national park. Banff is known for being a winter playground with skiing, snowmobiling, etc, and a cooler summer destination for tourist surrounded by the beautiful Canadian Rocky Mountains. Banff is a regular town with lots of shops, post office, banks, two grocery stores, etc. and great mountain views and lots of tourists. Due to many wildfires burning North of here, we have had smoke issues since we were in Calgary.
We took the gondola (ski lift) ride to the top of Sulfur Mountain for great 360 degree views and a walk on up to the summit for even more great views. Once we were back down the mountain, we walked over to the hot springs for a look - lots of people in the pool and dipping their toes in the small pools of water along the waterfalls. Then we drove Tunnel Mountain Drive and stopped at Surprise Corner for a view of the Bow River and the waterfalls. We also walked the Johnston Canyon upper and lower falls trail - very pretty going through the canyon. Mark and Wayne hiked up the Tunnel Mountain trail while Jill and I headed to the local farmer's market in the park and to the grocery. The smoke continued to get worse everyday in Banff spoiling the great views.
Then we headed 30 miles north to Lake Louise in Banff National Park for a three day stay in the park campground there. Lake Louise is a very small village well known for the beautiful Lake/Mountain views.
We drove up to the lake - Lake Louise and the Fairmont Hotel to see for ourselves - WOW!! beautiful even with the smoke in the air. We walked the lake trail and spent some time just sitting on a bench enjoying the views. Beautiful blue water lake with mountains with glaciers on top of them. We also drove to Morraine Lake and hiked up the rockpile for more beautiful views. We had a trail along the river in our campground which was very nice and pretty too. One day it rained here all day with thunder, lightning and hail too so we just used the day to catch up on things in the RV.
We did a one day drive to the Icefields Parkway north of Lake Louise- 80 miles north - to the Glacier Discovery Centre and the Athabasca Glacier. We hiked the trail up to the glacier - as close as we could get - WOW!! an amazing sight. We spent most of the day on the Icefields Parkway stopping at overlooks along the way. The Canadian Rockies are beautiful!!!
The we continued West on the Trans Canada Highway headed for Vancouver and the the West Coast. We drove through Yoho National Park and the Canadian Glacier National Park on the way with more beautiful mountain views. We did a one night stop over in Merritt on the two day drive. We were surprised to drive through the mountains all the way to Vancouver- beautiful scenery.
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Oh Canada!!!
Hitting the road in to Canada...
We crossed the US - Canadian border and checked in to Canada customs on Monday morning. We headed on north on the Chief Mountain Highway to Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta- Canada's version of our Glacier National Park. We had reservations for three nights in the Waterton campground in the village on Upper Waterton Lake. This is a beautiful place- nice village with great mountain views all around. Since we were only two blocks from town, we walked everywhere in the village. They also have very nice walking and biking trails. We drove the Red Rock Canyon Parkway to Red Rock Canyon and hiked the canyon trail and the Blakiston Falls Trail - both were very pretty to see. We also drove the Akamina Parkway to Cameron Lake and hiked the lake trail until we reached the barricades - the rest of the trail is still closed due to snow on the trail that has not melted. Mark also hiked the Bear Hump Trail and we played tennis for the first time since Memorial Day weekend. This is the nicest national park campground we have been in so far on this trip West. We walked to Cameron Waterfalls from our campground and we could hear the falls from the RV. The views were wonderful.
From Waterton, we headed north to Calgary for a three night stay. Calgary and the Canadian Rockies, that is. Calgary is a booming city of 1.3 million people and growing. Lots of construction too. It is very culturally diverse with more than 120 languages spoken here. Calgary is also home to the Calgary Stampede - the biggest Rodeo event annually in Canada. Calgary was also the site of the 1988 Winter Olympics and the Olympic Park was not too far from our campground. There is lots of urban sprawl in the area surrounding Calgary with beautiful parks and biking/walking paths.
We toured the Calgary Olympic Park facility which is still be used as a training facility. They have a huge summer bike camp for kids where they use the chair lift to take the kids and their bikes to the top of the mountain. They have made bike trails for them to ride back down to the village. They have a skyline luge run, zipline, summer bobsled run, down hill mountain biking available. Mark did two runs on the luge which he thought was pretty neat!
We could not leave Calgary with out attending the Calgary Stampede - a 13 day event complete with a rodeo daily, chuck wagon races, amusement ride, Indian Village - similar to a state fair in the US. We saw the Peking Acrobats perform, an Indian pow wow, and the chuck wagon races (9 heats) in the evening. The chuck wagons were running 40-45 mph in the races!!!! Since parking is at a premium in Calgary around Stampede Park, we chose to ride the commuter train in so we were dropped off/picked up right outside the main gate to Stampede Park. Lots of people, lots of junk food everywhere. Oh my!!!
We will head on north to Banff, Alberta tomorrow....the journey continues.
Sunday, July 6, 2014
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