Banff

There are not enough superlatives for the beauty of Banff and Jasper. Visit this place, you will not be disappointed!

The drive from Calgary to Banff was uneventful; the four lane highway was smooth and offered great scenery. Here is a sample scene along the route prior to entering Banff and the National Park.



The first introduction given to our new visitors was the gondola ride overlooking Banff and the surrounding area. The views from the mountain top convinced everyone that traveling to Calgary for this adventure was worth the time and expense.
The lake and stream water were very blue. We surmised (or read) this was due to the iron minerals mixing with sulphur minerals in the water. Anna's highlight of this gondola experience was seeing the little chipmunks begging for food. These pests did not have any fear of humans. They were cute beggars.

After the gondola ride we traveled on to our Lake Louise campsite. Here was a view from our drive toward Lake Louise.


Upon reaching Lake Louise we realized that we missed the road toward the campgrounds. We were at the Fairmont Hotel on Lake Louise. There were no campgrounds around the lake. This place was a beautiful setting for a hotel. The hotel was near where I was standing to take this picture. Lake Louise was green and very cloudy. This was due to the glacier feeding the lake. The cloudiness was from fine silt coming from the glacier runoff.

We re-traced our steps back down the road and found the campground. Lake Louise campground is near Lake Louise but not on the lake. This popular campground had a line of RVs and tenters waiting to reach the campground registration office. After an hour we reached the booth. Thankfully we had a reservation and a campsite.
Our site was nicely located, close to the washrooms and not too far from the showers. This campground is surrounded by an electric fence to keep the humans away from the wildlife (just joking). The fence was to keep the bears away from the camper's food. The campground offered no containers to hide food from the bears. The campground personnel told us to keep the food in our car. In Yosemite keeping food visible in the car guaranteed your car window would get broken. Canadian bears were less bold or the fence must have been successful in keeping them away. The doctor in our group wanted to touch the electric wire. The rest of us discouraged him from testing if the fence was working.

That night we ended up having dinner at the Fairmont since it was convenient and highly rated. Most of us had the excellent buffet.

After dinner we detoured off to see Lake Morraine. The wildflowers were beautiful around the lake. The lodge at Lake Morraine was rustic compared to the Fairmont. Lake Morraine was smaller than Lake Louise and had a lot of mosquitoes. Here was a picture of Todd and Anna in front of the lake. Every road we took brought us to another impressive landscape. Thankfully we all had digital cameras; we all took numerous pictures of the scenery.

The next day we went canoeing on Lake Louise.

Here was a picture of the Fairmont from the other end of Lake Louise.
The lake water was slightly above freezing. We were very well behaved in our canoes. No one wanted to fall into the water or get splashed.

After the canoe ride, most of us went on a hike up to Lake Agnes. Along the trail was a waterfalls. Here were some intrepid hikers in front of the falls.

A tea house was located near the lake. The hike was steep without being long. It was a cardiac workout. At Lake Agnes, it began to rain lightly. We did have tea outside the house. We tried to stay dry under the porch roof as we sipped our tea.

Rahul wanted to hike toward the glaciers at the end of Lake Louise. Our group split up with some opting for the longer hike while others headed back to hang out at the Fairmont. Later that afternoon it rained heavily; it was a lightening and thunder storm. Our visit to the park was destined to be a wet one.

We had to find another restaurant for dinner or wait until 8:30 to eat. Our choice, the Italian pizza place in the town of Lake Louise, was the perfect finale for this beautiful, wet day.