After driving down from Jasper to Banff we set up the trailer and went to a presentation by some park employees. They put on a skit where they were celebrity bison. They were in full bison costume. It was definitely geared toward the children in the audience. The presentation was about the reintroduction of bison to this area. The park service brought in 16 bison this past winter. The bison have had 10 babies born the first spring. The park service has them in contained a fenced off area for the first year and will let them loose next year.
Day one: We drove up to Takakkaw Falls in Yoho National Park. These falls are completely driven by snow melt from the Daly Glacier. It is pretty active in the spring and almost dries up in the fall. There was a short hike to the falls. You could feel the spray from about 100 yards away.
We then drove over to Emerald Lake which also in Yoho National Park. This is a huge tourist destination. Tour buses dropped off a load of people. They were everywhere. The lake is beautiful. The area has a nice resort on site. It was so busy, we had to park half a mile from the parking lot. We stopped for a picnic on the way down from the lake. A short drive from that was an overlook for the Spiral Tunnels. The Spiral Tunnels are switchbacks within the mountain that trains have to go through to keep their speed down. We watched a train go into the first tunnel and come out the second tunnel which was about 49 feet below. The train was so long, that we could see the train in both tunnels at the same time. It was very cool. They had two areas of spiral tunnels. We got to both locations just in time to see a train go through both tunnels. On the way home we drove back on the Bow River Parkway. This is a scenic drive. We first spotted a grizzly bear from the safety of our own vehicle. A little while later we had to stop because a small tour bus had stopped for a black bear sighting. It was very cool to spot both bears on the same drive.
Emerald Lake
Spiral Tunnels
Train going in lower - coming our upper
Day two: we hiked up the Johnston Canyon. They have an extensive trail system up this canyon which has multiple waterfalls. If you want to do this one make sure you get there early as it becomes very crowded before noon. We had drove by this area the day before and knew that the crowds of people show up late morning and early afternoon. They end up parking as far as a half mile from the parking lot in both directions. We arrived at 8:00 in the morning and just ran into three or four other groups of hikers. By the time we walked out around 11:00, the trail was jam packed with people. Ugh. What’s funny about the high tourist areas is we see women wearing high heel sandals or just little flip flops. Some are carrying their coffee. Although, this hike was not difficult, it would be best to be in hiking boots. The paths are not all as nice as the ones shown in the pictures. They get a little rough.
Day three: we went the tourist route. We set out early again and drove to Moraine Lake. We got there before 8:00 and about every parking spot was already taken. We took a hike around the lake and then headed over to Louise Lake. This is the one spot everyone wants to see - it’s the “Old Faithful” of Banff National. They have a parking lot about 2 km from the exit and from there you take a shuttle up to the lake. The shuttles run about every 15 minutes. You can imagine how many people you will find. People were everywhere trying to get their best picture of the lake. While that type of activity drives me a little crazy the location is a special one.
Moraine Lake
Lake Louise
Day four: We decided to play tourist once again and spend some time in the town of Banff. We had a nice lunch at an Irish Pub, St. James Gate. Steve had fish and chip with a beer, Gloria had a beef dip sandwich with leek/potato soup - besides that it went like you would suspect. Gloria went into the shops while Steve waited outside. Tomorrow we will be back in the good ole USA, if they let us in. We will spend the first night in a small border town, Shelby, Montana.
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