Monday, June 30, 2014

Banff is the birthplace of the Canadian National Park System.  We headed to the Cave and Basin site to learn about the history of the parks.  I was a bit disappointed - the park system beginnings were not exactly based on grand and glorious ideals.

The cave was one little room not far beyond this opening.  It housed a hot spring (30 foot diameter pool).

Around 1885, three guys found the hot springs and wanted to develop them commercially.  They petitioned the government for ownership.  The government delayed so long others applied as well and the whole mess rose to the level of the Prime Minister.  Instead of siding with any one of the parties he decided to make it open to all Canadians (I suspect he might have been inspired by a little something going on down south - Yellowstone had just become the first U.S. National Park in 1882).

 All of the stalactites and stalagmites were long ago taken by souvenir hunters.

 Above was an opening to the outside just big enough for a man to shimmy down a rustic ladder.

A small stream of runoff leaving the pool .

An interpretive trail starts on the roof of the structure and climbs the hill behind.

The sulfur smell was the explorers first clue that a hot spring was near by.

The Prime Minister declared the hot springs their first National Park and the government then proceeded to develop it commercially into a hot springs spa.  Fortunately, the park system grew and today encompasses and preserves millions of acres of some of the most beautiful areas of the country.

 For a few years in the early 1900's this housed a huge swimming pool filled with hotspring water.

 Took the opportunity to do some Christmas shopping in the gift shop!

In town, we visited the Banff Park Museum National Historic Site.  It was the oldest park facility in the Canadan National Park system and preserved the atmosphere of the museums original charter to preserve samples of wildlife.  In its day, people were much more likely to shoot and stuff an animal rather than helping it to survive. Those specimens were collected and displayed in natural history museums like this one.

 The town of Banff is so adorable.

 It reminded me of an upscale Gatlinburg (just as packed with tourists).

Ouch!  Carrage rides started at $60 for the first 20 minutes.

Did I say upscale?  There were still plenty of T-shirt shops!

Sunday, June 29, 2014

We got up early and headed to the lake to see if we could catch some still water.  I don't think we could have asked for a better morning!  It was difficult picking out only a few of the pictures for the blog, but these are a good indication of the beauty of Lake Louise in the early morning light.

It was our last day in the area, so we wanted to explore the Chateau. It was hard to believe it was built in 1925.  They have done a great job of keeping the place looking nice.  

 The garden entrance was lovely.

Canada is very dog friendly. Sam has hiked all of the trails with us and he has made a lot of friends.

Nothing rustic about this Chateau!

How about the lake view from inside the Chateau?

 This shop made me think of you, Katie!  A high end knitting boutique, selling books and yarn and featuring hand knitted sweaters and such.  Unfortunately, it was 7:30 am and not open yet.

Another great advantage to getting out early in the morning is all of the wildlife you get to see.  Grizzlies look so laid back it is difficult to imagine them being aggressive.  I just know I'm not going to get out of the car for an up close and personal encounter.

We took our time packing for our move today.  If we left too early we were afraid we would have to wait to check in at the next stop.  It was in Banff, Alberta, Canada.  We stalled until we could stall no longer and then hit the road.  Banff was a really short 38.2 miles south on the Trans Canada highway 1 (68,743.8 total).

It was another beautiful drive with only a slight bit of tension as our trip took us through the heart of the city to get to the campground.  This was clearly a popular destination for the locals.  Our reservation was in the Tunnel Mountain Trailer Court (full hookups) which contained 321 sites!  Adjacent to it were Tunnel Mountain Village I with 618 sites (dry camping - mostly tents) and Tunnel Mountain Village II with 188 sites (electric only).  I do not think there was an empty site in any of the three campgrounds.  Of course, it made sense after we learned it was the "long weekend" around Canada Day (July 1st).

Our reservation, unfortunately, was for only one night.  Joani went to the office early the next morning (she was first in line) to get some additional nights. (They reserve a few sites as "first come - first served".)  She was lucky enough to get another site for three more nights - just what we were hoping to find.  You have to love it when a plan comes together!

Saturday, June 28, 2014

We wanted to get to Lake Louise before the crowds, but it has not been easy getting out much before 10:00 in the mornings.  I don't know why, since it is daylight so early.  Apparently, it was not just us, because we still beat the masses even though we were what I would have thought was late.

The walk from the parking lot to the lodge crosses the glacial water leaving Lake Louise.

Lake Louise also had a very nice shoreline trail starting right in front of the Chateau Lake Louise.  It was paved and included benches along its length.  Like Lake Moraine, the color of the water was incredible.

Lake Louise is named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, 4th daughter of Queen Victoria.

Victoria Glacier sits at the base of Mt. Victoria and feeds Lake Louise.

A Clark's Nutcracker decided to pose for a few pictures.  I guess he thought I must have trail mix to share.  He finally left disappointed, but he fulfilled our desire for a little wildlife on our hike.

  

Clark's Nutcrackers (named after the explorer, William Clark) have a sublingual pouch capable of holding 50-150 seeds, depending on their size.

The trail was 2 km (1.25 miles) one way, but at the south west end of the lake another trail continued on to The Plain of Six Glaciers.  It was clear the lake trail ended when we started sharply uphill.  We hiked just a little bit of the continuing trail (maybe half a km) before turning around.

This mountain wall, at the end of the shoreline trail, seemed to be a favorite for climbers.  Can you spot the man near the center of the picture?

He wasn't alone, around a dozen climbers were attacking the wall in different places.  A passersby said it was an easy climb.  Everything is relative!!!

Just for something a little different we went back to the Chateau along a different trail.  The map did not mention the trail was used for horse riding.  It turned out to be quite muddy and liberally decorated with horse droppings.  In addition, the only view of the lake was through a lot of trees.

A great place to stop and have a trail bar.  Streams making their way down to the lake left the trail a bit muddy in places.

The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise was built in 1925.

We were still feeling pretty good, so we decided to head up the Fairview Lookout trail.  It has a 400 foot elevation gain in just under a mile.

 The Fairview Lookout trail was relentlessly steep, but the view was worth the climb.

 David's camera has a polarizing filter that cuts through the haze on the mountains and brings out the drama in the clouds.

 The cloud's shadows danced on the lake.

I thought it would be a good night for a movie, so I switched on the power strip (I usually turn off power strips to reduce the load on the inverter).  We immediately heard the most awful crackling and sparking sounds, followed by that nasty electrical burning smell.  Of course, I quickly turned the power off and tried to locate the problem.

Fortunately, it was not in the TV or the DVD (both connected to the same power strip).  I just had to use my nose to trouble shoot the problem and found it located in the computer power supply.  It also helped that I could hear something rattling around in the power supply. All of the smoke had escaped the tiny capacitor laying on the corner of the table in the picture below.  As they say, "it's always something". This will be a project for another day.  

Friday, June 27, 2014

The weather looked a bit ominous as we headed for Lake Moraine.  I slipped on the muddy path yesterday on Parker Ridge, so my knee was a bit stiff.  I thought it would be best to start off with something easy.  At the downstream end of the lake is something dubbed the "Rockpile".  It wasn't even listed on hiking maps since it was so short.  It did include quite a few steps, but my knee managed nicely.  The view was beautiful.  

A view of Lake Moraine from atop the "Rockpile".

Golden-mantled ground squirrel (looks like a chipmunk to me).

The colors in the rocks were amazing!

Even rocks that looked plain at first glance...

... came alive upon closer inspection.

The color of the water is so different it is difficult to believe the pictures accurately recorded it.  After each picture I previewed the results while I was still looking at the scene to compare and make sure the color was recorded properly.  The thing is, the changing light and our angle to the lake changed the color a lot, so from shot to shot the color varied.

We took the lake shore hike.  It was 3 km (just under 2 miles) round trip with no elevation gain.  Now that's my idea of a leisurely hike!

There were so many creeks feeding the lake, but this one stood out.

The weather looked a bit iffy high on the mountain.

When we reached the far end of the lake, it started to rain on us a bit - just a light sprinkle.  It cleared up rapidly as the clouds moved to the north end of the lake, so we did not miss a bit of the trail.  I think the light rain just reduced the number of people on the trail.  I had no complaints.

At the far end of the lake, many creeks came together to form this massive amount of water entering the lake.