Banff - Lake Louise - Columbia Icefields in Alberta Canada

Wahooooo, we get to put stickers from other countries on our travel map.  We travelled through British Columbia into Alberta Canada to reach Banff.  Now that we are here, all we can tell you is you HAVE TO VISIT THIS AREA!

There are a couple of things we had a little trouble adjusting to..... One, it does not get dark there until around 9:30pm!!! People say during the middle of the summer it stays light until around 11pm. And two.... the metric system and price of fuel. Price for regular gas is about $1.39.....per LITER which makes a gallon of gas $5.26.  The other thing we thought spendy was groceries. Stopping at a Safeway, we encountered grocery carts that required you to put a quarter in to use one, and the price of food was a least double what we are used to paying for just about everything.

Mountain goats

We thought Glacier was beautiful, but the Canadian Rockies rock!  Here in Banff even this early, everything is open and the people we have met were all incredibly friendly.  We were lucky enough to see some of their wildlife.....bears, deer, mountain goats and the REAL Rocky Mountain big horn sheep.  But coming at his time of the year, and lucking out on the weather.... 70+ degrees each day, we also missed the crowds you see during the summer and we were able to enjoy a leisurely pace. 

momma bear and her cubs

White tail deer

We arrived at our RV park in Canmore early enough in the day that we were able to get tickets to a musical dinner theater for that night,  'Oh Canada Eh?'   Great dinner served family style where we met a couple from Perth Australia and another from Santa Rosa California (coincidentally, where Deane's sister lives).  The musical was a good production highlighting a number of musical singers and song writers who we all know, but maybe did not know they were from Canada.  And all of the entertainers in the show were the waiters and waitresses in the restaurant!

BANFF

Gondola up to Sulphur Mountain

boardwalk to the weather station.

View of Banff and Canadian Rockies

Rode the gondola up Sulphur Mountain in Banff.  The gondola ride was impressive as we slithered over steel cables straight up the side of this mountain to almost 8000ft.  Once at the top though, the view of the Rockies was incredible and you could see six mountain ranges.  But it got better..... from Sulphur Mountain you could take about a 1/2 mile stroll via a boardwalk to another peak and to an old weather station from the 1920's for a different view.

On top of the mountain

Rockie Mt. big horn sheep

After our gondola ride, we took a 130k loop ride suggested by the gal in the office in our resort.  Took us up into the mountains, passed lakes, some still frozen,  beautiful vistas, creeks and rivers.  That is when we saw the Rocky mountain big horn sheep along the side of the road, who just seemed to want to pose for us.

a glacial lake

Columbia Ice Field

An amazing trip to a glacier.  We started out early as the drive to the ice field is about 3 hours away.  We stopped for breakfast and after having a nice hearty meal, we were on our way.  You know the saying, The Best Laid Plans........., well, we took a wrong turn early on and 45 minutes later we discovered that instead of heading north, we were going West!  We traveled almost all the way through Yoho National Park before we figured it out.  There were lots of clues we were going the wrong way, but I was the navigator and was just not paying attention. 

After we figured out our problem, we turned around and headed back, another 45 minutes and found the correct road going north.

Made it to the ice field with lots of time to spare and took the tour ride out on the the Athabasca Glacier.  It is one of the largest glaciers in the Columbia Ice Field, with 1000 ft of ice under us.  Tour guide compared it to the same height as the Eiffel tower.  Sadly the glacier like all others is receding. It grows each year about 20 feet, but then recedes 35 feet.  At this rate, in 600 years, it will be gone!

                                                                                              

our Bus to the glacier

Athabasca Glacier

One of the most interesting things we learned about this ice field is that it is the home to the only "Triple Divide" in the world.  What this means is from a mountain called Snow Dome in the Ice field, the ice from 3 different glaciers melts in THREE different directions.  On the west side everything flows to the Pacific Ocean, on the East all rivers flow eventually into the Atlantic (via the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico) and to the North into the Artic Ocean via Hudson Bay.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Dome_(Canada)  (Now that I have made this statement, when I Googled it, I found the U.S. lays claim to the Triple Divide in Glacier National Park in Montana. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_Divide_Peak_(Montana.  So guess you have to figure out which geologist you believe)

Standing on the glacier

Road on the glacier

LAKE LOUISE CHATEAU

After leaving the glacier, we headed south with the intent of stopping at Lake Louise and having dinner in the Chateau.  What an incredible place this is.  We spent a couple of hours walking around and through the Chateau and the lake.  After checking the menus for the restaurants, we opted to head back into Canmore for dinner at the "Famous Chinese Restaurant".

Deane on frozen Lake Louise

One of the things we did not get to do at Lake Louise was to hike to the Tea Houses.  The hike was  recommended by a number of people.  But because there was still snow and ice on the trails, the tea houses were not yet open. 

This area was so beautiful we want to return and spend more time.  When we do, we will hopefully make the hikes and have dinner at the Chateau.

FAIRMONT HOT SPRINGS

Ahhhh... I needed this soak

We were suppose to stay one more day in the Banff area, but heard there was a cold snap coming that could include snow.  Being 'weather woosies', we opted to pull out a day early while the sun was shining.  We headed back over the pass into British Columbia and started south toward Idaho.  Couple of hours down the road we stopped at Fairmont Hot Springs.  A wonderful resort that has been in the valley for many years, and boasts a pool of natural hot spring waters.  They have a great RV park and we snagged a spot and spent a couple of wonderful hours soaking in the water and enjoying the evening before getting back on the road the next morning.

Fairmont hot pool area

Waterfall from hot springs into
creek

TRYING TO GET BACK INTO THE USA

As we got to the border, we were treated to a rare site, so we were told by the border agent.  A couple of moose decided to bolt from the US side to the Canadian side, through the checkpoint.

That was the fun part..... as we got to our checkpoint, our passports were taken and we were told to pull forward and stop, that a Border Agent would bring our passports to us and ask us a few more questions.

We found out you are NOT allowed to bring any type of citrus or bell peppers into the states unless you can prove you bought them in the US (receipts required).  You also are not allowed to bring any type of house plant...... even those you brought with you from the states. (The Canadian checkpoints coming into Canada, never asked about plants).   She took my two plants.... one that was special as D'enne gave it to us when we first started our travels back in January of 2010.

After she  took my plants and thoroughly examined our refrigerator (thank goodness it was almost empty), she took Deane outside and made him open every compartment door.

She gave us our passports back, a list of all of the no-no's and then sent us on our way.

We spent one more day on the road in Bonner Ferry Idaho and then headed to Spokane to visit with Joe and family.