To Lake Louise - Moraine Lake

Up early, wet tents down and we’re off to lake Louise.  Blue skies this morning.  

 This handsome elk was waiting for us alongside the road.

 It’s a beautiful drive.   

We took the 1 until we got to the Promonade valley de la bow (Bow Valley Parkway – all the signs are in English and French) where we had left it yesterday and headed north.  Did cross our bridge of the osprey and there was one peeking out of the nest but no one else in sight.  

 Stopped by the Camp Castle Monument for the Internment Camp that was here during WWI.  They built about 10 m of the highway.  Mostly Ukrainians and Germans and Italians.  Sound like many were just destitute due to the depression they were having in Canada at the time.  Interesting…

on we went past wonderful glaciers

Morants Curve

and hiding behind that sign one of my favorite sights....

an endless Canadian Train.  This one had
an engine in the middle too.

On to the Lake Louise Campground – Tent where we found a nice site and set up the tents to dry out and then headed toward the Village.  Bought a few necessities and looked a little and then headed into the Visitor’s Center.  Got some questions answered and then watched the movie…very ecology focused particularly on the situation of wildlife with all the human trails that go through the area – roads, railroads etc all in the traditional animal corridors.  Drove on to Fairview Picnic area for lunch and then on to Lake Louise and the Chateau.  

Wandered that area and took the trail past the lake to where the white silty stream comes into the lake.  Chilly to begin with!

Mount Victoria (11350 feet) is at the end of the lake.  This glacier was the main reason the Chateau was built here but it has recessed many miles back.  It used to cover the area almost to the lake edge.

This Lesser Chipmunk was having a little lunch as we neared the end of the trail.

 

The gray silty water at the bottom of the picture runs into the lake.  The gray is caused by small particles of ground rocks caused by the glaciers called Rock Flour.  These light filtration of these small particles cause the blue color of the lake.

Gretchen found some great photo ops here!

Some wonderful views.  Passed by our German lady we met walking to the lake yesterday.  Back to a short wander through the Chateau and then back to the campground.  Gretchen had a shower and then we had dinner and headed up to Lake Moraine to see if we could catch some evening light.   

Nothing very spectacular as the sun was already off the mountains but some fun wandering though cold….

Moraine Lake is located 13 km up a winding road from Lake Louise. 

 It is nestled in the Valley of the Ten Peaks among the

 towering mountains of the main ranges. 

On our way down the steps along the huge rock fall some cute Pika (peeka around here) were running around. Back to the campground…the RVs are still lined up but we’re about to settle into out tents for a good nights sleep.  Incredible day--almost more than the eye could handle!

Banff NP - Boom Lake Hike - Downtown Banff wander

Up to another beautiful sunrise this morning!

 that just kept getting better!

Granola this morning and then a drive to the trailhead for Boom Lake.  It was cloudy and an occasional spit of rain. 

It was a great trail – nice and wide where we could walk three abreast and at the beginning pretty easy underfoot.  

 We did hit some rocks and roots but never really bad.  

 There was the customary fairly steep climb in the beginning, but then leveled out to a wonderful walk through the woods.  Lots of mushrooms along here--very moist.  The trail is usually covered in snow until mid June.

 

Great scenery when the trees allowed it!

We saw a Spruce Grouse in the woods along the way.  

  

End of the trail!

Gretchen's mascot made the climb also!

 

The lake was beautiful with a 600 meter limestone wall,

 high mountains with glaciers and 

a huge rockslide at the end of the trail.    Gretchen and Dad rock hopped over to the other side of the moraine and then followed a path out to a point where the lake took a turn while Jean searched the cliffs for mountain goats…alas, none there.  

 Jean noticed bubbles in the water and discovered they were coming from between rocks in the water..gasses escaping I guess.  We saw them other places also...fascinating.   We had a chilly lunch with in and out spits of rain and then headed back just after a relatively loud and large group appeared on the scene.  We had it all to ourselves for quite awhile.  Gretchen's in charge of hike selection while she's here and this was a fabulous start!! 

Fruit on the solomon seal.

 Then back down to 1A and some sunshine!  Headed into Banff and did a little shop wandering.  One interesting thing we kept seeing all over...including on trails were these...   

Inukshuk (in-ook-shook)

The sign in the store described them this way...

Inukshuk is an Inuit word meaning "in the image of man".  For centuries Inukshuk have been known as guardians who direct travelers along the best and safest passage.  They were originally built by the Inuit people to guide "those who follow".  Inukshuk are made from stones of all sizes and shapes.  These stones are piled on top of each other to form the shape of a person.  There is usually one arm longer than the other which would indicate the direction to travel.  Inukshuk came from the land and remain part of the land and each is unique.  They are powerful symbols of the past and future paths to take.  Today the Inukshuk has been adopted as a symbol to remind us of our dependence on each other and the value of friendship. 

This was another interesting Banff feature--all the main streets had these manhole sized brass plaques with different animals and the street names on them.  They were great!!   Headed back to the campground and had dinner and then headed back out to see if we could find more elk...but none tonight.  Another wonderful day!     

Banff Nat'l Park - Johnston Canyon Lower & Upper Falls - Bow Valley Parkway - Castle Mtn Picnic - Osprey - Campfire

Beautiful sunrise to welcome Gretchen to Canada!  

New snow on the mountain this morning--very pretty!  We got moving fairly fast this morning…needed to because it was COLD—hats and mittens today!   

 

 But not before we gathered firewood for our first fire tonight.

Off to Johnston Canyon Falls this morning.  It's the most popular walk in this park.

It was a fun hike among the masses..hundreds of people with us but the hike is such that it can handle all those people.  

In places you are on a wide path and others you are actually on a catwalk over the canyon—very different.  

 But also makes for good pictures because nobody was in front of you.  It was a really fun hike!  

 

Lots of smaller falls along the way.

The lower falls were actually the best.  You go into a little tunnel so you can get right up next to them. 
John and Gretchen were snapping like crazy and I borrowed Gretchen’s little camera to get a few pix with people in them--my favorite people in this canyon!!

 On up to the Upper Falls - it was a beautiful walk. 

Most people stop at the Lower Falls so we had this trail pretty much to ourselves.

 

Upper Falls - worth the walk!

Got back in the car in the packed parking lot and drove by the ½ mile of parked cars on both sides of the road and followed the Bow Valley Parkway –
beautiful mountain scenery in this section-a goodly number of photo stops.  Stopped at the Castle Mountain Chalets area for a picnic lunch and then headed down 93 (the Banff Radium Hwy) and as we crossed a bridge I saw some guy down in the water taking pictures of the mountain…looked back and it was spectacular

so we pulled over and went down that way and found some wonderful surprises!  

There was an osprey nest on the top of the bridge…

on the top of a tree near the bridge was an osprey and down the river another osprey in a tree…plus the beautiful mountain scenery!  Got lots of good pictures there! 
John even got out the monster lens for this one!  There were two immature Osprey's in the nest that started fighting.

Mom flew in and shooed them out of the nest--sort of if you can't behave go outside!!

Then back to the campground and a little relaxing... 

steaks cooked over a campfire for dinner with somores for dessert – YUM!  Cadbury Chocolate ranks way over Hershey’s for somores!  Gretchen made the prize one though—golden brown marshmallows on graham crackers with melted chocolate – it was a masterpiece!  Alas no camera nearby.  Enjoyed the fire for awhile and then hit the hay. Great day!

Laundry - Blog - Gretchen!!

Another of those catch-up days we seem to need.  Laundry first then I headed to the library to do some more blog and John did a little shopping for a few things.  Actually got a fair amount done on the blog.  Then we headed to Calgary and the airport.

It's harvest time for the wheat in Alberta.  There are thousands and thousands of hectares of wheat!

In Calgary we did a resupply stop at Costco and then Walmart – both fairly close together – and then to the airport to pick up GRETCHEN!!  She arrived on time with all luggage accounted for and we headed back to the mountains.  

 These elk were on the side of the road to welcome her as we neared the road into the Campground. There was still some light to set up her tent and we basically brushed teeth and headed to bed.  It had been a long day for her.  Really glad she’s here!