The Adventures of CC & Me: Banff

Today’s drive was about 120 miles. Pretty easy, skirted around Calgary. Stopped at a pull off for lunch on the way, it was a prairie dog town. When I walked outside to drop off the recycling it was bedlam, prairie dogs were running everywhere, dozens of them. Apparently they were scoping out CC & I spooked them. Only one stayed out of his hole to watch me.

The rear guard!

Pulled into Tunnel Mountain Campground in Banff, got CC all setup and headed to Happy Hour!

Our tour today was on a bus heading up to some high mountain lakes. Lake Louise 5,680 feet was the first stop. Named after Queen Victoria’s fourth daughter, the lake is known for its turquoise, glacier-fed lake surrounded by high peaks and a large, beautiful chateau. The chateau is being remodeled. We roamed around the lake and took some pictures.

Mica went down for a water temperature check. The lake comes from the glaciers, so let’s say cool…

Yes we were there!

You can see two glaciers on the mountain, the top one is Upper Victoria & the bottom one is … wait for it, Lower Victoria.

Better view of the two glaciers

We then headed over to the ski area where we had a nice buffet before taking the ski lift up the mountain. It was the same lift used in the winter ski season, so all open air. We saw two grizzlies eating in a field, pretty close to us so I got some good pictures. Then we passed right over a single grizzly, he was less than 50 feet right below us.

At the top of the ski lift we walked around the viewing area & took pictures, including a distant picture of Lake Louise across the valley. On the way down the mountain there weren’t any bears, so it was just sat back & relaxed.

Much needed rain is coming in those clouds

Across the valley

Long distance view of Lake Louise

Then back on the bus, back across the valley and onto the winding road up to Lake Moraine. This lake is even higher than Lake Louise. It has some significant landslides which dumps tree’s into the lake, they then form a log dam at the bottom of the river. We stopped to high five the bear then quick pictures.

That’s when Mica noticed the “rock pile”. What do you do when you see a massive pile of rocks? Climb it of course. The problem is there is an avalanche concerns here, so they want you to stay on the path. So we had 20-30 minutes to kill so we scampered up the path to the top. Well Mica scampered; my way can be defined as trudged up the hill. But we got some great pictures from the top. The color of the water was much more vibrant from the top. Then the long trek to the bus and some much-needed oxygen for me, did I mention the lake is at 6,200 feet! Gasp, gasp, gasp!!

Note the log jam to our right, it was huge.

View from the top of the “rock pile”

Next we headed to Bow Falls for some more pictures, Mica found some rocks to climb. Pictures of the falls, then a quick bus ride around the river for another look at the falls from above.

Bow Falls

Mica’s perch.

Once we were above the falls I thought Mica should climb down to the cliff edge for some pictures. Here is where the discussion started. If they want, you to stay on the path, they have clear signage that says, “Stay on Path” or “Area Closed”. The sign here didn’t say “no” climbing.

Doesn’t say no climbing. I do like the image on the left.

But Rita said no. I said go for it. For some reason Mica chose to listen to her GG and not me…. So pictures from a safe vantage point.

Hotel Fairmont Banff Springs, an upscale “castle” hotel & spa.

Top of Bow Falls. The light strip of land across the river is where Mica climbed 5ge last rocks

We were going to head into downtown Banff for dinner, but it started raining & we were exhausted.

Wednesday is a free day. Of course, it’s still raining. The day started off with coffee & muffins and socializing. We got back to CC around 11am & dragged sleepyhead, Mica, out of bed. We decided to head into downtown Banff. We found Banff Avenue Brewery, so lucky me. I started to walk around but the rain was unrelenting. We can’t complain Alberta really needs the rain, for the farmers and to help reduce the risk of wildfires, there are a bunch burning all over.

We had an Evening Wildlife Tour starting at 7:30. And of course it was still raining. Fortunately, we were on a nice bus. The tour was about 2 1/2 hours all around Banff. We saw three mule deer, a whole herd of white tail deer and surprisingly three elk at the golf course.

We tried taking pictures, but the windows had raindrops on them & that made it difficult. Even though we could see them the pictures leave a lot to be desired. But here goes.