We said goodbye to Yoho and headed a mere 14km further east, over to the Alberta side of the Rockies and the glorious Banff National Park. The 14km took us to the first significant place in the park, Lake Louise. We stopped for petrol and a few camping supplies and then continued further south-east for another 50km until we reached the hub of the Rockies, the small town of Banff. Near the town are several camp sites and we checked into Tunnel Mountain I.... which in contrast to the site at Yoho.... had hot showers!
After we had all showered, we drove to the nearby Lake Minnewanka and had a picnic lunch there. Afterwards, we took what turned out to be a very short walk along the edge of the 20km long lake. We saw a deer and lots of chipmonks along the way. But around one of the first bends, we came to a sign saying that the trail was closed due to there being an "aggressive bear" in the area. It went on to say that a hiker had been injured by a grizzly bear with cubs..... we all nervously checked our bear sprays and turned back.
Quite close to our campsite there were some "hoodoos" so we went there and took a walk. The scenery was exceptional, with lots of very large mountains, including the fearsome looking Mount Rundle, and a great view of Banff and the River Bow, which had a couple of rafts floating down it at the time.
It being Jack's birthday tomorrow, we decided to drive into Banff and do some research. We checked out the cinema and Canadian ratings system, and decided we'd return to see the new Bourne Ultimatum movie tomorrow evening. But we also checked out several restaurants and Jack decided he'd like to eat at a mexican place called "Magpie and Stump"!
Back at the camp site we had the usual camping fare and Martin lit a roaring log fire. We then settled in for an evening of excellent games, including a brilliant game of charades, illuminated by camping gas lantern. Charades may sound lame, but it was one of those occassions where everything seemed hillarious, including the time when Marina and Jack (team A) had to do the movie Platoon. And then Martin of the "Martin and Bekky team" stood up for his turn, selected a title from the pile prepared by Marina and Jack and got..... Platoon! That one took all of 5 seconds to do!Jack is 13 years old tomorrow..... :-)
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| Lake Minnewanka. |
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| Chipmunk! |
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| Deer! |
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| Trail closed due to (gulp!) an aggressive bear in the area! |
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| Raven. |
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| At the start of the Hoodoo trail. Mount Rundle in the background. |
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| The hoodoos..... not a patch on Bryce Canyon in Utah of course..... |
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| Jack found that throwing small pine cones at his Dad made the walk far more amusing! |
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| Back at the camp site.... cookies *must* be eaten in large quantities! |
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| ... by a nice fire of course. |