Canada 2007

zoom in / zoom out / fit images to window size

Canada : Thursday 9th August 2007 - Banff National Park

After a late night, partying with Jack, we got up a little later than usual. After breakfast, Martin, with some help from Bekky, erected a canopy over the picnic table and partially over the tents, made from a tarpaulin and rope, bought the day before in Banff. The weather was still "unsettled" so it should keep us dry that evening if it turned to rain again.

Eventually, we were ready for our day and drove in the direction of Yoho NP towards the Lake Louise village area. We took the scenic Bow Valley Parkway to get there and this turned out to be a good choice because partway along, we turned a bend and encountered a number of vehicles all parked by the road, and their passengers, all out of them, hiking or standing at the top of the slope in the forest. The reason? Two *beautiful* Elk. Or is that Elks?! We stopped and clambered up the slope too, Martin with camera at the ready. We'd never seen Elk before and they were quite awesome. Very large animals with amazing antlers, not unlike a moose. Wow. Highlight of the day.

We continued on our way and drove on to Lake Louise village and from there, up into the mountains and Morraine Lake. This lake was described in our guide book as the "scenic superior" to Lake Louise itself and also less heavily visited by the many tourists at Banff.

On arrival, we had some lunch and then took a look at the lake. It was... rather disappointing actually and not a patch on Lake Emerald in Yoho NP. It was probably because the day was very cloudy and this lessened the colouring of the lake due to reflections from the silt suspended in the water. Anyway, we decided to hike one of the trails and chose one which took you away from Morraine lake, through the forest and up to Consolation Lake.

There was a "bear order" in force, which made it a *legal* requirement that hikers be in a group of at least 4 people. Luckily, not a problem for us. One of the other recommendations, when hiking in bear country, is to make a lot of noise when walking. You don't want to surprise a hungry, territorial bear! So we played a game involving the alphabet and names of bands. That kept the noise levels up and distracted Jack and Bekky from the fact that they were...... walking!

The walk itself was really nice, with mountains to one side and a glacial river to the other, with lush forest in between. Excellent. The lake itself was nice enough. On arrival, gazing up at the mountains and the rock faces that started only a hundred metres away from us, Bekky said "what's that white stuff?". Martin replied that it was snow! "No, way! Really?". Bekky couldn't quite believe it. But we were pretty high up in the Rockies after all.

Happily (sort of) we didn't see any bears. I think we all wanted to... but not close up of course. But we did see Jays, squirrels, chipmonks and what we believe to have been a "Pika", a creature not unlike a very large mouse.

After the walk we headed back to Banff and did some provision shopping in preparation for leaving Banff and heading for the more remote Jasper National Park tomorrow.

On arrival back at the camp site we found that the tarpaulin had already ripped and was down! How annoying! Martin repaired it and lit a nice fire. It started to rain but the fire kept going all evening and the tarp stayed up so we were able to sit under it and play charades again. It was really cold though! Whose idea was it to come to the Rockies?! We all went to our tents wearing extra layers of clothing that night. Martin read for a while as the rain got heavier and the thunder and lightening started. Just as well because after half an hour or so the tarp came crashing down again! What a waste of money that was! So Martin had to leave the warmth of the tent and deal with taking the tarp down in the pouring rain and dark with a helmet lamp for light. Isn't camping fun?