Banff and Lake Louise

Banff and Lake Louise

Leaving Calgary, we decided to head to Banff to the Tunnel Mountain RV Village. But first we needed to weigh the truck, both front and rear axles, the trailer axle and tongue weight. So we headed to Okotoks, which we thought would be the least busy of the scales we had found. Weighing the truck and trailer axles were no problem and fairly quick. But there were big rigs waiting to weigh, and we thought getting the tongue weight meant unhitching the trailer, so we kept letting them weigh in. Finally we went to a smaller weigh station on the side of the highway. John worked out that we did not have to actually unhitch, as long as none of the wheels were on the scale, just the jack. It worked, we had the tongue weight. All weights were well within the acceptable limits for the truck, so we were soon on our way. The drive up to Banff was quite different from that of two weeks ago; there was now snow on the mountain tops, and there was no delay due to construction. However, it was no longer “shorts” weather. It was quite cool and blustery at times.

Bike Path beside the highway from Canmore to Banff

Mountains from Car Window

We checked in,

 

drove around and chose a site where we could see Mount Rundle out the Dining area windows.

Mount Rundle from The Dining Room

Mount Rundle

Two thirds of the RV full-hook-up section was closed as they were repaving and re-grading the sites. RV’s are parked parallel to the road, but off-set, so one looks at the divide between the trailers below and across the road.

The next day, we walked down to Banff, so I could find a warm hat! After we had walked up one side of the main shopping area and down the other, stopping only for a hot latte, we took the Roam bus back to the Campsite- $2 fare, but $1 for Seniors. Banff is a pretty town, but we found it very touristy. There are, however, some lovely restaurants and coffee houses. 

There was a whole little villaga of interesting townhouses

Main Street in Banff one way,...

And looking the other way.

We decided to have take-out Pizza from the Bear Lounge, downstairs from the Bison Restaurant. The food was so good, we went back another day for lunch. 

 

Saturday we drove up to Lake Louise. We decided to take hwy1A, rather than the main highway.

Castle Mountain, best seen from the 1A hwy

Castle Mountain explained...

The mountains to the south of Castle Mountain

In memory of those from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, many of Ukrainian origin who were imprisoned  during WWI at the Castle Mountain Camp

This weekend was the second in the annual trek for Albertans to view the larches. It is so popular that there is a parking lot about 5k away from Lake Louise, and a shuttle bus running to the start of the trail.

This is what they saw- Larches on the sides of the mountains

The village of Lake Louise is quite small, but the Information Center is excellent. We had to figure out how to get to the Fairmount Chateau Lake Louise as we wanted to hike to the Tea House on Lake Agnes.

The Chateau

 Lake Louise is a brilliant turquoise, calm and serene. It was a beautiful, but cool day and there were lots of little red rental canoes on the lake.

Lake Louise -we managed to take a picture between groups of canoes...

We started, what was supposed to be an “easy walk through the forest” on a “moderately-rated” trail. Well, the trail was well-marked, wide and easy to walk. BUT it went UP all the way, non-stop, constant climbing for 3.4km.The view, however, were spectacular.

The trail went up and up

 

Glimpse of Lake Louise from the trail

The view across the valley

About 2/3 of the way up, I sent John on ahead, because I really did not think I could make it to the top. I was going slower and slower, and my knee and hip hurt more and more. I thought I was fairly fit, but several months of no gym exercise was beginning to tell! However, I continued up at my own pace, getting encouragement from those coming down. About ¾ of the way up I took a break to enjoy the beautiful, tranquil Mirror Lake.  Then I DID get to the top, just in time to enjoy a cup of John’s almost hot tea and the last of his apple crumble beside Lake Agnes. We sat for about half an hour enjoying the view,

Lahe Agnes

and began the trek down. It was a much easier walk, but still hard on the knees!

We couldn’t leave Banff without seeing the Fairmount Banff Springs Hotel. So we drove up. My calves were rather sore, and each time we got out of the car, it took quite a few steps to begin to work out the kinks! The Hotel is beautiful, elegant, opulent, and classic. We wandered the downstairs halls and into the shops. One shop sold women’s apparel -sweaters, jackets, scarves, gloves- all made from musk ox wool. The owner is Peruvian, and bought from the Innuit the wool that the musk ox shed, and sent it to Peru to have it woven. Another shop had every imaginable type of fossil, geodes, and beautiful crystals of all sizes collected from all over the world. We walked behind the hotel, down several flights of steep stairs, along a wooded path to the Bow Falls. There were 3 or 4 busloads of tourists, and quite a few cars. But the wide river and beautiful Falls were worth the walk.

The Bow Falls

The Bow Falls from the top Lookout

The Bow River flowing south

The next leg of our journey is over the Kicking Horse Mountain Pass to Kelowna and into the Okanagan Valley.

Calgary, Nanton, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

Calgary and Day Trips

Calgary awaited us – a son daughter-in-law and 2 darling grandchildren. David had just turned 2 and Arianna was 9 months.

We visited for the first week, looking after the children each day while Garry and Karen worked. Arianna was not sure what to make of us at first. But she finally let me pick her up on the second day. However, it was not until the following Wednesday –almost a week- that she would let John hold her. She had never seen a moustache, and wondered who this strange man was! We had ‘talked to them’ on Skype, but it is not the same!  Since both Garry and Karen were off work the week after Karen’s mother died, we decided to go up to Edmonton to have a pleasant, but short visit with John’s Aunt.

John had not been to West Edmonton Mall, so while his Aunt went to a Birthday party, we made the trek to the Mall. It is HUGE, bigger than I remember it from the 80’s! We did get lost a couple of times, as there are several entrances to some of the bigger stores! There really is something for everyone, and for every pocketbook. For a while we watched the crowd of all ages enjoying the wave pool, the young figure skaters practising on the full-sized rink, while we sat and drank lattes, and families enjoying the water show. In between, we wandered in and out of stores, even finding a few bargains.

On the way home we took an alternate route south visiting Camrose and Red Deer.

Church across Mirror Lake in Camrose

 Since we were staying in Calgary longer, we took day trips on the weekends, Our first was South to Nanton, a traditional ranching community, which also has The Lancaster Air Museum. This is a 40,000 ft facility honouring the men and women associated with the bomber command in WWII.  

The Memorial contains the names of all Canadian men and women with the Bomber Command, who were killed from 1939 to 1945

 

A Lancaster - being restored- engines start and it will be able to taxi when complete

 

Nose-Art from the Bombers

We continued to head south to the World Heritage Site, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. Evidence indicates that this site had been used for over 6,000 years. However, there is evidence of Human activity in this region for at least 11,000 years. The Interpretive Centre has become known around the world as a remarkable site for teaching about the Plains Indian Culture.  The story goes that a young brave wanted to watch the buffalo tumbling past. So from under the shelter of a ledge, he watched the great beasts fall. However, he became trapped between the animals and the cliffs. When his people came to do the butchering of the herd, they found him with his skull crushed in, hence the name.

The Interpretive Center on the main level

The Buffalo Jump from the top Viewing Walk

The Explanation

Lookins SE from the top walk -that is the road about the middle of the picture

Looking up at the Buffalo Jump from about half way up, on the trail

Sunday, we decided to go North to Canmore and Banff, and check out the RV Parks at the same time. I will never tire of seeing the mountains rise out of the foothills, as we drive along the Trans Canada Hwy in Alberta. They are so majestic as they tower over the highway.

Approaching the Mountains smaller foothills then...

Approaching Canmore

More to come in the next post as we stay in Banff.

Northern Ontario to Calgary

August 30, 2013   Blog #5  

We have just downloaded John’s pictures of Pukaskwa. Here are a couple of more shots of the Beach trail, the trail around the lake, Bimose Kinoomagewnan and the Coastal Trail.

Beach Trail

Beach Trail

Bimose Kinoomagewan Trail

A Difficult Climb on the Coastal Trail

Suspension bridge over White River

Chigamiwinigum Falls - Upstream from the Bridge

The Coastal Trail -a Different View

As we drove through the rest of Northern Ontario, our hunch proved to be right- This is the year of the Bridge in Ontario- They were working on every bridge, small and large, that we had to cross. Most of them had ‘flag-persons’-[to be politically correct] at either end of the bridge. A couple of times we encountered stop lights, which were fine as long as there were people waiting at each end, but annoying when the only line-up was our way, westbound. At one long bridge, we had a ‘pace car’ and were limited to 15km/h.

Following the "Pace Car"

Through more spectacular scenery, and road cuts.

One of the rectangular cotter pins on the hitch was bent at Pukaskwa, so when we reached Dryden we tried to get another one. We couldn’t get an exact replacement, but found a thicker regular one, at an auto parts store, that works just fine. 

My water pillow had sprung a leak, so we tried to get another one. No luck, but the saleslady at the Shoppers Healthcare, located one in Kenora. The only difficulty was they closed at 5, and were not open on the weekend. We didn’t think we were going to get there in time, and neither of us had any cell coverage at all. However just before 5, we got coverage on the outskirts of Kenora, called and they waited for us. I can now get a good night’s sleep again!

It was only 5:30, so we decided not to drive back through downtown Kenora to the Walmart, but to drive into Manitoba. The owner of the Shopper’s recommended Whiteshell Provincial Park. It had 5 separate campgrounds, so we thought we’d get a site. There were 2 separate entrances to the park. Each was like a little village with several restaurants, stores, bars, gas station, parks and wandering deer.

Unfortunately, being Friday night, there were no spots at any of the campgrounds. So we drove on to Prawda, and stayed at a delightful small campground, Pine Tree Campground. Finally, at 9pm we dined on Smoked salmon and wine.

The next day, we were up and on our way by 10:30- fairly early for us! The highway right through Manitoba was divided, usually by 75 to 100 feet of trees. AND, there was no construction on bridges!

We stayed at the Turtle Crossing Campground just south of the TransCanada hwy of  Hwy 10 in Brandon. This was one of the sites for the Canada Summer Games in 1997. The present owner bought the campground in 2008, and just got everything set up and painted, when Assiniboine River flood waters in 2011 rose 8 to 10 feet over the campground, then settled at 4-41/2 feet for 4 months. Several tracts of trees were destroyed, and grey rings were left on the bottom 4 feet of all the other trees. Much of the damage has been repaired and cleaned up, and the campground is slowly being renewed and rebuilt. The owner is also building house trailers, available for sale or seasonal use. To avoid further flooding, homes, offices and equipment storage are all on 8 foot stilts, and huge dykes and levees are being built.

Many areas of Southern Manitoba are really as Prairie-like as Saskatchewan is reputed to be - flat, flat, flat.

There are huge fields of wheat and soy, and even a few ‘donkey’ oil rigs near the highway.

Saskatchewan has very large fields, not completely flat, but gently rolling.

West of Moosamin, there are tall stately Wind Turbines, slowly turning. They are well spaced, but cover about 10km.

We took a break from moving each day, and stayed at Moose Mountain Provincial Park for 2 days. This is a large Park with a store, mini-golf, a golf course, a beautiful beach, artists cabins, hiking trails and lots of families with kids. It also had a most unusual Visitors Centre, built as a make-work project about 1931. 

Visitors' Centre

Artist-in-Resident Cabin

Map with hiking Trails

 Unfortunately it also had masses of mosquitoes! We even had to abandon a hike the evening before we left. John had 8 to 10 mosquitoes on his back the whole time.Our trailer site was on a curve and became the official “skidding to a stop” corner for the children! 

Next it was on to Regina to stay with John’s cousin for almost a week. We didn’t unhitch the trailer, just levelled it and parked it in front of the house. This was fun family-time. We drove out to Regina Beach, drove to the town of Lumsden, and visited Mackenzie Art Gallery. One morning we went to breakfast at Henry’s. If you are ever in Regina, this is a ‘must’. The food is excellent, but there are also several levels of unique shopping – gifts, infants and children’s wear, women’s clothes and an art gallery. 

Before moving on to Calgary, we headed to Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make it in one day, so we decided to Walmart camp  at Swift Current. Just as we were leaving, an unusual big rig pulled in next to us. It had been shipped from Holland, belonging to a family who were travelling across North America and home-schooling their 2 small boys.

At Cypress Hills, the Camping/RVing sites are on the Saskatchewan side, so this is where we headed. This corner of Saskatchewan seems to be an anomaly. The Hills rise about a thousand feet above the surrounding prairies leading to cooler climate, increased rainfall and mainly lodgepole pine forest.  Parts of the Hills were sufficiently high in elevation to escape glaciation during the last ice age.

We got there in time to spend the evening at the Observatory where two very knowledgeable rangers told us the stories about, and showed us many of the constellations, and interesting stars and planets, using two powerful telescopes. The next day we went to the look-outs, walked two trails and then went for a swim in the pool. Looking across the plains of the Prairies from the highest spot in Canade beteen the Rockies and Labrador was amazing.

View from the First Lookout across the Plains

Lake in front of the Visitors' Centre

Lodgepole Pine Forest

Thursday we headed to Calgary to stay with our son and help with our two smallest grandchildren. We spent the first week reacquainting ourselves with the children. Unfortunately, our plans to continue are on hold for a while. Our Daughter-in-Law’s mother passed away suddenly, so we are staying until things are sorted out.