Out of Alberta (Banff, Calgary and Waterton)

September 3-7
Banff is a resort town (as well as a national park) overflowing with tourists, especially on a holiday weekend. We had only one day to see it and the vicinity.
It was a cold, clear morning. We set off to see nearby lakes and other points of interest.

Cascade Ponds is a pleasant lake in a pretty setting. We spent a few minutes looking at it and went to the next stop.

Johnson Lake

The temperature warmed up as we walked less than 2 miles around emerald-green Johnson Lake nestled among the mountains.

Minnewanka lake is big and popular. People were walking, picnicking, boating and hanging out on small, pebble beaches. We followed the lakeshore to the Stewart Canyon trail, which led us through woods to a bridge over a river running through the canyon.

An interpretive trail led us through the now-abandoned coal-mining town of Bankhead. Very little is left of the town, but its history is interesting.

We returned to the trailer, had lunch, then drove through thick traffic into town. Mobs of people sauntered about. We figured many were from Calgary, which is only about 80 miles away. The town is cute and chock-full of shops. We overheard a ranger joke that the most popular tourist activity in Banff is shopping.

We walked near the Cave and Basin National Historic Site, the location of warm mineral springs, but it was closed for renovation. We visited the Banff Park Museum National Historic site, an old wildlife museum of dead wild animals collected over a century ago.

After that we went to Bow Falls. It was so crowded we had trouble finding a parking spot although the parking lot was huge. The low falls quickly turn into rapids.

We tried to visit Banff Springs Hotel National Historic Site, but it was so snarly, we couldn’t find a place to park. We got a quick look at the outside of the hotel.
It turned into a beautiful, sunny day in the high 60’s. Everywhere we went, lots of happy people were out soaking up the sunshine on bikes or on foot.

We stopped to take a quick stroll around Cascades of Time Gardens with its pretty flowers.
Then we went to get gas. It took awhile just to cross the small town because of congested traffic. The gas station was so crowded that we left to find another one, couldn’t find one and ended up back at the same station in a long line. One of the pumps wasn’t working, and they didn’t accept credit cards. So we waited and eventually got gas.
The next day we drove south to Calgary. It was Sunday, and lots of people were driving north, presumably headed to Banff. The Rockies started fading away. Soon we were in rolling hills and pastureland. Then it got flatter and more prairie-like. As we neared Calgary, we noticed a great deal of new construction, with acres of new developments, new roads and interchanges. We learned later that fracking (or hydraulic fracturing, a means of natural gas extraction through deep wells) is creating a huge influx of people because of the jobs it’s creating in the area. The GPS got a little confused by all the new roads and had a hard time finding the campground.
No one was in the office so we picked an empty site. The Internet worked great for once. We went to CostCo, which was a few miles away. The parking lot was so crowded, we had a hard time finding a place to park. We went to PetSmart to get the cats a new scratching pad and stopped at a grocery store. Back at the campground we washed clothes and got the cleanest, driest clothes we’ve had since the start. The campground was very quiet during the day. After 5, people starting coming home from work. Most people were living there permanently although many seemed gone for the holiday.
With our errands out of the way, the next day we were free to sightsee in Calgary.

This was a glorious day, warm and clear, one of the warmest days we’ve had. We went downtown and looked for the visitor’s center, but for some reason, couldn’t find it. We drove around several times, saw some “?” signs but couldn’t find the center. We stopped to look at the Family of Man statues, which are tall and thin and looked rather more like aliens to me. We drove by a festival and tried unsuccessfully to find a parking spot.

Lougheed House

So we went to look for the Devonian Gardens. We found a metered parking spot, but weren’t sure whether we had to pay on a holiday. I went to investigate while David sat in the car. I walked one way and then another. I couldn’t find an address, so I went into a nearby building. It was a huge, upscale mall with 4 floors and a big skylight. People were wandering around. I found the directory and discovered that the gardens were on the 4th floor. I tried the elevator, but it wasn’t working. The escalators weren’t lined up so I had to walk around looking for the way up. I finally found where the gardens should have been, but they were being renovated, so there was nothing to see. I got us sub sandwiches for lunch, which we ate in the car. We were parked under a pedestrian pass, so it was like being in a tunnel. After that we went to the Lougheed house. It was closed, so we walked around its small, formal rather underwhelming garden.

We ended the day at Pearce Estate Park, which has trails around a wetland area and the wide Bow river beside the highway. Lots of people were out picnicking on the lawns and floating down a small set of rapids.
All in all we were unimpressed by Calgary, but possibly we just didn’t have enough time to discover its charm. Downtown seemed clean and tidy and has attractive big buildings, a few parks, and some interesting-looking hangouts and markets that we didn’t have time to investigate. As we drove back to the campground through urban sprawl and numerous high-density developments, we could see a multi-use trail. When we got back, David put his bike in the truck and went on a bike ride while I worked on the itinerary for the rest of the trip.

The next day we left the campground and drove 80 miles to Bar U Ranch National Historic Site, which interprets the history of ranching in Canada. We looked at the exhibits, watched a short video, then walked through the buildings, which are spread out in a ranch setting. It was a hot day in the high 70’s. Some of the buildings had exhibits; others had interpreters. A woman was singing in the cookhouse. She had made delicious oatmeal-fig cookies.
The smithy was stoking the fire. It was smoky inside because the “civil servants” had built the chimney wrong. We had an interesting conversation with him. Among other things, he said taxes, especially on gas, are way too high in Canada.

Next we tried to lasso a “cow”. It took me about 5 tries to get half a horn. David got it in about 3 tries. (Maybe he’s missed his calling?) The cowboy instructing us had been a 5th generation rancher but when the BSE or mad cow disease was found in Canada, the US stopped importing beef from Canada for a time, and Canada couldn’t consume enough of it by themselves. As a result, many ranchers went out of business.

We looked at the Percheron horses, then sat at a campfire with another interpreter who talked about camping on the range and fed us fresh bannock (fried bread), a traditional food. After that we were ready to return and, along with 4 other people, got into a wagon pulled by 2 Percherons. Instead of taking us back to the visitor’s center, which is what I had expected, the driver took us far off into a field beside a stream, stopped, and proceeded to talk to us, a captive audience. I was horrified and annoyed that he was delaying us against our will. I started sneezing non-stop. He asked me if I was allergic to horses. When I said yes, he told me to move to the back of the wagon, which I did. It seemed to help, and I stopped sneezing. We must have been on that wagon 45 minutes before getting back.

So we were way behind schedule and had another 2 hours to drive to Waterton Lakes National Park. It was a pretty drive through rolling, bumpy hills covered with golden grasses. You could see the Rockies in the distance. At one point there were dozens of windmills, maybe to take advantage of the Chinook winds. Cows and horses grazed here and there, but mostly it was empty. Closer to Waterton there were more trees and bigger bushes. The mountains were fairly low, without snow, all bare rock and quite picturesque.

We finally arrived around 6, passing lots of small lakes as we drove in. No one was there to register us, and it was a bit confusing to figure out where to camp, but we found a vacant site. It was crowded, surprisingly so, since it was after Labor Day. The campground was a large, nondescript, grassy area next to a pretty lake with a mountain view.

We had only the following day to see the park. Fortunately, it’s small, and it turned out to be a warm, sunny, windy day. First we went to pay, but no one was in the kiosk, so we went to the visitor’s center to get information on the park. There was a relief map of the park, but not much else. Then we drove the narrow, winding 9-mile, scenic Red Canyon parkway, stopping at several turnouts and viewpoints. It was striking how the prairie and mountains merged. At one stop there was a plaque about bears. A couple in another car were looking through binoculars at some nearby hills. I scanned the hills and eventually saw a mother grizzly and her cub. They were probably eating berries, but they were pretty far away.

At the end of the parkway is the ½-mile Red Canyon trail. We hiked along one side of the steep, narrow, very red canyon and then the other.

Then we hiked about 1.5 miles to see pretty Blakiston falls.

On the way back to the campground we stopped at the Prince of Wales hotel with its dramatic hilltop setting. A deer walked into some bushes in front of the hotel. When I looked, another large deer was lying in the bushes. Since they’re not hunted here, they probably feel its better to be annoyed by tourists than eaten by predators.

Back at the campground I returned to the kiosk to pay. The ranger asked me if I had left her a note. There had been no instructions about leaving a note! She said someone else had registered in our spot last night and wanted to know if anyone else was in the spot. (There was room for only one camper in a campsite.) I said no. She asked me several times! Obviously there wasn’t anyone or we wouldn’t have been there! The system wasn’t letting her enter the information, so I asked if that meant we got a free night. “NO!” she barked emphatically giving me a mean look. She took my money.

After lunch we drove across the tiny town to Cameron Falls, which are right beside the road. Then we checked out the Peace Pavilion, which commemorates the peace agreement and cooperative nature between Waterton and adjacent Glacier National Park in Montana.

Then we drove the Akamina parkway, another 9-mile, narrow, winding road but steeper than the Red Canyon parkway and not as scenic because the trees lining the road obscured the views.
We stopped at the First Oil Well in Western Canada National Historic Site, which had some informative plaques and a tripod.

Akamina Lake

At the end of the parkway is a large parking lot and Cameron Lake, where a few people were out on small boats. We walked a short trail to Akamina Lake, a small, pretty lake bordered on one side by a bright green marsh. It seemed very quiet and peaceful. Then we walked along Cameron Lake a few minutes, read about the ecology of the area and returned to town. We stopped at the gas station and used the rest of our Canadian dollars to buy gas. A few people were windsurfing on Waterton lake, benefitting from the Chinooks.

We weren’t able to see everything the park has to offer and could have stayed another day or two, but we had seen enough and were ready to return to the US.

BC Rockies Rock

August 29 to September 2

Yoho National Park in BC is only a few minutes from Lake Louise, so we decided to make it a day trip. Yoho is small (507 sq mi) and spectacular. Driving through on the Trans-Canada Highway you’re surrounded by tall, jagged, colorful, ridged mountains that jut straight up into the sky. 

Our first stop was Wapta Falls where we hiked about 3 miles with some steady uphill. The falls are big and wide. We observed them from above and then walked down to the river to see them from below. On the way back up we met a short, young French woman running down the trail. She asked us if we had seen her friends. We hadn’t. Awhile later a tall young man came striding down. He asked me if I had seen a small woman with a big camera.

Next we drove along a side road to see Natural Bridge, an interesting rock formation. It used to be a waterfall but over time water seeping through the rock carved out a bridge. Now the water flows under the bridge, which will eventually collapse and create a canyon.

We continued on to Emerald Lake where there’s a resort. The lake is a pretty emerald green similar to Lake Louise but not as crowded. We started to walk around the lake. As we passed some picnic tables, I heard lots of different languages being spoken, including Spanish, Italian, Hebrew, French, German and Chinese. 

Then we turned back and found the trail to Hamilton Falls. In the hiking guide it is described as “a pleasant stroll” of 1.6 km and ½ hour round-trip. This is grossly misleading. This was a steep, difficult climb with switchbacks of about 2 miles. It was as hard as the Fairview hike yesterday. When you first see the waterfalls, you can’t be sure you’ve actually arrived. You haven’t. It keeps going up and up. When we finally got to the top, there was a delicate, narrow, three-tiered waterfall. It was pretty, but I’m not sure it was worth the climb. On the way down we encountered another couple going up and wondering when they would arrive. 

We returned to the main road, stopped at the visitor’s center and looked briefly at their fossils. I told a young ranger about Hamilton Falls, but he wasn’t sympathetic in the least and said in his opinion it was an easy hike.  

We didn’t have time to stop in the tiny town of Field tucked beside the mountain, but it looked inviting with good photo opportunites. 

We drove up another narrow road about 8 miles, stopped at the Spiral Tunnels viewpoint and also at the “Meeting of the Waters” confluence, where the murky Yoho River joins the clear Kicking Horse River. 

At the end of the road, we parked and took a truly pleasant stroll on paved paths to see Takakkaw Falls. These falls are tall and impressive. You can hear them thundering from the parking lot.  

At our last stop, we got a closer look at the spiral railroad tunnels, which had been built in a figure 8 to change the original grade from a steep, dangerous 4.5% to the more manageable 2.2%. When we were there, we saw the end of a train entering through a tunnel above and the front of it emerging from another tunnel below it. 

The next day we drove west back through Yoho, worth seeing again, this time with the trailer in tow. We passed through Glacier National Park (BC) on the way to Mt. Revelstoke National Park. These two parks are actually in the Columbia Mountains.
After days of sunny weather, it started looking like rain again. 

We got a campsite, had a late lunch and set off to explore. 

Mt. Revelstoke Park, at 100 square miles, is even smaller than Yoho. We headed for Meadows in the Sky Parkway, a couple miles away. The parkway goes up about 15 miles to subalpine meadows. Thick clusters of wildflowers lined the road on either side as we drove up. We stopped at a few viewpoints, but by the fourth one, it started to rain. By the time we got to the top, it was pouring rain with thunder and lightning to liven things up. 

David started hiking the 1 km summit trail to the meadows in the rain, while I sat in the car. On the way up he met some people who said there was zero visibility. He called me on the walkie-talkie and told me. He said he couldn’t see anything and maybe he should come down. I said that’s fine, but I was going to sit in the car until the rain stopped. “How long are you going to wait? Hours?” he asked me. I said I didn’t know. I could see a small sliver of lighter sky in the distance. I hoped it would spread. David continued to the top. This was our only chance to see the meadows, and so, if I had to wait an hour or two, I would.

At the top, David radioed again and said he could see a view and that I should take the shuttle up. I could see more light sky and also, the rain seemed to be letting up. I went to the shuttle stop and waited a few minutes. On the shuttle, the ranger said the flowers were peaking 3 weeks later than usual this year because of a cold summer and later snow melt. We were here for the peak! He said it had been hailing but looked like it was clearing up. In a few minutes we arrived. The rain had virtually stopped. 

We walked to the fire tower and got a good view of the surrounding Monashee and Selkirk mountain ranges. The landscape was fairylike with short trees, little shallow ponds and a profusion of wildflowers scattered throughout the meadows. Trails wound about with viewpoints and a few sculptures. It was enchanting. The weather improved. I could have stayed for hours just wandering about, but it was getting late. On the drive down we saw a marmot on the side of road. We stopped at the Nel Nelson ski jump, but you have to hike up to it, and although it wasn’t far, we were out of time.

The next day we drove back through Mt. Revelstoke. We walked several short interpretive trails:

The Skunk Cabbage trail is a boardwalk around a wetland with lots of big skunk cabbages, which were past their time. We saw an American dipper in the creek bobbing up and down, just like the sign said it would, and a few other migrating bird species. 

The Giant Cedars trail went through a wet, sweet-smelling forest of old western hemlock and western red cedars. I got some photos, and then my camera battery died, and that was all the photos for the day. 

After that we were out of Mt Revelstoke and into Glacier National Park, which, at 521 sq mi, is about the size of Yoho. (Compare to Jasper, which is 4335 sq mi.) 

The Hemlock Grove trail took us through an ancient stand of western hemlock with a plethora of ferns. The Rockgarden trail wound through a forest with huge boulders from a long-ago avalanche. We scrambled up and over boulders and along rock steps. 

The Loop Brook trail was several miles long through a thick forest, Signs interpreted the railroad and engineering feats to route trains through the mountains. I think David was relieved to be learning about something other than ecology and wildlife. Quite a few huge, tall stone trestle supports still stood, although the train trestles were long gone. We got a bit lost at one point. We’ve found that most of the trails are confusing at times because they often split, and, without directional signs, you’re left wondering which way to go. 

Our next stop was at the Rogers Pass summit where the transcontinental railroad was completed. It was cold and raining. Then, a bit farther was the Rogers Pass Discovery Centre, which had the usual dead animals, a couple videos and other information. We drove an hour farther to our campground in Golden.

In the morning we drove south to Radium Hot Springs in Kootenay National Park while listening to the Eagles on the radio. They were playing all Eagles for some reason. The countryside was mainly farmland on one side and wetlands on the other. 

Radium is a small resort village, like Lake Louise. We camped in Redstreak, a large park campground with confusing campsite loops set in sparse woods. 

That afternoon we walked along Redstreak Restoration Trail, which takes you around an area where prescribed burns are being used to restore the prairie. One of the reasons is to provide natural habitat for indigenous bighorn sheep. 

After that we stopped at Olive Lake, a small, shallow, green, clear lake with a short trail. We saw some of the small brook trout that live in the lake. 

The road through Kootenay is very steep in places and passes through some high cliffs. The mountains aren’t as tall and jagged as in Glacier. 

We hiked the 4-mile Dog Lake trail. It started out flat, went through a wooded campground, crossed two suspension bridges and continued into a forest. Then it started to climb up and up and up. It was a beautiful day. A little cool in the shade, but we warmed up as we hiked. The trail just kept going up and seemed longer than indicated. Finally we got to the top and then started going down down down. We could hear loons on the lake. We finally arrived at a marsh with reeds, a pretty lake beyond it and mountains in the distance. The sun shone. Clouds drifted slowly by. We stayed a few minutes, then returned. 

On the way back to Radium, 16 miles away, we stopped to look at the hot springs for which it is known. There were two pools and several buildings. Although the source is natural, the pools themselves looked like ordinary swimming pools.

A little farther were Sinclair Canyon & Redwall Fault, interesting but not as impressive as other places we'd seen.

It rained all night. In the morning, it was wet, cold and overcast. We hooked up the trailer and headed east. We stopped at Hector viewpoint and after about 50 miles stopped to see Numa Falls. I don’t get tired of looking at dramatic scenery of craggy mountains with all their variety of size, shape, color and height. The lights and shadows with their infinite dances never get old. 

At our next stop, the Paint Pots, the earth was orange. First Indians, then Europeans collected the ochre to make paint. Signs explain the history. We walked muddy orange paths to three small pools of colored water. 

Next it was Marble Canyon, a steep, dramatic canyon with a river at the bottom and waterfalls at the end, well worth the short hike. The landscape had been burned about seven years ago and still looked pretty desolate.

Then we were out of Kootenay, and, after stopping at the Continental Divide, back in Alberta. The really short Fireweed Trail took us around a forest that had burned 40 years ago, and plaques explained fire’s role in the ecosystem. 

After that we headed straight to Banff. We were worried that the campground would fill up early because it was Labor Day weekend. We waited in line about ten minutes and then got assigned a campsite.