Glacier Adventure (07/27)

I am so excited I can hardly stand the drive, it is over 2 hours to get to the Columbia Icefield Glacier Discovery Center.  It is way over by Jasper Canada.  But what a beautiful drive it was.  You never get tired of looking at these mountains and vistas. Not to mention the crystal clear lakes.

Isn't the reflection amazing

We finally arrive at the center and hurry in to get tickets.  The next bus is at 11 so we have about 15 minutes to kill.  We went out on the balcony and were able to get some great pictures of the glaciers.

Now it is time to get on the bus and drive to our destination.  The tour bus takes you out below the glacier an there you get on your real bus. This bus is made to drive on the ice with huge tires.  They look like giant tractor tires. Once on the bus we head out to the ice.  It is a little scary to watch these big buses pass each other in tight areas.

Once we are at the Columbia Ice field and the Athabasca Glacier, we are given 20 minutes to go play on it.  What an awe inspiring experience to actually walk on a glacier.  This has been on mine and Joe's bucket list for a very long time.  It is a time we will never forget.

Words can't describe the feeling we both had during this adventure.  If you ever get to Canada this is a must to put on you list.  Now for the long drive home.  We did see our first bear on the way home, it was a baby black bear, so cute but to fast for me to take a picture.  We have such great memories of our time in Canada and hope to come back again someday.

We have a little bit of a drive in the morning back into the US and Glacier Nation Park!!!!!!

Plain of the Six Glaciers (07/26)

What a glorious day, the sun is shinning and it is not to cold.  It will be a good day for hiking the Plain of the Six Glaciers trail at Lake Louise.  It is a long drive to Lake Louise but we are both excited to do this hike, it doesn't take us long to hit the trail.

Can you see the difference between
 today and yesterday?

As you can see I am not as bundled today as I was yesterday, neither is Joe.

The trail is pretty level around the lake then you start to climb a bit, but wait it gets steeper.  I am really breathing hard by the time we reach the Tea House at the Plain of the Six Glaciers.  Yes you hike to a real tea house.  They of course serve tea of many varieties, hot chocolate, sandwiches, soup and salads and desert. Joe had a cup of hot chocolate and I a cup of Earl Gray. It was a little cool here so the hot drinks were good and actually revitalizing.  Joe hiked the last mile out to the glaciers.  I stayed back and relaxed and really enjoyed the scenery.  Just before he got back I heard this really loud noise like a jet coming over very low.  It was a small avalanche. I couldn't believe how loud it was. In the middle picture right above the tree is where it happened.  This was taken before the avalanche.  On the way to Mirror Lake we heard another avalanche and another one on our way back to Lake Louise.  I am still in awe of how loud they are.

On our way again, we decide to make a loop out of the hike and took the trail to Lake Agnes, which also has a tea house.  You are way above the trail you hiked in on.

Lake Louise looks like milk from up here, it has something to do with the melted glacier.
Half way to Lake Agnes Joe took the longer steeper route up to the bee hive and down to Lake Agnes.  I took the less steep route to Mirror Lake then up to Lake Agnes.  Still a little bit of a climb.  I had to wait 15 or 20 minutes for Joe to get there.  I met a very nice Lady, Sharon, and we talked the whole time.  She had started on a bike tour with an adventure group, but the route they picked was horrible.  No one had done it before and they didn't realize how steep the passes were.  She said they were riding over 60 miles a day, from 8 am to 8 pm.  She decided this is no fun so left the group and is finishing the tour on her own.  What a brave women.  She had 3 bear sightings, up close and personal, the first morning.  I hope she is still doing OK.
Joe finally joined us with stories of the very steep trail he took, made me glad I decided not to go that way.  Of course Joe had to get a boot shot. He told me not to ask what he had to do to get where he sat for this picture.  I no better to ask questions, just glad he is back in one piece.

 Sharon hiked the rest of the way out with us.  We really had a perfect day.  I ended up doing 8-9 miles and Joe about 13.
Tomorrow we are going to on a Glacier Adventure at the Columbia ice fields.

Lake Moraine (07/25)

Another rainy day, or just really cold and cloudy?  Right now it is just very cloudy and cold.  We decide to take our chances and drive to Lake Moraine, an hour or  more drive.  We planned on doing a hike there, but is was so cold I passed and headed for the visitor center and coffee bar.

Joe headed down the trail just to return about 30 minutes later, you can not hike the trails here unless you are a group of 4 or more do to the grizzly activity. We talked it over and he decided to go back to the trail head  and see if he could join another group doing the hike.  Unfortunately   once hikers saw the sigh they decided not to hike.  After about one hour he finally gave up.  He was freezing when he got back to the truck.
We didn't want to go back to the park and since we were going to do a hike at Lake Louise tomorrow we thought we had better see if we had to be in a group of 4 there also, lucky for us you don't, so tomorrow's hike is still on.

                                                                           Lake Moraine

This is where the trail head Joe was waiting at

Lake Louise

Can you tell I am cold?

Well it is time to head back to Banff and the campground and something hot to eat and warm up.  I hope  tomorrow  will be warmer for our hike!                                                                                                   

Banff on a rainy day (7/24)

We a woke to pouring rain this morning and very cold temps, in the 40's.  What to do on a rainy day?  Put on your rain coat and drive into town.  We went to the visitor center to get ideas of what we wanted to do an see if reservations were needed for the Glacier Adventure we planned on doing Sunday.  Once through there we found a Starbucks and had some hot tea and a latte. The place was packed, we managed to find seats in front of the window where we could sit and enjoy our drinks and people watch, plus use there WiFi as we do not have any here.
I did manage to get phone service but it is all roaming and very expensive, only to be used in emergencies.  A call is .59 a minute, text is .20 and I don't even want to think what data costs. Of course everything is international and that is why it is so expensive.  Money is another thing to get used to. Their dollar is only worth .89 in US money.  We used credit cards a lot to save money.  Gas/Diesel is almost $5 a gallon, anywhere from 1.20 to 1.45 a liter.  I finally added a conversion app to help us know what we were spending. Two hamburgers with fries and one soda was over $40.
We did have lunch at a little restaurant called Tooloulou's, the food was great and the prices were reasonable compared to other restaurants.

While I enjoyed some shopping for souvenirs, Joe went back for the camera to capture the town. It looks like the storm is breaking up for the moment, but not for long, it rained off and on all day.

I found a great t-shirt that shows a bear dragging a camper out of his tent, the saying, Canadian take out!
There are a lot of Grizzlies out here and you really need to be careful.  I am hoping to see on behind a fence at a distance.
Once back at the park I settled in for a raining day of reading and Joe went hiking.

Canadian Rockies and Banff Canada (07/23)

It is time to say goodbye to our friends in Kelowna and Scotch Creek and head to Banff.  This is suppose to be a spectacular drive up the Trans Canadian Highway.  It did not disappoint.

When we were driving into Kelowna we thought it looked a lot like driving into Flagstaff, while driving to Banff we see similarities with Montana and Wyoming.  The Canadian Rockies are magnificent.  The pictures I am sharing with you were taken through the windshield of our truck.  I was surprised how good they came out.

To me these looked a lot like the Superstition Mts.  They even had a flatiron.

They have built these great tunnels, or bridges over the highway for all wildlife to cross safely.  What a great idea!











The Tunnel Mountain Campground we are staying at is a 40 minute walk to Banff. There is so much traffic in Banff that it is not fun to drive there.  There is also a multitude of nationalities there.  We did not meet many Americans while staying here.  A lot of Asians, New Zealand and English.  It was kind of cool hearing all the different languages spoken and the different accents.  Once settled in we did drive into town and it took quite sometime to find a parking place.  But once we did it is a great town to walk around and get good ice cream!!!!.