Kootenay and the Banff-Windermere Highway

The next "leg" of our Canadian Rocky Mountain trip took us southwest, back into British Columbia and through the Kootenay National Park -- still on Highway 93; here referred to as the Banff-Windermere Highway. This stretch of road, built in 1922, was the first to cross the Canadian Rockies.  Unfortunately, a great number of large animals have been killed on this stretch of road. There are many more warning signs of the presence of wildlife on the roadside.

This illuminated sign alternates in French and English warning of wolves on the highway.

Once again, we crossed the Continental Divide; this time at Vermillion Pass.

Georgeous blue water scenery

Notable wildfires in the Kootenay National Park have occured at Vermillion Pass in 1966, Mount Shanks in 2001 and Tokumm Creek and Verendrye Creek in 2003.

The Village of Radium Hot Springs is at the very southern tip of Kootenay. It's looked like a nice town but we did not stop to see it closely.

Wayne suggests we might glow in the dark after if we stop in this town.

We crossed the border into the US at the Eastpoint, Idaho Customs Inspection Station and made our way into Montana via Scenic US Route 2 East where we planned to meet friends at West Glacier.

Taken through the windshield.
Photos are not permitted within 50 yards of a Border Patrol Checkpoint. 

A Montana Motorhome, I think.

Lake Louise

Still looking for wildlife (bears, elk and the elusive elk), we took the Bow Valley Parkway, Highway 1A from Banff down to Lake Louise. The road is narrow and curvy with lots of bicyclists. Use of this route is highly discouraged from March to June, dusk to dawn. Keeping the road free of traffic during the evenings, nights and early mornings of the spring allows the wildlife better access to the area without danger. 

And so we headed out on this day. Once again, I'm armed and ready with my Nikon Coolpix and Lexie is sleeping in my lap.  Leaving Banff, we drove down Vermillion Lakes Drive, past three shallow lakes surrounded by marshes. We'd heard that eagle are often seen in around these lakes, but we didn't see one.

Leaving Banff, we crossed a metal grate in the road that made a loud noise. We had noticed this sound a few times while we've been here and I made a mental note of the sign, but didn't take a picture. The sign stated, "Texas Gate".  We know this brilliant idea as a "cattle gap" and is intended to keep livestock off the road without the use of a real "gate".

We saw this "Attention" sign and picture several times.
How can an animal picture look like a bear and a wolf?

Black Bear sightings along A1

Same bear as above; I just couldn't see enough of him.

Bigger bear a little farther down the road.

Our lunch stop.
That's Castle Mountain behind Wayne.



Lake Louise

The first non-Aboriginal to see Lake Louise was in 1882 when Tom Wilson, packing railway supplies nearby, was attracted to the site by the sounds of an avalanche.  The area was called Lake of Little Fishes but was renamed in 1884 after Princes Louise Caroline Alberta, the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria.  The Glaciers above the lake are known as "Upper Victoria" and "Lower Victoria". Lake Louise is a repository for tons of finely ground rock. The silt from the rock absorbs and reflects sunlight, giving the lake is vivid color.

Lake Louise looking west.
Upper and Lower Victoria Glaciers make the backdrop.

Lexie rode today in her Outward Hound.
It gives her a greater sense of security than simply being held.

Sadly, Lake Louise was a bit disappointing. It is a beautiful lake and the glacier was spectacular too but the area was quite commercial with rental boats along the shoreline and tour buses dumping huge numbers of tourists every few minutes.  A high-rise hotel sits on the adjacent property and a wooden deck/walkway is packed with camera clickers.

The restored railway station serves as a restaurant. 
The station was first named Laggan and was constructed by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1910.

After our short tour of Lake Louise we headed home.  Another thing we've been seeing frequently is the "animal crossings" installed over the roadways.  These are not roads, but bridges of land, complete with trees.  They allow wildlife to move from one area to another without going onto the highway.

Not a highway overpass.
An ANIMAL overpass!

Banff. Stay and Visit

Tunnel Mountain Campground, within Banff National Park, is home for the next few days.  It's a full hook-up campground, rare in National Parks for either country. The road we're on is gray dust so even though the weather is perfect, we'll have to keep the windows closed to avoid choking. Drivers up here don't seem to mind throwing dust 35 feet in every direction when driving 30 mph (or 50 km) through a campground.  Duh.

Tunnel Mountain in the background. 
There are pockets of snow on top.

Banff reminds us of Gatlinburg on a grand scale even though it is still quaint, clean and enjoyable.

Banff is named for Banffshire, Scotland, birthplace of a major financier of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

In 1885, Banff was a stopping place along the brand new Canadian Pacific Railway. The area was simply referred to as "Siding 29".  Visitors soon began to discover the area and services moved closer to the main attraction of the day -- the mineral springs. 

Downtown Banff

Almost everything is made of log and I'm talking BIG logs.  Logging is still really big business here and several times today, Wayne and I both smelled the wood.  Nice.  We rode around town and found the golf course in the shadow of this huge mountain.

Golf course, of course.

See the top of the golf cart on the right.

Bow River runs through the town of Banff and Bow Falls is a scenic part of the river near the golf course, Banff Park National Museum and Banff Springs Hotel National Historic Sites.

Wayne read about the famous people who've been here before us.  Let's see now.... King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, Theodore Roosevelt, Jack Benny and lots more have escaped to enjoy the serenity of Bow River.
Otto Preminger directed Marilyn Monroe in 1953's River of No Return on this very spot.

In front of Bow Falls

The girls.

Lexie isn't impressed by the historical significance of the Banff Springs Hotel (behind).
Furthermore, she HATES the sound of waterfalls.

History of Banff Springs Hotel

Now part of the Fairmont Hotel chain, Banff Springs Hotel was built in the late 1880's at the instigation of the Canadian Pacific Railway president. It was a railway hotel built in the Scottish Baronial style originally as a wooden shingle structure. The hotel cost $250,000 to build but, due to an error, the hotel's back was turned to the beautiful mountain view. In 1911 the hotel was completely rebuilt of concrete and stone.

Originally the hotel could be seen from miles around.
Today, evergreens surround the hotel and it can easily be missed.

At Bow Falls, we met this nice couple who asked about Lexie.
Their Maltese lived to be 19 years and 8 months old.  It's ashes are carried in a small container in her purse.
She nearly cried talking about it.

The sunny day gave way to a few sprinkles so we made a quick dash back to the car.
(We're all made of sugar so we feared we'd melt)

The Upper Hot Springs Pool at Banff is high on a mountain top so we took a drive up to take a look. We did not go for a dip in the hot springs. We'll take a shower at home, thank you very much.

A gondola can be taken to outrageous mountain heights.
Lexie isn't allow on gondolas and if Lexie don't go... we don't go. 

We finished the day strolling the streets of Banff and finally stopped for a pizza at a sidewalk cafe.

Buffalo sausage pizza. Yum. It was S-O-O-O good.
We topped it with chili oil and honey. Yes, honey.  Sweet and savory.
Lexie sat in her Outward Hound and displayed perfect manners.
She got a treat after.

Leaving the village, I spotted this really cute moose tourist on top of a car and couldn't resist the photo op.

Tomorrow we'll take a drive down to see Lake Louise.

Mount Robson, Jasper National Park and The Icefields Parkway

This morning, August 8th, I saw my first wild black bear cub. As we rounded a curve in the motorhome, I saw a small black fur ball behind a bush on a rocky embankment. I pointed and yelled "bear" but Wayne didn't get to see it.  This bear-sighting was, like my first one, last year in New Brunswick: I kept trying to hold on to the vision in my mind. As if I could see it for a little longer. We were not yet in the National Park,  but we were in the Canadian Rockies -- still on the Yellowhead Highway and still in British Columbia.

Within minutes, we rounded another curve and beautiful, snow covered Mount Robson came into view.  Mount Robson is the highest point in the Canadian Rockies and is the 21st most prominent peak in North America.

Mount Robson is 12,972 feet high. Notice how tiny the cars and the road look in comparison.

Entry to Mount Robson Park.
The white mountain goat is akin to the Asian antelope and has suction hooves, allowing it to walk and climb on ice.

Mount Robson Provincial Park is adjacent to Jasper National Park traveling south and it's about halfway between here and Jasper that we leave British Columbia and enter Alberta.

Alberta is Canada's wild rose country.

This area contains at least three noteworthy lakes: Berg, Kenney and Yellowhead. I don't know which are in my pictures, I'm sorry to say.

I think this is Lake Lucerne with flowers in the foreground and mountains behind.

Entering Jasper National Park we stopped to walk Lexie and see the historical markers.
(That's where I get all the factoids reported here.)

History of Jasper

Way back when... a fellow named Jasper Hawes, an employee of the North West Company, operated a fur-trading post in the eastern part of what is now the Provincial Park. His business was so well known the area became known as "Jasper House". By the time the trading post was abandoned, the name "Jasper" was commonly used to describe the area.  In 1913 the new town was formed and "Jasper" was the natural choice for the new town's name.  Jasper is 3,472 feet in elevation.  Mind you, it isn't easy for me to convert all these kilometers to feet. 

We never suspected the beautiful scenery we were about to behold. This stretch of road is known as the Icefields Parkway and runs from Jasper to Lake Louise and has always commemorated Canada's powerful natural landscape. It's a scenic drive, not a transportation corridor -- commercial vehicles are banned and the speed limit is minimal.

The Yellowhead Highway traverses land that is home to grizzlies, black bears, coyotes, wolves, elk, deer, mountain goats, bighorn sheep and a whole lot more.  Along our drive during these two days we saw coyote, mountain goats, elk and black bear.

There are two elk in this picture. They are in the lower right, near the trees,just above the water.

The Mountain Pine Beetle have destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres of trees.
Signs warning of the danger of these beetles are posted along the roadside.

History of The Icefields Parkway

In 1931, the Canadian government employed hundreds of men, paying 20 cents a day, to work building what was called the "wonder trail" through the heart of the Canadian Rockies. The road opened in 1940 without much fanfare. The 1950s and 60s brought tourists in motorcars so the road began undergoing a series of widening, paving and realignment repairs. The Banff to Jasper highway became "The Icefields Parkway" and still goes by that name today.

More signs of the Mountain Pine Beetle's destruction can be seen in this picture.
Trees in the distance are all dead.

This herd of mountain goats stood along the roadside having their pictures taken...
until a park ranger came along and made all the humans go away. 

See the tiny little car at the bottom.

Late in the afternoon we turned off Yellowhead Highway and went into Hinton, Alberta and settled in at the Hinton KOA.  On the roadway, we passed this sign.  It reminded me just how far we are from our hometown.

The Hinton KOA was easy to find.  However, to our surprise, this frail looking bridge was the only way into the campground.

The bridge's weight restriction sign is noticeably absent.
The stream runs under the bridge some 30-40 feet below.
Mona and Blackie together weigh nearly 43,000 pounds.
We got out to take a look, first-hand.  What happens if we're too heavy?

Wayne and Lexie after her last even walk; just before sunset.
All is well in the world right now.

Any time we think our rig is too big, we see something like the monster on the right.
It's a 45' Newell towing a 30' trailer that contains a Lexus and a motorcycle.  Yep.
That's us on the left, leaving the campground next morning.  Gee we look small.

Made it in over the bridge okay.
Made it out over the bridge okay.

We did make it across the bridge and had a restful nights sleep at the KOA. The next morning we continue our journey, but not before...

A Wal-Mart "fix" for the Wayner.  See that look of satisfaction?
There aren't many Super Walmarts in Canada.  This one will do for now.  
He's bought container for still more sewage stuff.