Banff... to the future

When last we met our intrepid heroes, we were unsure whether they would make it to the end of the treacherous... Icefields Parkway!! Keep reading to find out!

So there we were, driving the 'Icefields Parkway'. In many ways, it was like NZ. There are views like this:

But there are the inevitable biting insects to go along with such views.

In many ways, it's not at all like NZ. These things for instance:

(One of those bears is pale coloured for some reason. We're not sure why.)

By this point, we're in Banff National Park. I found Banff to be more touristy, especially Lake Louise, but you can see why:

Lake Louise has a large hotel building on one end, and a couple of hiking trails nearby. That's ice on the lake by the way.

Speaking of the ice, it made a tinkling sound as the waves pushed it against the shore. Hopefully this video will be viewable:

We also saw some other animals, which we suspect to be caribou.

Anna demonstrates the correct way to take a selfie with the wildlives animals

Another caribou(?), so close to the road!

The next day we decided to do a walk near Lake Louise, up to another Lake called Agnes (poor thing).

The trail was somewhat icy, and we were not ideally equipped with our sneakers. Honestly, though, we should have expected snow in June! Silly us. Happily though, our sneakers stayed dry - the snow was mostly dry and the melted patches mostly avoidable.

We had lunch at yet another lake, Mirror Lake, with a nice view.

(See if you can spot the chipmunk. It's definitely there.)

There are these signs everywhere that say you shouldn't feed the wildlife, but I think this little guy has gotten the idea somewhere that humans mean food:

This is the view once you get to the top:

Needless to say, it was rather cold up there.

Following that 7km round trip, half of it steadily inclining, we felt like some some shorter walks for the rest of the day.

Johnston Canyon fit the bill, and we're glad we did it; both the upper and lower falls are rather something. First, there's a trail that goes down into the canyon itself, and winds along the edge; then there's a boardwalk suspended over the river, and you can see the way that the water has cut through the rocks.

Behold the lower falls:

Notice, if you will, the cave on the right hand side of the picture? It's got quite a low ceiling, but it leads to this:

Right at the face of the falls. It was cold as though, with a complimentary faceful of spray!

A little further on were the upper falls. Behold the upper falls:

view from the bottom

Not nearly enough photos of waterfalls, so - one from the top too!!

Thus endeth our foray into the Banff and Jasper National Parks.

Oh, but since we're here, I might as well talk about our time in Calgary to finish off Alberta. My advice, having seen a tiny bit of the city while we were driving through it, is don't bother. Unless you're using it as a staging area to visit the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, a museum devoted to dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures! It was very interesting - especially the skeletons throughout.

Such as this one! (me with a T-Rex)

Guest insert from Anna: the Royal Tyrrell museum also had these GINORMOUS tropical cockroaches!! Eeeerrgghhhh!!!!

Bleeeooouuuurrrggghhhhh

thumb for scale

The toys in the gift shop at the end were also awesome.

Anna with the World's Largest Dinosaur. This was not one of the toys.

After this, we flew to Montreal, anticipating more civilised delights than the rugged world we'd been in... but which we had survived!! </cliffhanger_end>