Day 18 - (08/05) Lake Louise, AB ... Day 1

Note: We’re catching up on time spent in Canada. This post was entered on 08/17.

We continued our days of short drives with a 43 mile move from Banff to Lake Louise.

The lake and the hotel are still as beautiful as Carol remembers … except, there are many more people around.

Carol found the pool she and Kay swam in as teenagers. The windows and walls are still there, but no pool. It was closed in the mid-80s because it began to leak chemicals into the lake.

Lake Louise ... Victoria Glacier in the background

Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise Hotel

Carol’s swimming pool circa. 1957

Flowers bloomed all over the grounds

Pipe & Drum corps performed at the hotel

We went back to town for lunch and more information about the area. We got suggestions to ride the ski gondola and drive to Moraine Lake.

Gondola view of Lake Louise

The ski area attracted bears

According to Dick, Moraine Lake was perhaps the most beautful we've seen.

Moraine Lake

Moraine Lake

Moraine Lake

We found internet access through the local post office at $5 for a 24-hour period. The connection was unusual and the range was short, but we got up and going after fussing around for a while. It sure beat the mobile broadband surcharge we discovered in Calgary.

Did you know?

Lake Louise was named after Louise Caroline Alberta, the 4th daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

The color of Lake Louise is due to its depth (273 ft) and minute mineral deposits of glacial silt and rock flour carried down from the Victoria Glacier.

Lake Louise water temperature averages 35 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit during the year.

Map Tracks
Start: Banff, Alberta
West on Trans-Canada Highway 1 to Lake Louise, Alberta
End: 43 miles @ Lake Louise, Alberta

Day 17 - (08/04) Banff, AB

Note: We’re catching up for the time spent in Canada. This post was entered on 08/17.

Today was a short drive to Banff. We arrived at 11:30am, early enough to tour the area.

Entering Banff area

We drove the Minniwanka Loop where we saw Lake Minniwanka, Two Jac Lake and Johnson Lake.

Minniwanka Lake

Johnson Lake

Then we went to the beautiful Banff Springs Hotel. We had a light lunch of chicken wings and beer on the patio overlooking the Bow River.

Banff Springs Hotel

View from the patio area

Hotel grounds decorated with flower baskets

Patio area where we had lunch

After patio lunch


Hotel staircase

Camp Site

Banff is very "touristy" with one main street lined with upscale shops. It had two gas stations. It was a classic ski town.

Map Tracks
Start: Calgary, Alberta
West on Trans-Canada Highway 1 to Banff, Alberta
End: 73 miles @ Banff, Alberta

Day 16 - (08/03) Calgary, AB

Note: We're catching up for the time spent in Canada. This post was entered on 08/17.

We head into Canada today. Lake Louise and Jasper are our primary destinations, but we’ll stop in Calgary and Banff on the way.

It’s important to note that Carol, her parents and sister visited Glacier NP, Calgary, Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper over 50 years ago. It’ll be interesting to see how things have changed since then. Dick’s never been here.

We left the campground at 8:45am and got to Calgary around 2:00pm. There was no one in line when we went through Customs ... bet that doesn't happen very often. We saw some wind mills on the way, but nothing like the big wind farms in southwest US. There were beautiful plains and fields much like those we saw in Montana.

The fields seemed to stretch forever

We drove downtown after setting up the trailer. We could find none of the old town Carol remembers. Calgary is not the sleepy little town it used to be. It's grown to a sprawing, modern metropolis of over a million people!

Our campground is near one of the 1988 Winter Olympics sites. It’s currently a training center. We drove through the grounds on the way back from downtown.

Camp site

We're this close to the Olympic site

Bobsled Run

Olympic painting

Olympic ski jumps

We had a real awakening today. Our Verizon mobile broadband service works great here. Unfortunately, Canada applies a data transmission surcharge to the service cost. The Canadian charge for loading pictures to the blog today nearly equalled a month of broadband service. We won't be using the Verizon service while we're in Canada.

Map Tracks
Start: St. Mary, Montana
North on US-89 to US/Canada border
North on Alberta 2 to Calgary, Alberta
West on Trans-Canada Highway 1 to the Calgary West Campground
End: 193 miles @ Calgary, Alberta

Day 15 - (08/02) Glacier National Park ... Day 3

Note: we're playing catch up from our time in Canada. This is being posted on 08/15.

With awesome scenery like this, we couldn't resist a day of hiking within GNP.

We're surrounded by beauty.

First was a 1.6 mile hike to St. Mary Falls.

St. Mary Falls

Bridge at the foot of St. Mary Falls

Then we headed to Logan Pass with lots of other tourists. It’s a relatively short drive, complicated by construction delays. We waited at least 20 minutes at one point. Then we were faced with a full parking lot at the summit. It took another 20 minutes of driving around the lot before we could park. Sometimes they close the lot and anyone who drove up has to drive back down without stopping. What a bummer that would have been.

Logan Pass parking lot

We hiked up to the Hidden Lake Overlook. We saw long horn sheep, but the pictures weren't very good. Here are a few other views along the way.

Snowball anyone?

This little marmot thought we were intruding.

The scenes seemed to get more beautiful as we climbed

There were fewer and fewer hikers as we climbed.

This mountain goat joined the hike as well.

Hidden Lake ... we made it!

Hidden Lake ... looking toward Lake McDonald on the west side.

This little ground squirrel jumped on Dick's neck in an effort to get a snack.

baby goat

Map Tracks
Start: St. Mary, Montana
West on Going-to-the-Sun Road to Logan Pass and return

End: 38 miles @ St. Mary, Montana

08/09 - Back in the U.S.

We returned to the U.S. today and now have ready access to phone and internet services. Over the next few days we'll provide posts describing our Canadian travels.

08/03 - Blog Updates on Hold

We've been travelling in Canada since August 3rd. Phone and internet access have become a problem due to Canadian surcharges and lack of availability. We won't be updating the blog until we get back to the US ... approximately August 12th. We won't be calling unless there's an emergency.

This note is being entered on August 5th from Lake Louise, AB. We're deep in the Banff National Park. There's no "free" internet access here. We bought some time from a local postal service.

Day 14 - (08/01) Glacier National Park ... Day 2

Note: we're playing catch up from time in Canada. This is being posted on 08/11.

This was the day to move 2 miles to the St. Mary Campground within the park. Though we’ll have no services, the $11.50 daily rate for seniors is quite a value.

Breakfast and move

We had breakfast at Johnson’s Café. The plan was to have one of their highly recommended cinnamon rolls and coffee. We ended up with their family style breakfast (eggs, bacon, home fried potatoes, French toast) … and a highly recommended cinnamon roll! Another plan shot.

Johnson's Cafe

Moving time

Our GNP campsite

We were able to check-in early and got a beautiful, open site.

We seem to be checking in at the right park.

Nice view out the front door, huh?

Campsite ... there were other campers, honest.

Many Glaciers National Park

We headed north to Many Glaciers National Park and quite an adventure. First, we came upon a “bear jamb” on the entrance road. It occurs when traffic stops to see a bear (we shouldn't have joined in). This small grizzly was eating behind brush on a hillside.

Grizzly

We passed Sherburne Lake on the way into the park.

Sherburn Lake

Wildflower field

Wildflowers up close

These red busses are replicas of park touring cars from the 1930s. They are built by Ford and are propane powered. The drivers are called “jammers” because of the way they shifted gears in the old days. We saw lots of them throughout the parks.

We drove to the Swift Current Trailhead and took the 2.6 mile hike around the lake. A number of the connecting trails were closed due to grizzly activity.

Bear Warning

We walked ... some didn't

Tour boat - Many Glaciers Hotel in background

This is the easy way to get from the hotel to the head of the lake.

A storm moved in quickly. We stopped at the Many Glaciers Hotel to look around and wait for the storm to pass.

The storm is coming

The weather changed so quickly Carol didn’t know if it was sunny or raining.

The storm came

We hiked back to the car in a fine drizzle, drove home to get warm and had a dinner of leftovers.

Then we went to the visitor center for an evening ranger lecture on edible, poisonous and medicinal plants. A nice after dinner touch don't you think?

We ended the day by playing one game of Bananagram by camp light (we have no electricity here). Carol won.

FYI
Experts estimate the glaciers will be gone from Glacier National Park within 10 years.

St. Mary Lake is 9.9 miles long and 289 ft. deep.

Map Tracks
Start: St. Mary, Montana
North on US-89 to Babb, Montana
West on Montana 464 to Many Glaciers National Park entrance
Many Glaciers National Park to US-89
South on US-89 to St. Mary, Montana
End: 46 miles @ St. Mary, Montana