Into Canada
After the big day hiking the Grinnell Glacier trail, we slept in till 8am. Broke down camp and repacked the truck in an effort to appear neat and tidy at the border crossing. I had done much research on what was and was not allowed to bring across the border. And although we were for the most part compliant, I still had a bit of anxiety about it. I couldn’t help thinking of worst case scenario of being pulled over to the search area and having the truck torn apart. But contrary to my worries, a few simple questions and a friendly “have fun”, and we were across and headed into Canada.
First stop was in Calgary to stock up on as many supplies as possible as we anticipated the cost of goods to be higher the farther north we went in The Rockies.
We arrived at our hotel in Canmore at 4:45pm. The room was rustic but sweltering hot! We fired up the portable floor AC and went out for dinner and a photo shoot. Hoping the room would be cooler when we returned.
I had a location picked out to photograph the Three Sisters mountain peaks reflecting in a calm bend of Policeman’s Creek. The scene was just as I had imagined. But we had to wait for quite a while for a group of people hanging out right in my composition to leave. I took a few images before the next group of people arrived and we headed back to our room.
The room had cooled to a bearable temperature. And we enjoyed some much needed cool showers. It felt good to wash the Glacier National Park grunge off…
Canmore
Pretty tired from our travels to get here, we enjoyed sleeping in till almost 9am…
We picked up some coffee and pastries at a French Canadian bakery for breakfast and went to Quarry Lake in hopes for some photography. Although the views were impressive, the day was cloudy overcast with very flat light and hazy. Not very conducive to good photography. We enjoyed a couple of hours leisurely walking the shoreline and then drove up to Banff.
We visited the Cascade Gardens of Time. Pretty flower gardens looking straight up Banff Avenue with Cascade Mountain towering in the background. Then spent about 4 hours walking the shops and galleries on the avenue. Enjoyed a delicious dinner with an engaging conversation on world travels of our past.
After dinner we took our customary selfies at the Banff sign… That is after waiting in a long line of other like minded people.
Back to the hotel for our last night before 3 nights of camping outside of Banff…
Banff day 1
Took advantage of the hotel and slept in till 9am. Checked out at 10:45.
The check in at the Banff campground wasn’t till 2pm, so we did a bit of exploring. We went to Two Jack Lake and had lunch on the shoreline. Beautiful view, but very busy with people escaping the heat in and on the water.
After being darn near pushed out of our spot on the shoreline, we ventured over to Lake Minnewanka for a look. Then onto Vermillion Lakes. Amazingly spectacular view of Mount Rundle reflected in the calm waters. Decided that this would be the spot to come for sunset if the sky conditions seem favorable.
Onto the campground to get checked in and get a feel for the site. Then we went back to the shops in Banff to finish up shopping for souvenirs. And then back to camp for dinner and wait on the golden hour.
The golden hour at Vermillion Lakes was a bust due to clouds to the west blocking any sunlight. Took a handful of images just because. Then back to camp for the night…
Banff day 2
Day 2 in the Banff area started with a drive to hike Johnston Canyon, but the parking lots were full. So we decided we would try to get an earlier start on it tomorrow or the next day. Then we checked out the Castle Mountain viewpoint which had spectacular views across the turquoise colored Bow River.
Onto a short hike up to the impressive Silverton Falls where I took a couple of images from the precarious little viewing ledge on the side of the cliff. On the way back to camp we stopped at a picnic area and made some sandwiches for lunch.
We found out today that all the haze here is being caused by wildfires. Looking forward to some forecasted cooler temperatures in a couple of days. It’s been an out of the ordinary heat wave since we got here.
Time to grill up some kabobs for dinner…
Conditions looked better this evening for photography, so off to Vermillion Lakes again. Indeed the haze had cleared a bit and Mount Rundle was looking spectacularly radiant in the alpenglow! We went to a few different locations and I think I came away with some stunners!
Tomorrow we will get an early start headed for Johnston Canyon…
Banff day 3
Up at 6:15am… Coffee and oatmeal for breakfast. And off to Johnston Canyon. What a beautiful and special place. The cooler temperatures of early morning were refreshing to hike in. The canyon was a deeply cut gorge in the rock and the river was the typical turquoise color of the area.
There was a lower and upper falls. The lower had a cave to walk through which brought you to the thundering falls. The mist was invigorating but could only spend a minute as we were quickly getting wet. The upper falls was even more impressive and very tall.
After the falls we were back in Banff town for more supplies. Then to the camp for lunch and relaxation in the heat of early afternoon.
Banff day 4
Took our time breaking camp as we weren’t scheduled to check in to the hotel in Lake Louise until 4pm.
We mosied our way north on the Bow Valley Parkway. Stopping for a picnic lunch, views of Castle Mountain and Morant’s Curve, where the train tracks curve next to the river with spectacular mountain backdrop. We waited for awhile but no train.
A welcomed early check in at the hotel and a nap before dinner out and bedtime…
Banff day 5
We were up at 5:15am to make the 6:30am shuttle up to another of the big highlights of our adventure, Moraine Lake…
Moraine Lake has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. I had been worried that with all the wildfire smoke that the experience would not be what I had hoped. Fortunately there was some rain the night before that cleared out quite a bit of haze. I felt the light, clouds and remaining haze created a moody scene. I had a great time photographing for about 2 hours from what is called “The Rockpile”.
From there we took the shuttle down to Lake Louise. And after some discussion decided we would rent one of the red canoes for an hour. But just as our turn in line came, the dock hands came out with a high wind warning just as the gusts began to blow… Oh well, so much for that idea!
We had a few stops planned on our way up to Rampart Creek Campground, but as we made the turnoff we saw the electronic road sign stating that due to the Jasper wildfire the highway was closed north of Saskatchewan River Crossing! Worried about what we were going to do, we returned to Lake Louise where we gained enough phone service to do some research. What we found was very bad news. A large wildfire was threatening and not contained! Jasper National Park was now closed and the entire park and townsite were being evacuated to the west into British Columbia! This meant the end for the northern portion of our trip. We couldn’t even get to our next campsite! With lodging being so expensive, the Banff campgrounds full, and thousands of other dispersed tourists in the same situation we opted to drive back to Calgary for a more reasonably priced room.
This all meant we would cut our adventure short by about a week. From the hotel in Calgary, we scrambled and managed to secure a little cabin in Grand Teton National Park for a couple of nights.
So tomorrow we will begin our drive back south into the US and enjoy a couple of days in one of my favorite locations…
