Smoke from the wildfires...

On July 13th as we traveled from Calgary to Banff everything was in a haze.  Wildfires were burning near Saskatchewan Crossing and the smoke was causing a haze over the mountain tops.  Even in the haze the views were breathtaking. After arriving in Banff and getting the Land Yacht set up, we went into town to the visitors center.  Two good things about the visitors centers in Canada, they have great information and a WiFi signal that you can borrow to check email.  We are finding WiFi to not be available in many places and if it is, they want to charge a premium for it, so free WiFi is a real find.  The coffee shops have WiFi but it is slow because everyone is trying to use it...I will admit it, I miss WiFi.

On July 14th we went to Cave and Basin Historic Site, which is a site of hot springs that drew people to Banff for their healing power, but mostly because they felt soothing.  We also saw the Upper Hot Springs which are still open for use.  We enjoyed exploring all the little tourist shops in town. We toured the Park Museum which is in the same building it has been in since it opened in 1908.  We also toured the gardens at the National Park Office.

Museum

On July 15th, the four of us drove down the Bow Valley Parkway. We hiked the trail to upper and lower Johnston Falls.

On July 16th Wayne and Mark hiked to the top of Tunnel Mountain.  There is no tunnel in the mountain but it was a proposed site for a tunnel and the name stuck.  Sue and I went to the Farmer's Market and to the grocery store.  In the afternoon, Wayne and I rode our bikes around town and explored Bow River Falls and the Vermillion Lakes.  Banff is surrounded by beautiful mountains.

Vermillian Lake

From the campground

Bridge in town

River in town

Next Stop Lake Louise !

Alberta’s largest city, Calgary

NOTE:  I am doing blog posts as we find internet available, so I may do more than one a day.  Please be sure you have not missed a post!

On our way to Calgary we stopped at a World Heritage Site called Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump.  It is a very nice museum out in the middle of nowhere, but well worth your stop if you are going this way. The museum was designed and built into the side of the mountain so it does not detract from the surrounding plains.  The design guides you through the 5 story building telling the story of how for thousands of years the Indians hunted buffalo.  The most successful technique was to guide a herd over the edge of the cliff.  The Indians did not waste any part of the buffalo.

We never thought of Calgary as being large…there are over a million people and the area is growing.  Calgary was host to the 1988 Winter Olympics.  Our campground was not very far from Olympic Park.  Friday morning we drove over to Olympic Park.  Wayne and Mark rode what they call the Skyline Luge.  They are small “sleds” with wheels and steering lever/handle which also controlled the speed.  They run down what was used as the luge track for the Olympics. They ride a chair lift up and luge down.  They said it was fun.  We all took the chair lift up to the top and back down to enjoy the view.  It is great that they are using and maintaining the park.  They have mountain bike trails that runs down the mountain.  There was a camp going on for kids to learn how to ride the trails.  They take their bikes up on a special chair on the chair lift and the kids also ride the chair lift up the mountain.  Then they ride the trail down the mountain.  They all looked like they were having a great time.  You can pay to just ride the lift and trail and there is even a season pass.

After Olympic Park we took the train into town to the Stampede.  The Stampede reminded me of the State Fair in NC with some rodeo added to it.  Our favorite parts were the Peking Acrobats and the chuck wagon races.  No pictures were allowed of the Peking Acrobats.  They did dancing, balancing and juggling and were very good.  The chuck wagons are a team of four thoroughbred horses pulling a 1200 pound wagon with a driver that also has two men on horses called out riders.  Four teams compete at a time racing against each other and the clock.  Each chuck wagon does a figure eight around 2 barrels then race around a ½ mile track.  The outriders load a bag into the back of the wagon and cannot get on their horses until the bag is loaded and the wagon has gone around the first barrel.   The outriders must ride around the track and finish within a second of their wagon or the team is penalized one second.  If the wagon knocks down a barrel they are penalized several seconds.   We saw 9 races.  The horses were fast and beautiful.  There is LOTS of prize money involved.  It was late by the time we took the train and got back to the campground, all of us were tired after a busy day.

In the pictures below the first one is the chuck wagon parading by before the race. That same wagon is in the race in the second shot.

Saturday, Wayne and I went to the Calgary Farmer’s Market, which was more market than farm.  We then took a 12 mile bike ride along the Bow River in downtown Calgary.  They have a wonderful trail system throughout the city.  The bike path is a different path from the walkers so you do not have to worry about passing walkers.  We rode through a nice section of town including Princes Island.  The rest of the day was devoted to laundry and getting groceries.

Next stop Banff.

Welcome to Canada !

Welcome to Canada !

July 7^th we drove from St. Mary, MT into Canada.  We were bordering Glacier Park so the scenery continued to be beautiful.   I took a picture as we crossed the border because I thought it was kind of funny that there is actually a line.  The customs agent was very nice and we crossed without problems.  Our first destination was Waterton, Alberta where we stayed at the Waterton Townsite Campground.  It is a national park, the Canadian side of Glacier National Park,  and a very nice facility.  It is located in town within walking distance of restaurants and shops.  We really like Waterton, the views in every direction are breathtaking.

Our views from the campground:

After getting The Land Yacht settled in our site, we walked to town and checked out the local offerings.  Wayne and I decided to ride our bikes on the bike path along the lake and up to the Prince of Wales Hotel and then across the street to the visitor center. The hotel is on the national register of historic places.  It stands on the hill above town and can be seen from almost everywhere.  It is old and dark on the inside.  The views from the hotel were amazing, which is why it is so famous! On our way back to the campground we rode by Cameron Falls.

July 8^th was a catch up day.  I did some cooking while Wayne gave the RV and car a much needed bath.  In the afternoon the 4 of us drove up the Red Rock Canyon Road.  It was a very scenic drive with a red rock slot canyon at the end with a walk around it.  We also hiked the trail to Blakiston Falls.  The wildflowers in the area are blooming and add color to the roadside/path side.

On July 9^th Wayne and I took the hike up to the top of Bear Hump which overlooks the town of Waterton. It was mostly uphill,  but WOW what a view !!!  After lunch, the 4 of us, drove down the Akamina Parkway to Cameron Lake.  We did the walk at the lake.  The excitement of the drive was having a bear cub walk across in front of the car as we pulled into an overlook…not sure where mama bear was.  We took our pictures from the car.

Next  stop Calgary and the Stampede.

Glacier National Park - Part 2

On July 4^th, we moved over to Johnson’s RV Park, just outside the East Glacier entrance.  After lunch we drove over and hiked to St Mary’s Falls and continued up to Virginia Falls.  Less than 4 miles for the hike and much easier than the two mile hike the day before.  The wildflowers have been very pretty throughout the park but were very noticeable along this hike. Virginia Falls is at the top of the creek which flows down to the St Mary’s falls with several intermediate falls/cascades in the middle.  The campground owner told us there would be fireworks over the lake which the campground overlooks.  We were not sure what to expect.  Just a note, it does not get dark here until after 10:00 PM.  Around 9:30 we noticed little fireworks at different places along the shoreline.  So it seems that everyone brings there fireworks to the lake edge and shoots them off.    So for over 30 minutes we had splashes of color all around the lake.  At 10:00 the KOA across the street did some bigger and higher fireworks.  Not knowing what to expect we were not prepared to take pictures.  We went to bed and the fireworks and celebrating continued long into the night.

 St Mary's Falls

 Rapids along the trail to Virginia Falls

 Virginia Falls

On July 5^th, we slept in after our late evening.  Wayne and I rode the shuttle on the Going to the Sun Road from the St Mary’s Visitor Center back to the Loop where we had ridden to when the road was closed.  So we completed the entire road!  We spent the most time at Logan Pass.  The snow in the area was over 6 feet tall!  They had cleared the roads, sidewalks and parking lots.  The trails that started from Logan Pass were all covered with snow.  Wayne was disappointed to not be able to hike the Highline Trail, so that will be our excuse to come back.  Others were excited for the snow and were carrying their skis and snowboards up the hill.

July 6^th was our last day in the US portion of Glacier National Park.  We drove up to the lodge at Many Glacier where we took a boat/hiking trip.  You ride a boat across the lake, hike for a ¼ mile to another lake, ride in a second boat and then hike 1.25 miles over to Glacier Lake.  It was a beautiful day for the trip and the scenery was spectacular.

From the hill overlooking Many Glacier Lodge

Next stop Waterton, Alberta, Canada !

Note while in Canada we will have cell phone and texting but no data on our phone,  so we will be on the lookout for WiFi hotspots and will post blogs when we can.  We will be in Canada for about a month.

Glacier National Park - Part 1

We had been following the status of the roads and weather at Glacier National Park.  The Going to the Sun Road was ready to open when a blizzard in June dropped a lot of snow and created an avalanche covering a road and destroying a guard rail they had just installed for the new season.  When we left Missoula headed to West Glacier they had no idea when the road would be open.

The drive from Missoula, MT to West Glacier took us by Flathead Lake.  It is huge and beautiful!  Anyone with a boat who does not mind cold weather should be on Flathead Lake.  They had marinas with sail and power boats surrounded by cabins and homes overlooking the lake and mountains.  I took a lot of pictures as we drove by. We went to Fish Creek Campground in Glacier National Park where we spent two nights.  We enjoyed exploring the Lake McDonald Lodge and walking around their property.  Our campsite was fun because we had a deer that was not afraid to come to the edge of the woods to eat.  We saw it eating there on three different occasions and once walking with another deer down the road.

Flathead Lake from the overlook

Around Lake McDonald Lodge

The Going to the Sun Road was still closed but they had a shuttle that would take you from the Visitor Center up to the Loop Road, where you could then walk.  We took the shuttle and walked as far as they would let us, 3 miles one way, on the Going to the Sun Road.  The road was clear with no car traffic, only a few trucks used for the cleanup came by and lots of bicycles.  We learned later that we had a rare opportunity because we were allowed to walk the road.  In the 3 mile section there are not many overlooks, so we got pictures not many tourists are able to take.  Between Wayne and I we took almost 900 pictures that day !!!  Every direction we looked there was another breathtaking view.

Walking on Going to the Sun Road

We then moved over to St. Mary’s Campground which is on the East Glacier side of the park.  It was another pretty trip from one part of the park to the next.  We have enjoyed watching all of the trains which often run parallel to the road.  After getting settled at St. Mary’s we checked out “town” and the St Mary’s Visitor Center.  We drove as far as we could up this end of the Going to the Sun Road.  They have a resurfacing project going on, so it is a dusty trip.  They let us go as far as Jackson Overlook before we had to turn around.  We found out that they had opened up the Going to the Sun Road not long after we had left it !  YEAH !!!  That means we could ride the whole road J

On July 3^rd, we awoke to a cloudy, overcast morning.  We continued with our plans and drove over to Many Glacier.  After exploring the visitor center, lodge and campground the weather cleared.  We hiked up to Apikuni Falls.  The hike was only a mile one direction but I think most of it was uphill.  The falls were very pretty and worth the hike.  We ate lunch at the picnic area and then took pictures of Swift Current Falls near the Many Glacier Lodge.

Apikuni Falls

Swift Current Falls

Check out Part 2 for more pictures from Glacier National Park !