Canada - days 39 to 43 - Calgary and Banff

After our early morning flight from Whitehorse to Calgary we were reunited with Richelle from our Sri Lanka and Maldives trip from two years ago. There's a lot of catching up to be done!

As usual when setting the alarm for an early start, sleep evades you anyway. We were early for our 04.30 taxi, and so was he. He dropped us off at the airport at about 04.31! Check in, only coffee shop is before security, and doesn't open till 05.00, so we waited!

Flight was all on time and we arrived in Calgary at 09.50 having lost an hour. Luggage seemed to take a long time and then we had to get the hire car which always takes a long time. We got charged for an extra day as we had been due to arrive at 16.00 until they cancelled that flight and put us on the early one. Then the little SUV had no parcel shelf. Brian was not happy with that, and he's right, we are going to be parking up at trailheads with the luggage in the back. We eventually left with a sedan which I'm sure will be fine. It's much easier to drive apparently than the monster truck anyway.

Sunset over the lake at the end of her garden. The dock and kayaks are hers, but we haven't tried them yet

Half an hour to Richelle's, just south of Calgary and what a welcome. Big dog Morgan and little dog Bailey, and of course Richelle who we met a couple of years ago on our Sri Lanka and Maldives trip. She lives in a beautiful house, that she designed herself , twenty something years ago for her and her husband, 4 kids and the nanny. It's just her and the dogs at the moment, so there is plenty of space for us. There was piles of stuff for lunch and the smell of the pulled beef coming from the slow cooker for dinner was tantalising.

Enjoying drinks on her lower deck

The rest of the day was spent enjoying the house and the company, oh, and laundry! I sat on the dock dangling my feet in the water with Morgan, until mad dog jumped into the water which is almost an hourly occurrence, though she hasn't worked out this means she isn't allowed into the house! It was a beautiful day, but apparently not the norm. It should be, but spring has been very late on coming so we were very lucky. The lower deck, in the shade was the perfect place for wine and chatting!

The storm came in, large hailstones rained down and the temperature dropped by 6 or 7 degrees C

Day 40 Saturday Calgary 

It felt really late when we woke up, it was before 8.00 but we'd lost the hour. We did some planning for the time we are with Richelle and reduced the booking Brian had only made the previous day for Revelstoke. There's just so much to do everywhere.

We eventually made it to the supermarket and the liquor store. Brian wanted to take the dogs for a walk, but Richelle was recommending kayaking on the lake (as long as we didn't fall in as it really isn't as warm as it should be). As we sat and ate lunch though we watched the storm come in across the lake. All hands on deck to get cushions and the jet washer in before the rain and hail arrived! Glad we weren't out on the water, or out walking the dogs!

I did anti thunder dog therapy for both dogs, cleaning the cooler for us to take away with us, in the mud room with little Bailey, before popping downstairs to our room to find Morgan on the bed hiding away. Good excuse to lie down and do a sudoku anyway! A bit of prep for the evening. It was book club, only six other ladies and no book as it was end of season. We were both invited, but if Brian wanted to sit in the snug and watch a world cup match that was fine!

I missed the coyote but managed to get the deer standing motionless hoping we hadn't seen her

It cleared up and jobs were done so we could take the girls out for a walk which was really nice, though still very windy. Interesting to see a coyote just trot across our path, we really weren't out in the wilds. 

Due to the wind the evening had to take place indoors, rather than outside on either deck which was a bit sad, but possibly made it easier as flatbread pizzas were the thing for the evening. Everyone was to make their own, but each was to be introduced and shared amongst us all. It was a lovely evening, they are a great bunch of ladies and I had a fab time. I fed Brian both pizza and dessert and apparently it was a good football match.

Next day the Royal Tyrrell Dinosaur museum. It was considered local and east of Calgary so completely flat land. It's amazing how the Rocky Mountains rise abruptly just west, but the land to the east is totally flat for about 1000km. Anyway, local was over two hours drive away, straight roads and empty, but by our standards a long way!

All bar one had left at 23.30, so we were chatting, Richelle was washing up, when her youngest son, Spencer, turned up with his girlfriend to collect 'grandma's' car that had been sitting on the drive for a while. It was good to meet him, though he was really only around for long enough to change the battery and the number plate before vanishing off again. This made our night quite late, getting on for 01.00 and we were aiming to meet at 08.00 to go hiking!

It really is quite an amazing place as so many dinosaur bones have been found in the locality. It's arranged as a walk through in time, starting with the earliest plants, through the earliest animals, taking you though the various eras, eventually right up to the present day. Very well laid out, fabulous exhibits and almost too.much to see in one day. I kept tearing myself away to keep up with Jackie and Richelle so they couldn't complain!

Day 41 Sunday Drumheller

I think Richelle and I were both feeling the effects of the late night, and maybe a few glasses of wine. The weather forecast where we wanted to hike was really not very good, so we put it on hold till we are back and decided to go to the dinosaur museum at Drumheller instead. This also had been on the list and seemed far more sensible. Not least because we wouldn't be able to take Morgan the Wonder dog, so Brian could drive in our car! It was 2 hours each way and I didn't think either of us closed our eyes, though Richelle did own up to missing a bit of conversation on the way back!

A typical death pose with the head bent right back. They suspect it was caused by ligaments drying out and shrinking. Many, many skeletons where in the same pose.

The Royal Tyrrell museum is an amazing dinosaur museum, as confirmed by my niece Caroline who is very into dinosaurs and had heard of it. There have been so many bones and fossils discovered in Alberta, we guess for the same reason that they have lots of oil too.

This photo was taken at the hoodoos a little further down the road, but the landscape is the same. See how the land is formed of many different layers of mud. The theory is that in the dinosaurs eras, this area was low lying and subject to regular flooding which buried any dinosaurs, preserving them in layers corresponding to the era. Sections where they have found jumbles of bones they think is where carnivorous dinosaurs feasted on the remains of those killed by the last flood, trampling their bones underfoot - gruesome!

We stopped at some hoodoo's on the way back, but we weren't out for long looking at them as it was so cold and windy. Probably the worst weather we've had in Canada. Still a lovely day though.

Home for left overs on both the pizza and the alcohol front from last night and despite all being very tired we were still up talking much later than planned!

The hoodoos. A bit weird aren't they. They came about as the flat rocks on top were part of a layer of harder rocks laid down on top of many layers of mud. As it's all worn away, bits of hard rock have remained, protecting the softer mud underneath

Richelle took some photos of us there. Note we've got duvet jackets on - it was quite cold!

Day 42 Monday Banff

We left Richelle to head out for the last leg of our trip, starting with two nights in Banff. I had fairly low expectations, I expected it to be like an overpriced french ski resort, but have been very pleasantly surprised. The scenery is beautiful, and yes, we are paying a lot for our accommodation but that's due to leaving it till the last night, but food, and drinks all seem very reasonable.

On our walk up Johnstone Canyon. A very, very scenic walk along a walkway improbably strung along the walls of the canyon

The drive was most odd, Calgary is in a huge, completely flat area. It was flat most of the way to Drumheller in the NE, and flat for 2/3 of the drive in the NW, and then you see the Rockies! Huge and amazing. We did actually drive past it to go to Johnstone canyon as a recommended beautiful and relatively easy hike. We arrived about lunchtime and finally managed to squeeze into a carparking space. It was busy, horribly busy. The path was all tarmac, and steadily up hill so as my ankle was feeling absolutely fine we got a move on, weaving in and out of hoards of people!

Down there is the queue of people on the bridge, waiting their turn to go into the cave to get their photo with the waterfall in the background. We didn't wait, we carried on past 

We got to the lower falls and there was actually a queue of people to get to the lookout and the cave photo opportunity. We carried on! There was a similar queue at the upper falls, so we carried on! You can see both sets from just a little bit further without having to queue for a photo!

The upper falls without the queue. I'm sure they had a better view, but is an hour's wait to see them worth it? We've now learnt that to see anything round here, early is your friend. If you can get to these places at 8:00am or earlier, you'll probably have them almost to yourself. We'll try and do that!

We were down in good time too, so headed back to Banff. The sat nav brought us in not knowing about a road closure so we ended up going down the main street which was fairly horrendous. Thank goodness we only have a normal car! We arrived at the BnB early for check in, but they had said that would be ok as we were unsure about the weather, they had actually had a snow flurry that morning! Now it was beautiful though.

Bow Falls in Banff 

We just wanted to dump the bags and park the car, so this we did before heading off to the Visitor information. It's a really walkable town so we went for a walk up to a view point on the river. Right at the end of the walk there was a set of car keys hanging on a twig. Can you imagine losing your hire car keys? Someone had. I spent a really long time on hold to both Avis and Budget as Google said the keys could belong to either one, but I got no replies or promised call back. By this time we'd been talking to a couple we met for about an hour, the police station and Visitor centre were shut so we left them where they were in the hope that whoever lost them would retrace their steps and find them.

The lost car keys at the Banff Falls viewpoint. Someone's not going to be happy!

We had been planning a beer and a curry, but had spent so long talking that decided just to go for the curry. Thank goodness we did, they were busy when we arrived and we had to wait for a table for two. By the time we left they were queuing out of the door and down the stairs from the first floor! It's not even the only Indian in town, there are at least three. It was great to see so many Indians inside though and we had a fabulous meal.

The stunning Fairmont Banff Springs hotel above Bow Falls. It's a 4 star hotel and cost about £1000 a night

Day 43 Tuesday Banff

We set an alarm, and got up really early to try and miss some of the crowds. We'd both been awake in the night though so it was a very rude awakening. We had both heard a group of what we assume we're coyote in the early hours too. They sounded really happy!

Our first stop was Lake Minnewanka as recommended by my ex colleague Andy, but least for its name! It was beautiful, and we certainly beat the crowds. Hurrah.

Stunning Lake Minnewanka at 8:00am, almost to ourselves. With huge mountains all around us it is fabulous scenery

We followed this up with the Cascades which was even prettier, Johnson Lake which we both probably preferred and Two Jack Lake by which time it was getting on for midday and we were competing with the crowds. Last stop was the viewpoint over the town from Mount Norquay. Everywhere really is very scenic.

This Bighorn Sheep stood proudly for his photo

We followed the signs to cave and basin national park, not really knowing what it was all about. It turns out Banff has some thermal springs that started the popularity of the place and set up the third national park in the whole of North America. You can no longer bathe in them, even if the smell of sulphur didn't put you off, as they are the main place of residence of a specific breed of snail! It was very interesting, though we probably wouldn't have gone last week. This week however is the start of all the National Parks in Canada being free till the end of the first week in September. Did we ever time it right!

Cascade ponds, the second lake on our loop round from Minnewanka. We did a 2km or so walk round this one. It's utterly amazing scenery, I couldn't stop taking photos, it's so photogenic 

Dropped the car off, popped into the visitor centre again to ask about Lake Louise. We had decided to not bother going. Shuttle bus tickets have all sold out, and therefore it will be really busy, so it almost seems better not to see it. Yesterday the ranger said that there had been space in the carpark till after 09.30, although it would cost $42 to park! So we thought perhaps we should get up early again and as we are driving that way anyway see how we get on. We went in today just to check where the carpark actually was only to discover that the carpark was full by 07.00 this morning! We still think we'll give it a go, but have a good fallback plan if we can't get in. 

We can't get into our accommodation till 17.00 so we need to have a plan. We have two nights in a cabin, with a shared kitchen, no electricity, no cell connectivity , no showers, just enough water for cooking and drinking..... Fingers crossed it's not as horrendous as it sounds!

The wildlife were out. This is a female Common Goldeneye duck swimming with her very cute chicks

Walked round the formal gardens, bought some supplies for the next couple of nights, had an early dinner and are now back to blog and have an early night.

This Mule deer was quietly eating the grass around the lake before the crowds came out

There were lots of ground squirrels out running about too as there were no crowds

And this little ground squirrel was enjoying a wild mushroom he'd picked 

Johnson Lake. Yes, it may look similar to the view around Cascade pools, but it's different and a little further round. I'm a sucker for mountains reflected in lakes and this was another idyllic location. We walked right round this one, about 3km or so, with fantastic scenery all the way

Halfway round another view comes in. I'm speechless!

A Common Loon floats on the water

Just playing around with reflections now

Round the other side for another view

Nearly back to the start for another view

Our fourth lake of the day, Two Jacks and I took this arty photo

We got talking to some people who'd used the rock to pose for photos that I took and they did the same for us

We drove up to the viewpoint on the way to the Torquay ski resort, up some tight hairpin bends to get this view of Banff down there with mountains all around

On the way up and down we were held up by a herd of Bighorn Sheep who insisted on blocking the road

Literally blocking the road. They take precedence over everything else, so we just have to wait until they decide to leave

In the Cave and Basin. Now a museum, it's a cave with a sulphurous hot lake at about 30C. You can't go in the water anymore as a rare snail that only exists here lives in the waters. It was originally found in 1883 by the McCardell brothers who were prospecting here and found the opening at the top where the light is coming in

They gingerly climbed down, as depicted in this mural. It was opened as a spa some years later with adverts to say it cures almost all illnesses.

But these rare, endangered snails live here so no bathing is allowed

Up some steps and this is a replica of the first log hotel built over the vent hole through which they climbed down into the underground pool

And right upon the top of the hill is where the sulphurous stream first appears from deep within the mountain

Captured a photo of this little chap on the way up to the spring. It's a Dark Eyed Junco. Also called a Snowbird as they seem to appear in many areas just as winter arrives

Another fabulous view from the sulphurous spring. Down there is the replica hotel and the green square is the opening to the sulphurous pool below and which the McCardells climbed down through

Last visit of the day to this beautiful mock Tudor house in Banff that I thought must have been built by some landed gentry. But no, it was built in 1935-6 by the Federal Government as the headquarters for the National Parks administration

The grounds are pretty amazing too

And all free to roam through

The view from the steps of the building straight down the main boulevard through Banff to Cascade Mountain beyond