Back home

Arrived back in UK on Monday after good uneventful flight. After 3 weeks of warm and agreeable Canadian customer service and properly integrated multiculturalism we returned to unpleasant border staff, a taxi driver that thought we should walk across terminals to him rather than he come to us, and an hour long traffic jam on an overcrowded motorway. Brexiteers think their little world needs protecting from the foreigners and the rest of the world sniggers at our stupidity!

Still slightly suffering from jet lag at the moment, but would like to sign off this blog with our many thanks to Pauline and Bernie for their generous and kind hospitality during our stay with them and throughout the trip. I enjoyed listening to and discussing politics with Bernie. We really enjoyed their company and meeting the rest of the family. We hope to return the favour as soon as possible.

We had a great trip and were treated to some wonderful outings and extraordinarily beautifully views.

Hope that those who followed the blog enjoyed it and I will probably post some more pictures when I recover from the jet lag, as I found from the last blog that it's a good way of reliving the trip during the cold winter days.

Delta Lodge Kananaskis

Arrived at our last stop before the start of our journey home tomorrow.

Peyto Lake

Visited Peyto lake in the sleet on our penultimate day. The head of the lake is shaped like a wolf / dog.

Athabasca Falls

Finally armed with bear spray for the awkward grizzly

The Astoria trail on route to Mount Edith Cavell

Maligne canyon

Lake Maligne near Jasper

Spirit Island on Lake Maligne

Boat trip out to Spirit Island. Fantastic scenery.

Bull Elks

September is mating season for elks so lots of signs and some personal accounts of bulls being aggressive and chasing cars / people. This makes some of the trails a bit tricky so we are having to pick our walks carefully. However the bull pictured previously just posed for the camera and turned around to show off his best profile!

... and his mate

Bull Elk at Lake Beauvert

Alpine Village

Relaxing outside the lodge

Athabasca river

Athabasca river

Beautiful location of the Alpine Village lodges in Jasper overlooking the Athabasca river.

Skywalk

Cath and Pauline 'enjoy' the skywalk experience!

Glacier Skywalk

This glass bottom observation platform suspends you over the serene Sunwapta valley below.

Columbia Icefield

Walking on the Athabasca glacier, part of the Columbia Icefield. The glacier is shrinking at an alarming rate!

Lake Louise to Jasper

Tomorrow (Monday) we depart for Jasper along the Icefield Parkway, where we hope to stop to see a glacier on route - and hopefully a bear! Keep seeing warnings and closures but not the real thing.

Lake Moraine

Drove on to Lake Moraine on Sunday afternoon for our second(short) hike. This is a view of the lake having scrambled up to the top of a view point. The top of the lake is supposed to resemble a wolf head, but I think you can only see it from above.

Views of Lake Louise from Little Beehive trail

Little beehive

Decided to trek an extra 1km (additional 105m elevation above Lake Agnes) to the top of Little Beehive and rewarded with great views of Lake Louise and the Château.

Big Beehive

Side view from higher up is just as impressive!

The big beehive viewed from mirror lake

The big beehive is a mountainous rock rising above mirror lake. Elevation 2895m.

Mirror Lake

Stopped off at mirror lake on the way to the top.

Lake Agnes

Cath celebrates reaching the top. Not bad for a granny! Only a hundred more peaks to go.

Lake Agnes tea house

Reached it! Time for a sit down, a cup of tea and a sandwich. Lake Agnes is located 4 km from Chateau Lake Louise, where we started, at an altitude of 2098 metres (6885 feet). The tea house sits on the shore of lake Agnes and was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1908. Now privately owned, the was restored in 1981.

Route to Lake Agnes tea house

On track to the tea house. There is no vehicular access so the staff take up the daily consumables on their backpacks. Larger more durable items are transported by helicopter.

Lake Louise

1st sight of Lake Louise this morning. We made an early start to trek up from here to Lake Agnes tea house.

Lake Louise

Tidbits about Lake Louise:
- The temperature of the Lake during the year averages from one degree Celsius to five degrees Celsius.
- The altitude of the Lake is 1731 metres (5680 feet) above sea level.
- The dimensions of the Lake are 2.4km long by 1.2km wide and 83 m deep.
- The Victoria glacier is 9.6 km from the Chateau Lake Louise.
- The upper glacier is 60 to 90 metres deep and the lower glacier is 122 to 152m deep.

Castle Mountain

Worth a second look. Stunning!

Castle Mountain

Beautiful Castle mountain as seen from the Parkway just before sunset.

Bow Valley Parkway

Driving to Lake Louise along the picturesque Bow Valley Parkway. Didn't spot any wildlife but did see some spectacular views.

The Mather family cabin in the centre of Banff!

Sulphur pool - Cave and Basin

Original source of the spring. It contains hundreds of Banff snails, which lives no where else in the world but in the warm springs on Sulphur Mountain.

Bow River

Walking along the Bow river towards the cave and basin hotsprings.

Cave and Basin, Banff

Outside the entrance to the Cave and Basin and planning our next walk!!

Cave and Basin

Last day in Banff before we move on to Lake Louise and so we visit the cave and basin where the hot water Springs were discovered. Various individuals tried to establish  a claim so the Canadian Government of the time created the first national park in the Rockies. 

Sunshine village nr Banff

Short drive out to Sunshine Village, a local ski resort. Looking at options for which descent is the most exciting/ foolhardy!

Vermilion Lakes

View of Mount Rundle from the Vermilion Lakes. One of the most painted and photographed views.

Banff centre

This is one of the main shopping Streets in Banff with incredible views of the mountains at each end.

The Hoodoos

The Hoodoos

What the heck is a hoodoo? Over Thousands of years the snow melt and wind have scoured the glacial material that makes up the ridge we were standing on creating deep and narrow gullies. These hoodoos were once partially protected from erosion by caps of harder rock material which acted like umbrellas for the pillars.

Stewart canyon

Two Jacks Lake / Whyte Museum

A quick stop off at Two Jacks Lake before lunch followed by a visit to the Whyte Museum on Bear Street Banff. An interesting history of the mountain area and it's trailblazers - the latest ones are pictured below!

Lake Minnewanka and Two Jacks Lake

Thursday 22nd September: Visited Lake Minnewanka (which means spirit Lake)and walked part way around the lakeside to Stewart's canyon. We weren't able to continue further as we lacked bear spray and didn't fancy the $25,000 fine. One of the camp sites nearby was closed as a bear had attacked one of the tents. The lake is beautifully still, clear and turquoise in colour.

Waterfalls, Bow river, Banff

Wild animal warnings

Keeping an eye out on our travels for the dangerous wildlife. A couple of walking trails close by are closed due to bears!

Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel

Abseiling window cleaners at the Banff Springs Hotel take time out to give us a wave.

Sulphur Mountain Cosmic Ray Station

Banff/Sulphur Mountain

View of Banff and Lake Minnewanka from Sulphur Mountain.

Sanson Peak /Banff Gondola Station

View from Sanson Peak back towards the Gondola station.

Sulphur Mountain Banff

A family on tour selfie on top of Sulphur mountain (2451m). We took the Banff Gondola to the top rather than take, what is classified as, the moderate!! 5.5km trail to the top. We did walk the 0.6km boardwalk along the top of the mountain to the 1903 weather observatory, where our selfie was taken. The remnants of the Sulphur Mountain Cosmic Ray Station National Historic site is adjacent.

Rideau Canal Ottawa

Chateau Laurier hotel from the Rideau canal