Last full day in Canada

Last day of adventures with Caravan in Canada

The Great Canadian Caravan (Part 7)

The bags were set outside at 7am and the bus departed at 8 sharp. We head south towards the Columbian Icefield and a ride on the Athabasca Glacier.

At the Glacier HQ, we saw the only Mountain Goat of the entire trip.

We departed our bus and boarded a park bus for the ride to the glacier buses.

 off - on - off - on

Then we went DOWN a steep hill and out onto the glacier.

We took lots of pictures on the glacier, some folks actually filled their water bottles with some 10,000 year old glacier melt water... I was a bit bit concerned about what germs might be lurking in water that old. Remember what we did to the Native Americans with our European germs.  

Then we returned to the park bus which took us back to our bus and we rode back to Calgary.

The last two pictures of the trip.

As usual all 633 pictures and videos can be found in my Picasaweb folder.

The End (next update after the Moderator Camp in Sydney)

I am NOT a Grizzly

The Great Canadian Caravan (Part 6)

The cabins at Jasper House were pretty cool. Situated on the Athabasca river, great place to walk, watch stars, and just plain kick back.

View of the Athabasca River.

A few miles up river we visited the Athabasca Falls.

These falls are not known for their height, but for the amount of water flowing over them,

creating the gorge below.

Sad but true, the day after we visited, a man fell into the water just above the falls.

Next stop Maligne Canyon (52.92, -118.00) WOW!

And Maligne Lake

Then we took some time to visit downtown Jasper and ate some gourmet Chicken Nuggets and then Elaine and I walked back to the lodge (about 3 miles) along the path below.

The interesting part of the walk happened when a bicycler came shooting around a bend and came to a screeching stop when he saw me. I was dressed all in brown and was hunched over taking a photo. He scared us. We scared him too, because he thought I was a Grizzly Bear. 

Tomorrow the Athabasca Glacier

As usual all 633 pictures and videos can be found in my Picasaweb folder.

To be continued in part 7

Wet, White, Warning, and WOW

The Great Canadian Caravan (Part 5)

Day 5 starts early (6:30 bags outside the door, 7:30 on the bus)

A grey sky and some new fallen snow on the mountains.

 After leaving Banff, the sun comes out and the views are awesome.

Then we find out about the next stop... Lake Moraine and the Valley of the Ten Peaks

With a few warnings:

1. Watch out for the Bears

2. It's a bit of a climb

(the bear warning sign is in the center below)

However, bears and climb aside, it was well worth the hazards

Then we went on to Lake Louise and the Fairmont Chateau

Lunch was sitting on benches at the edge of the lake, while looking at the fantastic views, and protecting our food from the Clark's Nutcrackers

While eating we saw and heard a small avalanche at the far end of the lake

More lakes, some ice fields and glaciers on the way to Jasper.

Wolf Lake

and the Rooster!

Next stop Jasper for 2 nights in some great cabins on the Athabasca River

All 633 pictures and videos can be found in my Picasaweb folder.

To be continued in part 6

Red Poppies, the River, and the Rain

The Great Canadian Caravan (Part 4)

Day 4 starts with a great breakfast in our hotel, the Mount Royal. Then we head off to a drive around Banff just to get the layout and learn a bit of it's history.

One stop was exciting for all...

 Banff National Park Administration Building

and

The Cascades of Time Garden

Red Poppies

Interesting Wood

Then is was off to the Bow River

Where I was reminded of a scene from the deck of the TITANIC

Rapids, Rocks, and Falling Trees

Luckily we returned safely to shore an hour later. Then we were free for the rest of the day to enjoy Banff and the rain that started to fall a short time later. We did enjoy ourselves by visiting a First Nations trading post and a natural history museum, and window shopping down the main street.

All 633 pictures and videos can be found in my Picasaweb folder.

To be continued in part 5

Cowboys and Sheep

The Great Canadian Caravan (Part 3)

  3rd day starts early again, bags outside our door at 7am, bus departs at 8. We drive north from Waterton through the beautiful Kananaskis Valley.

  We are heading for the Bar U Ranch for a tour and lunch.

After lunch we start into the Rockies again and get our first sight of Mountain Sheep.

Not easy to see actually!

A bit later we found some that were easier to see.

As we approached Banff, the terrain took on a quite different look.

Our first stop is the Banff Gondola ride to the top of Sulphur Mountain.

The gondola in Banff rises about 2,300 feet

for a spectacular view!

 Next stop our hotel in Banff.

All 633 pictures and videos can be found in my Picasaweb folder.

To be continued in part 4

Bison and Jammers and Bears... OH My!

The Great Canadian Caravan (Part 2)

First a photo that says it best. I took this midway thru the 9 day adventure.

 Fresh snow over night highlights the mountain. 

We left Calgary at 8am on the 2nd of September, and headed south across the Alberta cowboy country of Waterton Lakes National Park.

 The first stop was at Fort Macleod for lunch.

Very interesting museum inside and a great talk about the origins of the Mounties in the region.

From there the Rockies started their dramatic rise out of the rolling prairies and we reached the shores of Waterton Lake, where we would spend the next 2 nights. The wind was a bit brisk, rolling off of the lake.

High above the lake was the Prince of Wales hotel, he wasn't there, so we didn't stay either.

We walked thru the hotel and then went into town, checked into our hotel and took a walk around the small, but beautiful town of Waterton. Halfway around town we stopped and took pictures of a great waterfall. This was just one of the many cool sights.

Mornings start early on this trip... 8am we are back on the bus and heading south to the US. Yes, our Canadian Rockies tour spends a day in the US. We are going to Glacier National Park in Montana.

We ride up the 'Going-to-the-Sun' road into the heart of Glacier National Park in these restored 1930's open topped 'Red Jammers'. 

Too many points of interest along the way to tell you about all of them, but one place deserves note. The rocks under this old tree are dated at 1.6 billion years old!

After the Jammer trip we lunch at St. Mary's Lodge and I buy the Bison Hat. It was one of the trip's memorable events. Oh sure the Grizzly Bears a bit later were interesting as well.

And the pit stop at Manny Glaciers Lodge was also nice.

 After this we return to Canada and to our hotel in Waterton.

All 633 pictures and videos can be found in my Picasaweb folder.

To be continued in part 3

Across the Border (and back and forth)

August 31st was the beginning of a 10 day adventure in the Canadian Rockies.

PART 1

Last year at the same time, Elaine's brother and his wife did the same trip and they raved about this so much, that Elaine and her sister decided to take the trip this year.  We started a day early so we had time to see Calgary.  The photos I took are located here and most have captions and some links.

The following day, a great time was had by all with a few exceptions. Our hotel was near the airport on the north side of town. We took public transportation to the downtown area. Unfortunately there was construction on the C-Train #202 route and after a couple of stops we were told to exit and take a bus a few miles and then re-board another C-Train. The normal time would have been 20 minutes, but this took us about an hour. 

The second exception wasn't really a problem... there was a bit of a thunderstorm with some hail but we missed it entirely. Stopping in a downtown mall for about an hour, kept us high and dry.

Before the storm we walked around downtown and made our way to the Calgary Tower. 2 items drew us to this impressive monolith. First the observation deck with its 360 degree view and second to the revolving restaurant, the Sky 360.

Be sure to check out all the photos, captions, and links in my PicasaWeb album about the pre-day.

To be continued in part 2