Snow For Reals

I know most of the people reading this are melting, I’m sorry. I had to put on my winter hat and jacket to stand in the snow twice today. Drove up to Lake Louise and saw the amazing teal of the water. Chilly with snow showers but the view was worth it.

We also decided to drive part way up the icefields parkway, because tomorrow we will have the trailer. On the drive we saw four bears on the way up a grizzly a brown the way back a black and another grizzly. I think it was the same grizzly because he was about in the same area. We have pictures of both just have to compare them.

The amazing thing about the snow at the bow summit was the flakes were big.

As you can see from the yellow circles. I did enjoy it.

Tonight we went to The Station Restaurant for a good meal Roy had veal and I had a seafood pasta. The restaurant was in the original depot. There was even a fireplace with a log fire going.

Tomorrow headed up to Jasper for 3 nights. We have a cruise on a lake and a journey on the glacier. We are also without electric for those days so I see propane heat in the near future.

A Bear

This little guy was getting ready to cross the road right in front of us. I was able to pass the camera to Roy and he got this picture from his side.

This was are very first full sighting of a brown bear we on this trip. We weŕe on the Bow Valley Parkway which runs along Hwy 1.

Once we got to Lake Louise we missed the turn for the campground and got committed to heading up the mountain. Interesting curvy road with no turn arounds, we went up to the top which is a big parking lot was able to curve back around to head back down. I truly think Roy is taking me on all these curves to prepare me for the 18% grade into Bella Coola BC. I do not like winding mountain roads. I was impressed the trailer handled well.

I did go shopping the whole 6 stores. After that we drove up to the ski lift area for the view and hopes of animals. We then decided to drive to Lake Moraine https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moraine_Lake It had started to rain but I still got out to take pictures. Oh there was also real snow still on the side of the road.

The Cave

This hole in the earth is just that. I don’t know what I was expecting, maybe I was thinking it would be bigger. Roy had a good laugh at me, this explains the wierd looks I was getting from him when I was super excited over a cave. I did enjoy myself though. I think I got cave and cavern confused. Roy was also able to enjoy, the cave was up the hill and didn’t look like there was places to rest so he was going to sit in the car. I went up to the park ranger and asked if there was a golf cart that could take us up to the cave. She did us one better and let us drive up to one of the two handicap spaces at the top. Lessons learned is it never hurts to ask and if you really want to see something find a way. I am so happy Roy was able to see the cave too. http://www.pc.gc.ca/en/lhn-nhs/ab/caveandbasin

Now when we get back ask him about his love for a snail. Actually it’s a rare snail no bigger then an appleseed the Banff Springs Snail. These tiny guys live no where else in the world.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banff_Springs_snail We then went to the hot springs you can still swim in, on Sulper Mountain. Unfortunately I learned my lesson last year. This being our last day in Banff we decided to do another drive around Lake Minnewanka. We saw another set of Bighorn Sheep, I love those horns. Today we saw a few mountain goats with babies. No bears maybe tomorrow on our way to Lake Louise.

AMAZING Animals

Yesterday I shopped until I dropped today we drove around Banff on an animal hunt. We hit the jackpot, driving around Lake Minniwanka. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Minnewanka I saw my first bear. You can’t see him to well, we had someone who would not pull up so the cars behind could get a better view. He seemed to be a younger bear, because he wasn’t super big and we didn’t see mama. He was well hid in the grass and we were about 20 feet from him. We then continued around the lake and pass the damn to see some baby Bighorn sheep. We also saw a female elk just munching away.

Then we decided to head up the road to the Norquay ski resort via Norquay road. We missed the exit and had to go up to the next exit where we got our dose of Sunshine . What’s interesting about this exit is the rock climbing that was going on. Once we get turned around we headed up the hill. Here we saw two large Bighorn sheep licking the salt from rock walls. On the way back down we stopped about 5 feet away to watch. I got rewarded with this – .

We decided to drive around town for a little bit still trying to avoid the marathon that was going on. So on our way home we took another drive around the lake. This time we had our own escort.

Tomorrow we are going out to the cave.

SHOPPING!

Today we arrived in Banff, Canada’s first national park (150 years old). On the drive over numerous road pull offs were closed due to bear activity. That is exactly what I came to see. We did pull in one that was called painted pots, Roy said go ahead walk to them I’ll wait. Well decided against it when the shortest trail was 6.5km one way. I decided against that hike. I did run into a nice old couple from Cranbrook BC, he was looking at doing the hike, until he realized how far it was. I said I would hike it if he went with me. I’m so glad he didn’t take me upon it.

We saw a deer, and a grey wolf. He was a very well fed and healthy looking guy. Roy or I have never seen one in the wild. 93 and 1, both major hwys have fencing all along so the animals can’t cross the highway. On 1 they have large animal overpasses for the animals don’t cross the highway. So not much to see on the major highways.

Tomorrow we are going to drive around and find some landscapes and animals, we are avoiding the marathon. Today we set up and then headed to town. The amount of people were insane. Reminded me of NYC with all the people walking. Some of the stores were so crowded I avoided them. The campsite we are at today has 188 sites UNREAL. A fellow a-framer who is parked in a second rv park has over 600 spaces CRAZY.

Oh Canada!

June 16th we entered Canada gets us closer to Alaska. Yesterday I stayed back at the RV Park to do laundry and clean the trailer while Roy went grocery shopping. I learned a good lesson you do laundry when it’s cheap. $1.25 to wash a quarter for 10 minutes to dry.

The camp we stayed at was part permament residents and part RV, large laundry and free showers which is always a plus. Got up this morning hooked up in sprinkles then went to wash the RV.

We crossed the border at Roosville and could not find Kanga or Pooh, but did encounter a very nice Canadian Customs Official. Up to the border we had some rain and saw a few deer. I also saw the start of the Columbia river, it is called Columbia Lake and feeds the Columbia river which dumps into the Pacific Ocean at Astoria Oregon. So this trip I will see the start and finish of a river. Along this road Roy caught movement out of the side of his eye and slowed down, deer he said. The small 6 point deer with his fuzz on his antlers ran right in front of the car. After he crossed he stopped and I swear nodded his head as if to say thank you, then he was gone. I did get a picture.

Tonight we are in Dry Gulch Provincial park, we didn’t drop the trailer because Roy pulled in a back in space. In the morning though we need to drop the sway bars. Tomorrow we are off to Banff for 3 nights with electric.

Pictures

Time flies here are a few pictures from the first two weeks.

Roy in Reno Lassen National Park

Burney Falls

Payette River the face Snake River

White Bird Idaho

Glacier National Park

Road Closed

every place Roy takes me to we can’t get through because of SNOW! Today was no different, Glacier National Park Road to the Sun. https://www.nps.gov/glac/index.htm

We drove to the Avalanche Campground, I was amazed at the amount of people in the park. We got away from the crowds by going down a dirt road at the head of McDonald Lake. Here’s a picture of some rapids from the one lane bridge on that road.

This is the view of the lake from the dirt road.

The water falls were full and it was a nice cool day. On tne way home I had to stop at a few gift stores, SHOPPING! I got a few t-shirts, stopped at a roadside stand bought some cherry jelly. I saw a wolf and bear rug with my own eyes. I now know they do exist.

Tomorrow is a cleaning day and Roy gets a Wallyworld day, then onto Canada.

Not a Duck

although I feel like one. We got to the rv park after following the gps through town, no dirt roads this time. The skies opened up at least it wasn’t snow YET! So I was impressed that all I had to do was unlock the door and step inside. The outside was a little more intense with sewer, water, and unhooking. Lesson learned there are draw backs to both, when it’s raining you will get wet.

http://www.realty-northwest.com/exploringmontana/thompson-pass.htm
The drive over was amazing, the link above tells more about the drive. The Spragpole restaurant in Murray Idaho was closed so no lunch there. We did see a lot of dredge trailings next to the road and it looks like they are still doing some mining. The top of the pass is 6814 with lots of hiking trails.

Today we are headed to Glacier National Park we can drive 15.5 miles in from the west, then we might drive around the park and do the 12 miles on the other side.