teamnut
peten Joined: September 4th 2009
Logged in: September 19th 2009
Logged in: September 19th 2009
Travel Blog Posts
We didn't get back from Lake Louise the night before too late so we stayed in and watched TV, were up quite early this morning and went for a walk around Canmore. When we got back to the pad we couldn't get in, the doors have those swipe cards for entry and we'd been having problems all week. The "friendly" (not) French Canadian girl on reception struggled to help us, she eventually called out the maintenance guy. Whilst the guy fixed the door we packed our stuff and got ready to go, we have a little lock up in the place so we are able to leave some of our things so we sorted them out too. By now it was nearly 11am, we had planned to go into Banff for breakfast at Melissa's, a place ... read more
Takkakaw Falls
Today we left Lake Louise and headed west on highway 1 out of Alberta and into British Columbia towards a town called Field. Our main destination was to be Takakkaw Falls, we branched off the main highway and headed up Yoho Valley road towards the waterfall. Takakkaw, a Cree Indian word meaning "magnificant", is a name that couldn't suit this incredible waterfall any better. The melt from the nearby Daly Glacier plummets 254m down the valley wall, forming one of the best waterfalls of North America. We had visited Canada many times but not been able to visit this spot as the road up to the viewpoint is closed for a good part of the year, there are quite a few switchbacks so negotiating this road in the winter snow would be treacherous to say the ... read more
I
If you've ever wondered what the rooms are like or what it costs to stay in a suite (with Lake view) at the Fairmont Lake Louise, well it's not cheap but the rooms are great if not a little old fashioned. There are some suites that go for $000's of dollars a night but we managed to bag ours for $384 by booking on the web well in advance and taking advantage of a special offer too. Affording the room is one thing but don't be caught out by $35 to park or $60 for breakfast, drinks in the bar are not that cheap either. Don't need to do it everyday .... won't be doing everyday !... read more
View of Lake Louise
This is a walk that starts from the shores of Lake Louise, the trail ascends to the "Plain of Six Glaciers Teahouse" Apparently you can see six glaciers from the top, not something you can do everyday, certainly not where we live anyway. Starting nice and easy with a stretch along the shore of the lake, the trail eventually starts to climb and climb but with the promise of the teahouse as our goal. The trail is about 5.5 km long, it reaches just under 7000ft and took us around 1.5 hrs to reach the teahouse. With all the views behind us, we are walking through forest for a good part of the way until we break free from the trees and appear above them. Ahead we get a great view of one of the glaciers, ... read more
Moraine Lake
Today we set off for Lake Louise, but our first stop would be Moraine Lake, this is a glacially fed lake in Banff National Park, 14 kilometres outside the Village of Lake Louise. We'd visited the lake before, maybe 10 years or more ago, but we knew it would be worth another look. This lake is a brilliant blue / green colour that can only really be appreicted by a visit. The colour is caused by "rock flour" Rock flour, or glacial flour, consists of clay-sized particles of rock, generated by glacial erosion or by artificial grinding to a similar size. Because the material is very small, it becomes suspended in river water making the water appear colourful but cloudy. There is an easy lake side walk, it's only about 1.5 km, we did this and ... read more
Bankhead Locomotive.
Today we visited a deserted coal mining town near Banff called Bankhead. The town was born supply coal for the locomotives of the Canadian Pacific Railway and at one point had over 1500 residents, that's hard to believe when you see it today. Apparently Bankhead was geographically split between the massive mine site and the residential area, it included a hotel, school facilities, pool hall, a restaurant, stores, several saloons, about 100 residential homes, a boarding house for single men and a church. After the closure of the mine many of the buidlings were removed or demolished but the remnants of quite a few still remain. One noticable thing is the presence of rhubarb, its' everywhere, it was planted by the workers and still thrives there, it even appears to grow staright out of the coal. ... read more
Sundance Canyon Trail
We starting our cycle ride at the Cave and Basin (hot spring) in Banff, which incidentaly is where the Canadian National Parks were founded by a couple of railway workers. The trail to Sundance Canyon is an 8.6km round trip. This paved route seems to be very popular with all types of people, horse riders, cyclists, walkers and even skateboarders. This is a fairly flat trail and runs along side a the Bow river for a little while, the river was paticularly blue today. After about 2 km the trail moves away from the river and heads into the forest. At just over the 3km point bikes are no longer allowed so we had to resort to foot. The pathe then takes us upwards into the canyon over a series of bridges.... read more
Squirel
We did a little geocaching late this afternoon. Geocaching is an outdoor activity in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches" or "caches") anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container (usually a tupperware or ammo box) containing a logbook. Canmore and it's surrounding areas has more than its fair share of caches to keep us occupied. Actually we done quite a few of them here on previous visits. We did six caches today, they were all east of Canmore and towards the town of Exshaw about 14km away. One cache that was quite a challenge took us up into Grotto canyon, a place we'd not been to before. In the winter the river that runs through the ... read more
Rundle
The Vermilion Lakes are a series of three picturesque lakes located immediately west of Banff. The three lakes are formed in the Bow River valley, in the Banff National Park, at the foot of Mount Norquay. They are located between the Trans-Canada Highway and the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks but quite near to the town of Banff. Two things that you need to know about Vermilion Lakes is that you can't fail to take a good photo of the view (late afternoon is a great time for a shot) and that you are almost guaranteed to see wildlife here. There is a road that runs along side the lake for a few Km, we drove along the road to the turning area and then drove back slowly stopping at various points. ... read more
The Trail
Mointain biking - Starting at the Nordic Centre again, i like it there ! There is a trail that runs from Canmore to Banff, funnily enough it is called the Banff trail, at least for part of it anyway. I had heard that it is more difficult than the Goats Creek trail, the one i did the other day and would take me a little longer. The beginning of the trail runs the length of the Nordic centre area and then becomes the Rundle trail, with the Rundle mountain on the left side all the way. After you leave the Nordic area the trail is basically a narrow track through the trees, the trail drops down towards the Bow river and then undualtes along side it all the way. The trail was fairly dry but very ... read more
