Blogs from Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada, North America - page 5

Moriane Lake is one of the jewels of the Rockies. Like many high mountain lakes, it’s fed by glaciers resulting in stunningly beautiful colored waters ranging from a deep robin’s egg blue to emerald green. We arrived early and launched our sturdy canoe. (This required David getting his feet wet, as the only dock on the lake is privately owned and there are few easy places to launch.) However, once on the lake, we were rewarded as there were few other canoes and the water was perfectly calm. The mountains surrounding the lake bathe it in shadow for most of the morning, so we paddled up and down the lake twice waiting for it to shine. (It’s a very small lake.) After setting the canoe back on top of the truck (not an easy task), we ... read more

Today, as we were driving down the TransCanada Highway, a place I've been many times, David announced we were going, "down there" and pointed at the side of the road. I said, "There's no road down there. There's just water and trees." As we drove on, I kept looking for a road, but no, it was just more water and trees. I thought he was joking. Nope. There was a road "down there," just a wee bit off the TransCanada and almost completely obsured from view. Along the road are the Vermillion Lakes. These lakes are home to a variety of wildlife including, fish, moose, deer, and birds -- we saw ducks, some cranes and a bald eagle. And, of course, there's the mosquitos. The lakes are also provide a stunning viewpoint for Mt. Rundle, especially ... read more

Day 8 Slept in again this morning, just something about the cool mountain air... Headed back to the same road where we saw the wildlife the previous day but were shut out. Probably because it was noon and they were all in nice cool places by then. Early worm gets the bird! However, there was still spectacular scenery. Oh my goodness! The huge mountain peaks and glaciers were all over the place. I have never seen such a chain of mountains with 10,000 foot peaks and glaciers. We made it half way to Jasper on the Ice fields parkway. It was about fifty miles of this (and it was still going on...) Oh, and the lakes! Lake Louise is not the most spectacular lake in the park as we found out today. We hiked Bow Lake ... read more

Two Jack Lake Campsite #32 We moved into our long-term campsite, #32, the next day. It was a walk-in site which meant we had to bring food down from our truck to cook each night then trudge back up from the lakeside after each meal to clean and store those items in our hard-shelled vehicle, away from bears. The short walk was worth it. Even the rangers said we had the best campsite in the entire Banff National Park. The setting was private, separate and had expansive views of Two Jack Lake. I took dozens of photos over our stay of the beautiful light on the lake in its many changes from sunrise to sunset and later. Two Jack Lake and Two Jack Main (not open until high season) are off the Lake Minnewanka exit instead ... read more

Today was our transit day to Banff ready for Lake Louis. First we packed our bags and checked out from out motel. We had a great stay there and would recommend it to anyone traveling to Vancouver. We asked concierge for directions to the train station which they were happy to help with. Leaving our motel was the first cultural challenge of the day, there are four entries to the road and we were sent out one we hadn't expeienced yet, this one was a rotating glass door. We got confused as to why the revolving door appeared locked, we took a step back then realised we were walking out the left side or clockwise, upon trying to go the right hand side or anti-clockwise we managed to exit the building. We made the two block ... read more