Winter is coming

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R: So, we cheated a little. The bus to Banff National Park worked out to be at least 14 hours on a Greyhound bus, and cost only £20 less than a flight to Calgary, which is a 1 hour drive from Banff, our home for 5 days. So we missed out Revelstoke and headed straight for Banff. And we are glad we did.



We got soaked on the way to Vancouver airport. Really soaked. And the plane felt like it might fall out of the sky as it climbed to escape the cloud. But in Calgary on the other side of the Rocky Mountains, it was clear skies and 3c. The drive up to Banff is on a big highway and you get quite a view on the last few KMs. We ended up staying in a wooden style mountain hotel. It's a bit kitsch, but quite good fun. Last night we went to a Mexican place with a sombrero on rope which descended onto unwitting customers every time the male waiter got a bit bored. But good food and beer - made with Maple syrup!



(I don't think Cate mentioned in her post that we went to the Granville Island brewing company and did a bit of beer tasting in Vancouver and had a maple cream beer there - better than it sounds!)



Today it snowed. We have a hire car and tried to make it to Lake Louise or the Icefields Parkway, which is a long road between Jasper and Banff with stunning scenery and frozen lakes. We got to the car park for Lake Louise and had to turn around as it was really coming down and we weren't convinced that we could move the car again if we stopped. We headed back down and the visitor centre recommended cross country skiing to get there instead. Which I was up for, but apparently it's harder than it looks. The plough should be up there by now so going to try again tomorrow.



Instead we headed for some lower level trails and ended up doing a circular trail around Lake Johnson. The snow cleared we got great views of Mount Rundle and the Cascades. On the way back down we found a golf course which was populated by a herd of elk. Two of them were rutting close to the edge of the course - I can only presume they were deciding whet here a ball was in the rough or on the fairway.



Anyway, better go. There's a game show of Monopoly on the TV...

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Photos

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Rutting Elk

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Snowy River

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Better view than the Greyhound

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Views from Lake Johnson

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The Cascades from Lake Johnson

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Elk in the Bunker

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Snowbound...