Blogs from Bow Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada, North America

The warm temperatures of this summer soaked into us as we walked up the sun-dappled trail. Tree roots made a crazy staircase through the forest undergrowth of red, yellow and purple wild flowers. Water is abundant enough that we crossed six rivulets, with rough stepping stones thoughtfully placed by others. Our already slow group divided into "bit faster" and "bit slower", and since the scenes were beautiful, I stayed with the latter. As we moved into a more meandering and undulating section, we could see over the dark green tree canopy to the deep turquoise of Bow Lake, overseen by the hanging grey ice of Crowfoot Glacier. Just at the path grew steeper and stonier, our backward glances rewarded us with the shining ribbon of the Bow River cutting through the faraway valley. Turning my attention ... read more

A long and noisy night with only the sound of the train whistles every half hour echoing around the mountains making a difference. Woke up to find that the helecopter flight for today was cancelled. The visibility is simply too bad with the smoke from the forest fires further north. Spent a morning exploring and ended up at the railway station waiting for a train to come through. Two turned up at the same time, both over a mile long. This afternoon, went to sulphur mountain and took the cable car up. Met a lovely couple from northern ireland. Both Pam and this lady were very scared indeed. At the top, the weather cleared and we could see the rockies in all their splender. Loads of Chipmunks up there. Forgot to say that real mounties are ... read more

Hello everyone. We are at the Banff Springs Fairmont. Absolutely amazing. Just got back from a nice relaxing outdoor pool. -7 degrees and sunny. Hank and I are still loving this. 22 more days of the relay. Don't know how we will feel when it is done. I am not going to write much today, but posting lots of pics. Love and miss you all, cheers, love Weedie and Jeepa.... read more

30th June We did the tourist thing and went out and bought lots of souvenirs for everyone so be prepared for some excellent tat. Some more shopping at an Indian trading post where we could have spent the kids inheritance followed by some sightseeing at the Bow River which had a largish waterfall and the water was freezing. After that we went up to the Banff Springs Hotel(rather posh) and pretended like we were royalty by walking through it and sitting on the patio(a real one) the view was awesome. We then went to the hot springs and now we are cured of all ailments and are in perfect health it also turned Brendans blue hair a shade of green. At night we went across the road to the Youth Hostel for tea which served fantastic ... read more

July 22nd. Left Jasper NP and continued south through Banff NP on our way back to Kimberley. The weather was cloudy and wet initially then brightened to be a glorious day. Stopped at all (or most) of the scenic look-outs and spent time at Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. Dinner at Radium Hot Springs then on to Kimberley to Anne and Michael's house. We will stay here sightseeing until Val and Mike leave for the UK. Pam and George... read more