August 7--Waterfowl CG, Jasper-Banff National Park to Redstreak CG Kootenay National Park, BC

---

Sunday, August 7th, 2011 Waterfowl Lakes Campground, Banff National Park, Alberta. 48 degrees out and cloudy at 9:50 Starting mileage is 14402.

As we left camp, we noticed that the people who had vacated the campsite directly opposite us had left a fire burning very brightly in their fire pit. We felt that the park host should be notified and so drove around the park to his campsite. After asking for his expertise, he looked at Valerie’s pictures and confirmed that the “pinto bear” was indeed a grizzly even though his hump was not very pronounced. And that the small flock we saw outside of Jasper were female Rocky Mountain sheep and not goats.

Continued on the Parkway and stopped to admire several glaciers. I especially liked the area around Bow Lake and the Wapta Icefield.

When we got to the community of Lake Louise we were suddenly in heavy traffic on a 4 lane parkway. Just as Valerie made the turn toward the lake, an avalanche of snow fell off of the mountain snowpack and tumbled down the mountainside. Kind of cool as it wasn’t big enough to do any damage—just an ice waterfall.

Lake Louise was crowded with RV’s, cars, and people and when we pulled up to park they had very little parking spots left. Valerie swears from the point we left Rosie II and walked around the path and viewed the Lake and then returned back to Rosie II, she didn’t hear a word of English spoken. I think she exaggerates, because I know I heard at least one couple out of the thousands speaking English! I think Lake Louise is famous because it was a stop on the Canadian railroad and they built a fancy hotel/chateau nearby. I do not think it is famous because it is the most beautiful spot in the park. Several lakes had glaciers on the mountains behind them and were just as lovely as Lake Louise. We quickly got out of that madhouse and turned across to the old road that parallels the new trans-Canada Highway #1. As we turned onto this road there was another “animal traffic jam”. This time, it was a frightened young black bear who thought to cross the road until he saw all the people and decided it wasn’t a good idea.

We were heading for the road that crosses into the Kootenay National Park that is almost exactly half way between Lake Louise and the town of Banff. On the way through thick woods and scenic vistas we saw a mother grizzly and her young cub on the side of the road also eating high bush cranberries.

After traveling on, we reached the junction of the Banff-Windermere Highway and drove into the Kootenay National Park. The first thing we saw was the remains and beginning recovery of a 1968 forest fire. Soon after that we traveled through an area ravaged by a 2003 forest fire. This windy, two-lane, scenic road that crosses the Continental Divide at Vermillion Pass is 94 km long and was completed in 1922. It was the first highway that crossed the Canadian Rockies.

A few miles from the end of the road and the town of Radium Hot Springs, we went through an extremely narrow gorge with the solid red rock canyon walls tight to the sides of the road. We spotted a female Rocky Mountain sheep on the hillside, but there was NO way we could stop. We passed by the Radium Hot Springs and pools and went into the resort town of the same name. We then turned up the hill and into Redstreak Campground. It had full RV hook-ups , just an electric hook-up for $32., or dry camping for $27.40 even though it was part of the Kootenay National Park. We chose to have electric hook-up so that we could run the microwave without running the generator, which can only be done during certain hours.

As we drove through the entrance and paid our fee to the Park Ranger, we told him that we wanted him to assign a campground where we could watch the Big Horned Rocky Mountain sheep parade through. Without a blink, he asked it having them come through at 6 o’clock would be convenient? We all laughed. You would be surprised at the dumb questions about the WILD animals that the Rangers in all the parks get. One bus driver, I think in Denali said, “This is not the zoo”. “The animals do not appear on your time table.”

---