Wildlife Encounters on the Bow Valley Parkway

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July 20th 2012

Published: October 9th 2012

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Backpackermatt

A river runs through it

The beautiful Bow River valley

After hiking just about every yard of every trail in the vicinity of Lake Louise during my first three days in the Rocky Mountains, it was time to hop on my bicycle and venture down the Bow Valley Parkway (the older, slower, and far more peaceful alternative to the Trans-Canada Highway) to Banff, 55kms away to the south-east.

Paralleling the Trans-Canada Highway, but on the opposite side of the valley, the Bow Valley Parkway is the perfect road for cyclists - there is far less traffic, the speed limit is lower, there are numerous viewpoints and interpretive displays along the way, and the resident wildlife is free to roam throughout the area. In fact, for four months every year during the springtime, the eastern half of the road is voluntarily closed to motorists from dusk to dawn to allow wildlife such as bears and wolves the freedom to move about without being restricted by human activity.

So it was with eyes peeled that I set out from Lake Louise (friday the 13th of July), hoping to catch sight of some of the Bow Valley's more wild and elusive inhabitants - though as I was fast discovering any encounters with

The road ahead

Enjoying the lack of traffic on the Bow Valley Parkway

wildlife are merely the icing on the cake, as the natural scenery throughout the Rocky Mountains is more than enough to justify any visit. And within about five kilometres I was already captivated by the view of the Bow River winding it's way through the valley, with it's milky turquoise colour reminding me of the Aare River in Switzerland.

After stopping at the crossroads of Castle Mountain junction halfway along the Parkway for lunch, and then passing the entrance to Johnston Canyon - which I would visit on my return journey back up the valley the following week - I had just finished cycling along a rare dead-straight stretch of road when a car pulled over in front of me and the driver said to me 'hey, did you notice that wolf following along behind you, checking you out?!?' Dammit! Far from being worried, I was disappointed at having missed out on seeing one of the most elusive of Rocky Mountain inhabitants; and this would only be exacerbated about fifteen minutes later when I stopped at another viewpoint overlooking the Bow River and a woman asked me 'did you see that black bear beside the road a few hundred

Serrated peaks; cerulean blue

View from the shores of Lake Minnewanka

metres back?' Again I had missed out on what would have been a memorable wildlife encounter! I was beginning to realize it just wasn't my day - still, at least the scenery was magnificent.

A short ride later and I had arrived in the town of Banff, where I would be spending the next four nights at the HI hostel, located inconveniently at the base of Tunnel Mountain a couple of kilometres outside of (and uphill from) the town centre - though thankfully all hostel guests receive a free public transport pass for the duration of their stay, and one of the two 'Roam' bus lines happens to pass right by the hostel on it's way into town.

The next day I took my bicycle for a quick ride around Banff, passing the castle-like Fairmont Banff Springs hotel towering above the Bow River not far from Bow River Falls; before heading around the back of Tunnel Mountain (where a herd of six elk - all presumably either female or juvenile as they were without antlers - were grazing beside the road) and out to the nearby Lake Minnewanka. Although the weather was less than favourable for the first

Who's watching who?

White-tailed Deer beside the road, near Johnson Lake

time since I had been in the Rockies, it was still a pretty impressive sight to see the serrated peaks of the surrounding mountains (Inglismaldie, Girouard and Peechee) soaring high above the mirror-still expanse of water, which was enlarged with the building of a dam in 1941.

Following the shoreline of the lake for a short distance from the dam - and passing three spritely mountain goats along the way - I soon came to the entrance to Stewart Canyon, where a trail leads up alongside the steep-sided gorge, through which the Stewart River flows from the slopes of Cascade Mountain down into Lake Minnewanka. After returning to the lakeshore I hopped back on my bicycle to complete a circuit that took me past Two Jack Lake and down to Johnson Lake - where I followed the flat trail that circumnavigates the small lake on foot - before catching sight of a solitary white-tailed deer just a few hundred metres down the road on my way back to Banff, who stood dead still returning my gaze for a good minute or more before inevitably springing away the second a car came around the corner.

After returning to the

Banff and surrounds

View from the top of Tunnel Mountain

hostel that afternoon I was soon on my way into the town centre to meet up with a great friend of mine (and native of Alberta) named Steve - along with his fiance Erin - whom I had met and worked with at Backpackers By The Bay in Airlie Beach in Australia more than five years ago, and whom I had been looking forward to catching up with for a beer in Canada ever since. And what better place to meet up for a beer or six than a brewery?!? The rest of the afternoon and most of the evening was spent swapping stories and slowly but surely making our way through the Banff Avenue Brewing Company's draft beer list, before being treated to the rather amusing experience of Steve trying to navigate our way back to my hostel in direct competition with the car's satellite navigation device!

Unfortunately sunday was a write-off with the clouds hanging low and light rain falling for most of the day, and monday was headed the same way until finally the clouds cleared sometime after lunch, allowing me to make the short climb up to the top of nearby Tunnel Mountain to check

Castellated cliffs

The appropriately-named Castle Mountain

out the impressive view of Banff town with the lower stretches of the Bow Valley in the background; before hopping on my bicycle once again to head across the Bow River and then up-and-back alongside the Spray River, revelling in the sight of Banff and it's surrounding mountains finally being bathed in sunshine for the first time sine I had arrived as I made my way back into town late in the afternoon.

Having by now spent four nights in Banff, it was time to hop on the bicycle and head back up the Bow Valley Parkway on tuesday; though this time I would stop off halfway to spend a couple of days at the Castle Mountain 'wilderness hostel'. Far from being the rustic lodging that I had been expecting, however, the hostel had both electricity and hot showers - in fact the only modern convenience that it lacked was internet access; which for a hostel in such a beautiful setting I could gladly do without! Of course, there was the slight problem of a mosquito plague both inside and outside the building when I arrived - though by the time I left two days later the manager and

Wondering what all the fuss is about

Black Bear feeding beside the road, near Johnston Canyon

I had successfully exterminated almost every last mosquito between the two of us!

Thankfully though mosquitos were not the only wildlife that I would encounter on my return trip up the valley, with the tell-tale traffic jam on both sides of the road on my way into Castle Mountain betraying the presence of a black bear, feeding contentedly on some bushes right beside the road, seemingly oblivious to the crowd of motorists gathering just a few metres away. Unfortunately though the crowds of people were dwarfed by the swarm of mosquitos that had also gathered, and within moments of stopping to take in my first ever wild bear sighting I was already swatting and scratching furiously, as the little bastards terrorized me until I eventually gave up and sped away!

No sooner had I arrived at the hostel and dumped my things than I was on my way back down the road to check out the nearby spectacle of Johnston Canyon, which would turn out to be one of the highlights of my whole trip through the Rockies. Following a boardwalk that had been bolted to the sides of the canyon (that like a number of other so-called

Natural landscaping in action

Overhanging cliffs and boardwalk in Johnston Canyon

'canyons' in the area is actually a mis-named gorge) many decades ago when the fledgling Banff National Park was first being opened up to tourists, I was treated to a visual extravaganza of rapids and waterfalls thundering downstream between the vertical - and in some cases over-hanging - rock walls of the gorge. For an hour or so I followed the gorge upstream, captivated by the power of the water and the beauty of the landscape that it had sculpted; before eventually turning around at what I thought was the upper falls marking the end of the gorge... only to find out when I got back to the hostel that I had in fact turned around too soon and had missed what some consider to be the most spectacular part of the gorge!

With a full day left at the hostel in Castle Mountain I set out on wednesday to tackle the long, uphill hike to the aptly-named Rockbound Lake, hidden in the superb natural amphitheatre of a rocky cirque high up behind the castellated cliffs of Castle Mountain; before stopping off at the impressive two-tiered ribbon of Silverton Falls on my way back down to the village (which

Natural amphitheatre

The perfectly-named Rockbound Lake

is actually nothing more than a rustic resort with a convenience store/gas station attached, at the junction of the Bow Valley Parkway and Highway 93 - which leads over Vermilion Pass and down through Kootenay National Park).

With a few hours of sunlight still left in the day, I had no sooner returned to the hostel than I set off once again on the short ride to Johnston Canyon - this time determined to make it all the way to the Upper Falls that I had failed to reach the day before! Thankfully this time I did manage to make it all the way to the largest and highest of the waterfalls in the gorge, though if anything I probably enjoyed the chance to walk through the rest of the gorge again even more than I did the falls at the far end.

Sitting at the kitchen table eating my rice krispies the next morning, I was interrupted by a couple of Belgian guests at the hostel claiming that there were two huge elk outside, and sure enough upon reaching the front door I was greeted by the sight of two fully grown bull elk with massive antlers

Hiking trail with a view

The trail up to Castle Mountain fire lookout

feeding quietly on the bushes and flowers directly outside the hostel - an occurance that was far from uncommon according to the manager Tony, who has seen all manner of wildlife (including mother bears with cubs in tow) outside the hostel over the years.

Returning to my cereal five minutes later - covered in mosquito bites once again - it was soon time to pack my meager belongings and hit the road again, though with the sun shining brightly I had decided to first ride a short distance out of town to tackle the steep hike up to the site of an old fire lookout high up on the side of Castle Mountain, which like all other fire lookouts in the Rockies was taken down decades ago but from which still provide panoramic views of the surrounding area. And with a perfect 180-degree view of the Bow Valley stretching from up near Lake Louise to down near Banff - not to mention the antics of the ever-active squirrels at the lookout site - it was definitely an outing that was well worth the effort.

Upon leaving Castle Mountain for the final time I soon came upon another wildlife-inspired

Fields of green

Bull Elk not far from the road, near Castle Mountain

mini-traffic jam, though this time it would be a huge bull elk - presumably one of the two who had interrupted my breakfast a couple of hours earlier - that was the centre of attention, so after snapping a couple of quick pictures I was soon on my way. A mere thirty kilometres and a few panoramic viewpoints overlooking scenic stretches of the Bow River later, I was making my way back into the village of Lake Louise, in the shadow of the same giant mountains I had spent three days exploring the week before. Bears: check. Elk: check. Deer: check. Mountain goats: check. Wolves: Almost. Not a bad week's work at all.

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