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Published: September 9th 2013
Our chalet
Douglas Fir Resort, BanffSeptember 5, 2013 - Banff
Well the weather has been kind to us yet again despite a dodgy forecast so we make hay while the sun shines and squeeze another walk in. This one starts just at the bottom of Tunnel Mountain Drive, just minutes from our accommodation. It’s wonderfully called the Hoodoos Trail as it ends in a view of said Hoodoos. These are (in case you were wondering) tall, thin spires of rock that protrude from the ground. Like the kind of thing you’d see in Utah. They’re formed by several years of erosion and are composed of soft and hard layers of rock and sand.
Quite an impressive sight with Mount Rundle in the background and the picturesque Bow Valley laid out beneath us. A few rafts with tourists are floating down the river. I think this is what they call the family river float, not to be mistaken for riding the rapids!! A bit too gentle for us I think but unfortunately all we’d really be able to do as sadly Matthew isn’t the required age for anything more dramatic. Another time maybe.
That afternoon we drive up to the Vermillion Lakes
and do a quick 2 km trail around Echo Creek – the Fenland Trail – before picking up supplies in Safeway and heading back to our chalet (and the waterslides again for the last time!).
September 6, 2013 – The Bow Valley Parkway
Checked out of Douglas Fir today and I’m now writing this from the most gorgeous log cabin at Baker Creek Chalets, another of our favourite accommodations, on the Bow Valley Parkway. And again, only somewhere we’ve stayed in the winter so it’s interesting to see what it looks like without snow!
Staying in No.14 – a bit newer and more spacious than we’ve previously had (it’s going to very hard to leave the day after tomorrow) and the place is very pretty in the summer. Much easier to get around without the need for snow boots! In fact the train line that we love walking down to is a breeze to get to without fear of falling through the lighter, less compacted snow!
The heavens have finally opened and it’s really pouring down. Yesterday and most of today proved to be, on the whole, dry and a fair bit
The Hoodoos
Bow Valley, Banff of sun despite dire forecasts but now it’s properly raining. But that’s fine. It’s so cosy in these little cabins and it may give us an excuse to light the fire later!
We enjoyed a last wander around Banff this morning (and a Beavertail! If that requires an explanation then you haven’t lived! A beavertail is deep fried pastry – yes, not exactly good for you but the best things never are – topped with, well, whatever you could want really. I always choose apple and cinnamon, Sam went for Skor Cheesecake and Matthew went for Oreo and caramel. Tasty!)
A few pounds heavier we headed out of Banff, taking the Bow Valley Parkway again. We stopped off once at Muleshoe picnic area where we ate lunch and fed a few pieces of bread to a lovely little prairie dog who kept on popping out of his hole; curious but cautious and very cute! And we are able to add yet another animal to the “wildlife seen” list.
Then it’s onto the impressive Johnston Canyon, just a little further along the Bow Valley Parkway. Very popular (lots of RV’s again!) but a lovely easy 5km walk to
Johnson Canyon
Lower Falls - Bow Valley Parkway the Upper and Lower Johnston Falls. At the lower falls it’s possible to walk through a large opening in the rock into a tiny cave that looks out directly opposite the falls.
The boys are eager to get to Baker Creek so we don’t hang around too long and just as we leave it starts to rain. Well timed although it does mean we’re unpacking the car in the rain. A first since we’ve been in Canada.
That evening we spent quite a while waiting for the big freight trains to rattle through, squishing the dimes and quarters the boys have left on the track, but the closest we get is a toot as we’re heading back, causing us to turn and run back, only to then wait while the light around the distant corner slowly gets brighter (it’s nearly dark by now) but then comes to nothing. We fear the train has pulled into a siding.
There is no set schedule to these trains. No “next train will be arriving in one hour” sign, which would be wonderfully useful. It’s great when they do go past though. They move relatively slowly which is of course what
Prairie Dog
Bow Valley Parkway makes this possible. The boys know well enough this is not a pastime possible in the UK! Just being on the wrong side of the track fence would get you a £1000 fine but here there’s not even a fence let alone a fine. Common sense is obviously a good idea though and we don’t let the boys go on by themselves (not that I’m suggesting the boys lack common sense but…well perhaps I am, just a little bit…).
After dark (and a bit of maths for both boys) we step outside of the chalet briefly to admire the stars. I can’t believe that a) the sky has suddenly cleared so completely after all that rain and that b) there are so many stars! Matthew and I spot a shooting star, speeding diagonally across the sky (unlike the slower path of the two aeroplanes that we originally mistook for shooting stars!).
September 7, 2013 – Moraine & Emerald Lake & Takkakaw Falls
A little chillier and off and on rain today. (I am aware I tend to start my blogs with a weather update. My apologies for this. I’ll try to be more
Moraine Lake
Banff National Park original but it’s the British in me so it will happen again). We hang around the tracks long enough to see a train go by and the boys are happy as they now have their squished coin selection. (It is fun to watch the coins jump and dart as the wheels squash and toss them carelessly to one side, eager for the train to pass so you can see the results).
Then we head out to Moraine Lake, a smaller very beautiful lake. This is one lake we’ve never been able to see during the winter months as the road is only open during the summer months. One of the trails heading up from the lake advises only parties of 4 or more due to bear activity in the area. We’re not looking to do any great hikes today though as we want to fit a fair bit in. So many trails so little time. We are happy to just wander around the edge of the lake as it begins to rain and we can’t afford to get soaked this early in the day.
We stop by Lake Louise village to pick up a tasty lunch from the
Emerald Lake
Yoho National Park bakery and end up eating it en route when we find ourselves stuck in roadworks for quite some time. It gives us something to do while we wait! It’s a bit of a standing joke in Canada. In the winter the roads are impassable due to snow, in the summer they’re impassable due to roadworks!
We leave Banff National Park in Alberta and pass into Yoho National Park in British Columbia where we stop off again at the Spiral Tunnel Lookout. This is an incredible bit of engineering. As Matthew put it so well, it’s a helter-skelter of a railway line and we timed it well enough to see a train snaking down the mountain side through the Spiral Tunnels. It was a piece of engineering that, back in 1908, cost on average a life a week in the building of it. Before the tunnels were built trains would often career down at high speeds, one on occasion derailing into the raging river below.
Fascinating to watch the freight train, so long that it was visible on 3 levels of railway track, disappearing and reappearing as it traversed the mountain, like one gigantic snake.
From there we
Emerald Lake
Yoho National Park head onto Emerald Lake where the temptation to paddle out on the emerald waters was too great to pass. Steve chose to take photos while the boys and I hired a Canadian canoe and paddled about for an hour. Such a beautiful lake where the waters really are a jade green colour and so clear it’s like paddling on an enormous swimming pool or in the calm tropical shallows of a Caribbean island. The rain was good enough to hold off for our paddle so negotiating raincoats while trying not to rock the boat was avoided.
We stop off at Takakkaw Falls on the return. At a height of 380m (with a dramatic 254m freefall), these are the second highest falls in Canada. It’s a humbling experience staring up at them (and a slightly soggy one as the spray is impressive. Luckily the wind is blowing most of it away from us otherwise within seconds we’d be soaked!)
Another little fact that I find fascinating and worth mentioning here is that we’re in a very famous geological site, a World Heritage Site as, in 1909, a scientist called Charles Dolittle Walcott discovered Burgess Shale fossils. These incredibly well
preserved marine organisms offer a glimpse back more than 505 million years, when the Rockies were covered in water. The Burgess Shale fossils are considered by many to be the world’s most significant fossil discovery, mainly because of their great age and the incredible preservation (including muscles, gills, digestive systems and other soft body parts) which makes them so different from other fossil sites and means that scientists can observe the way the creatures lived and interacted.
The fossils reveal important clues to the nature of evolution. Researchers say that the ancestors of virtually all life forms on Earth, existing and extinct, can be found in the Burgess Shale. It’s an important key to understanding the past and also helping us understand what the future may hold.
Another geology lesson! As Steve has been telling the boys it’s a good place to learn about geology because so much of it here is so visible; an excellent example being the glaciers.
It’s the last night in Baker Creek Chalets. We all head down to the tracks again after our evening meal. We don’t see any trains but we do have an excellent game of “who can knock off
Our chalet
Baker Creek Chalets, Bow Valley Parkway the stone with another stone” while also discovering that, in the fading light, we can make very impressive sparks! We could easily have spent longer here in Baker Creek but as much as anything the internet is not reliable and not only can Steve not work properly but I can’t post this blog!!
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