Somewhere in between

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As i was walkingto work the other day a big black dodge pulled up (nearly scared me half to death) and asked me if i lived here and if i knew where a certain hotel was...... This was weird cause i dont consider myself 'living' here... just stopping over for a while. Then it got me thinking.... 'To the locals i'm a tourist, but to the tourists i'm a local' So what am I????????? Where do i lie???? So i guess its somewhere in between, that infamous 'grey area'
This encounter got me thinking that i havent seen enough of the area to be either a local or a tourist..... so i set out to have an adventure, to see and do something i hadnt done before :-) Because i work at the Spag Factory i get free tours with a company called 'Discover Banff Tours', so i cruised into their office and booked a morrning tour to a place called, 'Grotto Canyon' Its bout half hour out of Banff.
I get picked up bout 8:30 in a bright blue van, there is binoculars on the back of all the seats and a really friendly orange haired women driving the bus... her name is Crystal and shes our guide.... groovy! So we pick up some other people and cruise out to the beggining of the trail... its a lovely day and about +6 degress (which is freakishly warm for the middle of Jan) but luckily we're in the middleof a shanook- which is where a band of clouds traps all the warm air underneath them and the cold air passes right over the top..... or something like that!
We get to wear these ice clack things that strap over your boots and have studs in the bottom soyou dont slip on the ice!!! So we set off and walk through some bush tracks for bout 15 mins then we come to the mouth of the canyon. There is the mose awesome view from here. Views of the three sisters a mountain range aptly named (yes just like back home) and a few other mountain ranges that i dont remebeer the names off :-) It was so breathtaking! Then there was the canyon, with a floor of pure ice.... thats what we were going to walk along.... eeeek! But with thespecial ice clack things it was easy... not one person fell over... it was cool! The canyon was formed when the continental drift occured... they were one plate and over the years seperated, causing a fault line, and thus the canyon. It was so cool... we just walked along a creek of ice that was surronded by rock canyons on either side, it was amazing, there was even someold aboriginal (native indians) art works on the sides of the rock... this was a sacred place for them, where they'd come and offer the gods tobacco... apparently they still do it to this day :-) When we gotto the end of the canyon we came across some people doing some ice climbing, man this looks like hard work... but a lot of fun, hopefully i'll try this before i leave Banff :-) Our guide pulledout some hot chocolate andMaple cookies and we watched the ice climbers and chatted to each other... this had been the best morning. The canyon is like nothing i've ever seen before, it was different and coll (and free!!!!!)
Man this had been such a good idea (i'm definatley going to do more of this sort of thing) I hope the photos do it some justice... although they probably dont...... cant capture the enormous energy of this place!!!!!!... groovy!!!!
Take it easy my fellow loved ones.... Till next time... Peace out xoxoxo

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Photos

a nice little surprise
For once being up and pout in the cold so early was worth it...

a nice little surprise
It just keeps getting better :-)

a nice little surprise
and more colourful... man i havent even got on the bus and i'm glad i'm doing something different :-)

The treck begins
Can you guys see the groovy ice clacks on my boots??? I loved these things!!!

The mouth of the canyon
Here is where Grotto begins... man what a view

just like home... well sort of
This is part of the three sisters, looks a little different to katoomba ;-) There are about 9 different 'three sisters' troughout the world

Brrrrrrrr
Here it is... our first glimpse of the ice.... of our forest floor....of what the heck we're going to be walking on!!!!

Explorere Mel
With my ice clacks and hiking pole i felt... WILD grrrrrrr

Just cruising
Every turn and bend was amazing... mother nature has a way of putting us in out place :-)

History lesson 101
This is some of the ancient drawings we came across... painted over thousands of years ago with a clay like substance! Amazing that they're still seen today :-)

Speaks for itself
um..... WOW!!!!!

Ground water
would you belive that this isnt a waterfall in summer??? Its simply frozen ground water??

Ground water
And yet its quite large?? Nature????

Top of the ice fall
This is also just water seapage, there isnt a waterfall here in summer?? Crazy!!

You go girl...
Here we are at the end of the Canyon... where the ice climbers enjoy a morning :-)

Where does it all come from??
During the summer this is a tiny narrow creek, about 1/8 the size it is now!!!!

now in reverse people...
Walking back down the canyon was weird...i'd seen it all on the way up.. but not from this angle :-)