Lake Louise, Banff, Columbia Icefields and Glacier!

We had a beautiful drive to the very large Tunnel Mountain Campground.  There are so many RV’s!  850,000 produced this year and not enough camping spots so we were glad our spaces were all reserved.  The Hoodoo pull off was right by the campground and it was a beautiful planked trail looking over the valley and the limestone hoodoo formations.  

Hoodoo

We meet every night for a “social” with our fellow caravan travelers.

People are SO NICE, no one complains (so far) and it is fun to share our experiences for the day.  There are LOTS of tourists here—many languages, many Asians, very few blacks, lots of Europeans and French speaking folks.   Sharing this adventure with 24 other RVs and having everything taken care of is PERFECT!  No worries, just enjoy!

Our 5 pm social

A bus picked up our group at 8:30 am to escort us to Lake Louise.  My Mother visited here with her aunt as a teenager and stayed at the hotel there.  She told me several times how gorgeous it was so it made this place extra special for me.  It was crowded but when you walked out of the woods and there it was…just took your breath away.  The Chateau hotel there was beautiful.  We were able to walk partway around the Lake.  The green water is from the rock particles that the glacier scrapes off as it moves--called rock flour.

Lake Louise

Lake Louse

                 

Chateau at Lake Louise

 Next stop was up the mountain to Lake Moraine and this lake was created by a huge landside and loads of timber were trapped at one end of the lake.  Again, so beautiful!

Walking the logs at Moraine Lake

 Moving on to the town of Banff where we had the afternoon to eat lunch, listen to a concert in the park,  go to a Farmers’ Market and go in the little shops.  The intersections had stop lights that all went RED in all directions and that was the signal for pedestrians to cross the intersection any way they wanted for 25 seconds—diagonal, across and over—whatever!  It seemed to work!  

 Thursday July 19^th we all took off for the beautiful drive to the Columbia Ice Fields.  I can’t tell you how beautiful the snow-topped mountains of the Canadian Rockies, the pine trees and rivers are!  Around every bend in the road is another gorgeous mountain view, river or lake.  The major highway (equivalent to our interstates) is fenced and they have built animal “over-passes” so that the wildlife can move from side to side without danger from traffic. The animals have learned that these are safe crossings and seem to use them. We saw a black bear walking along the shoulder of a smaller road about 10 miles from our campground.  So much fun to see.

A few miles later a van went off the road one car in front of us.  The driver must have gotten distracted and went into a steep ditch and somersaulted onto its top and turned 180 degrees in a cloud of dust.  An Asian family with two young girls were pulled out of the car by Pete and miraculously only minor scrapes.  Others stopped and used our fire extinguisher and dirt to put out the engine fire  There was no phone service there but as we were going for help, an official car showed up to help them.  So glad they were OK!

Columbia Ice Fields was our next adventure.  All 24 RVs are parked in a huge lot and we are spending the night here.  The  Athabasca Glacier and it’s 4 sister glaciers were amazing!  Getting up there to walk out on it was just as exciting.  We were driven up there in “Ice Explorers”. There are only 24 of these “Ice Explorers” in the world and 22 of them are here.  They cost $1.2 million each to produce.  The tires are six feet high and they have all six-wheel drive.  We went up and down 16% grades in this vehicle—it feels like straight up and down!

We were able to walk out on the glacier only in certain safe areas

where there were no deep crevasses.  The glacier is 900 ft deep and  mushy since it was a warm day.  We didn’t really need all the winter coats.  The glacier water is supposedly very pure and safe to drink—I tasted it and it was.  Pete decided to play it safe. 

We’ll find out soon enough if I made a big mistake! 

 Next stop was the “SKY WALK” which is a glass walk-way suspended over a gorge---yes, you can see allllll the way down over 500 feet to the waterfalls formed by the melting glaciers in Jasper National Park.   It was another thrill for the day and very impressive!

Listening to the self guided tour

There was a nice potluck tonight with great food.  I can’t believe the dishes that come out of these big RVs! (and out of the Instant Pots they all seem to have).  Everyone has a story to tell—so many different backgrounds.  !

By the way we can stay outside reading in daylight until at least 10 pm and we’re only midway up Canada. Maybe in Alaska we won’t have to go to bed at all.

On our way to Hinton, Canada we stopped by the Athabasca Falls.  It was fantastic and the best one we’ve seen other than Niagra.  It was carved by the runoff from the Athabasca Glacier and it is fast and furious.  The viewing areas were very close to the water which added excitement!

 

Bottom of Athabasca Falls becomes broad river

Quick stop in Jasper—lots of touristy shops which got suddenly popular due to the quick afternoon thunderstorm.  

 This part of Canada is pure pine trees and alpine mountains—in every direction!  The sad reality is that in Jasper National Park a pine beetle is ravaging the forests.  There seems to be nothing to stop it.  You can see all the brown trees in the picture.  It is localized to Jasper at this point but what a loss if it continues to spread!

Pine beetle killing pine trees

 

Calgary, Alberta Canada

Canola field

We're in Alberta, Canada after an easy border crossing.   The yellow flowers of the canola crop are everywhere for miles and miles.  The roads are good and not crowded.  Calgary looks fresh and very clean.  The weather is perfect! 

We arrived at Bow River's Edge beautiful campground !   Even more beautiful because there are showers and washer/dryers available for $3 loonies a load and showers $2 loonies for 5 minutes!  Pete and I have perfected the art of the 5 minute shower.  A loony is $1 Canadian (about 75 cents) and a toony is $2 in Canadian.

Bow Rivers Edge Campground

Our Adventure Caravan group welcomed us into the group of 22 RVs.  It is fun getting to know all these new RVers.  There is another doctor couple (Family Dr and pediatrician), a hospice nurse and her husband from Cincinnati area and a veterinary pathologist of all things! So many interesting backgrounds and everyone has been SO NICE! 
The staff on this trip are great.  The Lead couple has done this trip about 7 times.  The Tail gunners who follow everyone out are trained and certified in RV inspections and anything that could go wrong.  We feel we are in good hands.   The whole group is friendly and almost all are over 60 and retired.  Some are still working but work on line and do computer IT work.  One poor guy broke his pelvis on the trip but he smiles and keeps going with a walker!  Another lady broke her foot and is walking with a boot!  This is not a trip for sissies!  Pete and I are both still in good health!

Coffee and home made donuts at the campground

  Everything is taken care of and a large bus appeared  around 10 am to whisk us to the Calgary Stampede!  It is one of the largest rodeos around and so professional!  We had great seats in the covered grandstand.  The park had all kinds of other venues for agriculture,  animals, demonstrations going on--like the Ohio State Fair but much newer and cleaner.  The competitions were amazing!  We had a great buffet lunch at the private clubhouse there and then stayed for the Chuck Wagon races and the SPECTACULAR evening show.  Drummers descended on wires from the top of the grandstand down to a lower grandstand.  The live singers and dancers group called the "Young Canadians" were fantastic!  To cap it all off was one of the best fire works displays we've ever seen!

Chuck wagon race

                  

The next day on the way back for the finals of the rodeo we went right by the Olympics ski jumps.
Quite impressive.  The finals of the rodeo were something I think we will remember--all 4 Bronco Bull riders were thrown off and so 4 new bulls brought out and 3 out of 4 riders were ejected the second time.  The survivor won $100,000 which we think he should save for future medical bills!

Day three a bus took us to Heritage Park for lunch, a tour and time to see the grounds.  It reminded us of Greenfield Village in Michigan.  Again, all very clean and well done.  The antique gas pumps and cars were great.  Pete and I are sitting in a 52 Chevrolet which was just two years newer his first car a 50 Chevy.  Pictures not included due to technical oversight!

One of our blog followers wanted to know more details of our daily living.  Cleaning is pretty easy.   Exercise  is done outside or in. We have about 14 feet to spread out in and it is absolutely spacious when we turn the front seat around!  Everything has it's place--at least when we start out!  Now that we're with people we might actually see again, we've upgraded our wardrobe choices a bit,...we are no longer wearing the same outfit everyday until it gets soiled!

 The Bailey Buggy has wall to wall carpet, sky lights, an attic fan, air conditioner, flat screen TV, DVD player, DVR, a printer and very convenient toilet facilities  less than one step away from our king size bed.  There is surprisingly very adequate storage apace/. All these amenities make up for the less than spacious living area!  The galley kitchen offers a microwave, frig, two burners (never used), 20 inches of counter space.  All of this supports fabulous dining—meaning that if you’ve exercised enough, ANYTHING tastes fabulous!

Sky lights on a rainy day!

Classic Galley kitchen!

Relaxing in the evening

Our closet!

Yellowstone

The Bear Tooth highway out of Cody is beautiful with mountains that look like sharp bear’s teeth.   Pete is the designated driver through mountains and he’s been doing great.  I am in charge of food and I am happy to be doing that. 

Beartooth Mountains

  We stayed the night at Crazy Creek Campground and realized we’d stayed in the same place 2 years ago.  In the valley way below the camp is the Quaker Oatmeal family ranch—it is beautiful!  Across the road is the beautiful Crazy Creek waterfall.  There has been record snow this winter so the waterfall is much faster and larger than two years ago.The wild flowers are lovely.

Crazy Creek Campground

From our campsite

Quaker Oats Ranch below our campground

Crazy Creek Falls

Beautiful flowers!

Walk to the Falls

 

This is BEAR COUNTRY so we are prepared!  Here’s Pete’s plan of defense.:  Note the signage.  Note the presence of “bear secure boxes”. Carol walks first.  Carol sites bear and tries to distract it.  Pete pepper sprays the bear hoping that he is down-wind and the spray doesn’t land on him.  The bear will run away from us!  THAT is the PLAN!  Note the pepper spray is in a holster on his belt always ready and he shoots from the hip!  That’s my man!!

Bear Country

Bear box at campsite fr food storage

Just like when I was riding Trigger in 6th grade with my six guns

Mosquitoes suddenly swarmed us as we were out walking.  FYI—for purposes of this blog—walking is defined as proceeding on a flat surface.   Hiking is walking on a trail or road that is not flat and involves a lot more effort!  Anyway we went crazy swatting them and they zoned in on Pete who tastes like dessert to them. We should add another holster for Pete with bug spray!

We came into Yellowstone through the Northeast entrance with our lifetime Senior National Park pass which cost us $10 years ago and lets us into all the National Parks free and campgrounds are half price for us!  Such a deal!  We hiked up The Trout Lake trail—and I do mean hike about ½ mile up .  At 8,000 feet altitude we came to a beautiful creek and lake where the trout had come home to spawn...and we saw a nice adult trout about a foot and a half long.  My favorite photos so far.  Doesn't even look like it could be real!

We were camped for the night in Yellowstone and I looked out the side door about 9 pm and saw a bull buffalo two feet from the screen door.  He was just grazing along the RV in the rain.  By the time we got the picture (from inside and out the back window), he was 5-6 ft away but it took a while for my heart to stop racing!  This will be a memory!  He was huge!

From inside the RV

Yellowstone Park is such a treasure.  We must have seen a thousand buffalo from the car and several bulls close to the road and they look beautiful from a distance.  We also had our first wolf siting ever.  He was walking with a bone in his mouth but pretty far away.   The road is not crowded but the campgrounds are so we are getting up at 6:30 tomorrow to get our next site.  Next stop was Mammoth Hot Springs and we were there by 8am and able to get a campsite. 

 

Bull buffalo

The hot springs and these formations are growing larger every year. A magma chamber relatively near the earth's crust heats the water and it reaches the surface as steam and boiling water bringing minerals with it.   There are boardwalks all around these formations in a fairly large area. The evening Ranger program was great.  Yellowstone is now back to it's most natural state since 1800.

Old hot spring with built up minerals-no more activity there but is active all around it

Our camp site at Mammoth Hot Springs

Off to Great Falls, Montana tomorrow to get a mobile RV repairman to re-caulk our back window which leaked some in the first rain we’ve had.   We meet up with our Adventure Caravan tour in Calgary, Canada July 13^th.  The Great Falls ER is where we spent quite a bit of time two years ago when we first started on this Alaska trip and had to return home because they didn't have a MRA available for a week.  We're hoping to slide out of here before anyone knows we're here and be on our merry way!