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