Monday, June 9, 2008

 

It was really cold last night here in Banff.  We could see our breath when we exhaled.  After our scrambled egg and toast breakfast, we took a hike around the lake at the campground.  We got to see a bald eagle flying over the lake and then land in a pine tree near the shore.  When we got back to camp, we packed up to leave the Banff area and head toward Alaska.

 

We made a few stops in Banff so Doug’s family could see the Banff Springs Hotel (the princess castle) and the Cascade Falls.  We made sandwiches for lunch at Cascade Falls and then went north on Highways 1 and 93, which is also called the Icefields Parkway to Lake Louise and then to Jasper for the night.

 

The drive was incredible.  We drove through the Canadian Rocky Mountains and got to see lots of sites and animals.  The skies were blue with some beautiful white fluffy clouds so we could see the tops of the mountains.  Every few miles we got to see animals beside the road.  We saw black bears, mountains goats, elk, beavers, and big horn sheep.  All these animals were close to the road so that we got to see them very well.  There were five different places that we saw black bears and cubs, one lying beside the road eating grass so we just watched him for a while.  We were on the other side of the road in our vehicle.  If we had been going the other direction, it would have been too dangerous to even stop because the bear was right by the edge of the road and the shoulders of the road are not very big.  Each time we got to see an animal, we were able to stop the vehicles and watch them for a little while.  God must have had a good time making all the different kinds, shapes and sizes of animals. The kids tallied up how many animals we saw.  There were 8 black bears, too many elk to count, 1 mountain goat, 7 big horn sheep, and 2 beavers.  We also saw beautiful mountains some with glaciers in them.  The lakes are bluish green colored waters because of the glacial melt and run off.  There is silt from the glaciers in the rivers so some of the rivers and creeks have a bluish milky look to them.  The photographers in our family were having a great time trying to capture some of God’s wonderful creation in pictures.

We stopped at Lake Louise for a while.  It is a lake surrounded by snow-covered mountains with glaciers.  The lake is the beautiful turquoise color and they have boats you can rent and a hotel at the lake.  The hotel is run by Fairway, which also runs the Banff Springs hotel.  There was a woman playing a harp in the lobby.  The hotel was very elegant so we walked through it just to see what was like.  We went to the top of the hotel (all 11 of us in one small elevator), which was the 9th floor to try to see out over the lake, but there were no windows in the hallway and we couldn’t see in any of the rooms.

 

At one stop to see a glacier, Tim was sitting in the vehicle when some people with a French accent came up to him.  They said they were trying to figure out what that was behind our vehicle (the pop up camper).  They said does it come up.  Tim said yes and the ends even come out.  They were fascinated and walked around the camper looking at it trying to figure it out. 

 

It snowed on us several times as we were driving through the mountains and we got to through snowballs at several of the places we stopped to see glaciers or scenery.

 

About 8:30 we got to Jasper, which is the end of the National Park, and we were really hungry so we found an A&W restaurant.  What a great way to end a good day with a glass of A&W Root beer.   The restaurant closed not long after we got our food and they had hot apple pies leftover from their day.  They gave them to us and we sure enjoyed them.

 

We found a campground that had hookups so we stopped there.  Of course all the hookup sites were taken so we stayed in the primitive campsites and God really blessed us the next morning.  We set up camp before it got dark.  The extra hours of daylight are sure helpful when traveling all day and then setting up camp in the evenings.  We had a campfire before we went to bed.  It seemed a little warmer this evening. 

 

Mileage for the day: 450 miles

Temperature high: 50’s

Camping fee: $36.00

Price for gasoline: $1.36.9/liter