Wednesday 31st: Rain, Railroad and of course a Waterfall !

Still raining this morning but we head off back up Highway 1 to Yoho National Park in hope of it clearing up later.
This pic is just outside of Banff ........

By the time we get past Lake Louise and up in the mountains the rain has stopped.
Our first stop is at the viewpoint for The Spiral Tunnels.
This is what the blurb says:
"The Spiral tunnels were built by the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway) in order to help negotiate the dangerously steep Kicking Horse Pass. When the original line was built through the Kicking Horse Pass, the grade was a steep 4.5% - the steepest railway grade in North America.
Unfortunately this resulted in many accidents as trains tried to climb the pass, or descend it, and the Spiral Tunnels were devised as an alternate method. The tunnels were built to curve around and spiral through the mountain and into the pass below, reducing the grade to a safer 2.2%.
The Spiral Tunnels can be seen from the Trans-Canada Highway (Hwy 1) and there is a very interesting display detailing the history of the tunnels, how they were made, and how the tunnels work. If you arrive at the right time, you may see a train using the tunnels. It's very neat to see as the train looks like a snake in a coil. Unfortunately though there isn't any consistent time when you'll see a train pass through, so it's up to luck"
Oh wow we are so very lucky as The Rocky Mountaineer enters the Lower Tunnel while we are watching.......
This is in fact also the first time we have seen the famous Rocky Mountaineer

The Rocky Mountaineer exiting the lower tunnel.
Tomorrow we pass this way again on our journey to Revelstoke and maybe one of the big freight trains will be going through !! he he

Map of the Upper and Lower Tunnels

On to the incredible Takakkaw Falls one of the highest falls in Canada

View from car park

Ok, it's another waterfall but we love them and this one although not pretty is really dramatic. It is now spitting a cold icy rain and what with that and the falls themselves it reminds us of an awesome waterfall/area we saw with Clive and Eileen in Iceland in 2010

Last stop today, as rain does stop play again for the rest of the day, is Emerald Lake.
Even in the rain the lake is an emerald colour and very pretty, if it is sunny tomorrow we may re-visit, we plan to hit the road early.......
Despite the rain we have had a great day, the drive through Kicking Horse Pass even with the road works is amazing, the mountains either side and the fantastic scenery.............and then of course there's the railroad, I even saw a watertower but it was raining hard and my boy wouldn't get out of the car to take the pic !!

Tuesday 30th August: Rain Stops Play

Heavy rain and some thunder this morning, can't complain we have been very lucky with the weather and it is a good time to catch up on laundry and a rest !!!
Cloudy but dry by afternoon so we venture out to a couple of local sights, this is the Bow River Falls next to the Banff Springs Golf Course.

Banff National Park provides essential habitat for female grizzly bears and their young. Some trails including one at Moraine Lake are open only to groups of 4 or more hikers to increase public safety and decrease disturbance to the bears during the important summer feeding season.

I have also been meaning to mention that Avon - Skin So Soft really does work as a mosquito repellant.........

Monday 29th: August: Lake Louise and a killer of a hike !

Today we drive along the Bow Valley Parkway the 58 km to Lake Louise. this is one of the biggest tourist attractions in this area. We cannot really understand why, we were rather disappointed although it is a pretty lake, we have seen many more attractive lakes/mountains on this trip

 Woody having a good peck !
With hiking shoes on we start from Lake Louise the steep climb up the 3.4 km trail to Lake Agnes

Mirror Lake at the 2.6 km point.
Although the climb up has been very steep, much steeper than stated we decide to keep going to Agnes

A view from the trail near to journey end !

If you look closely you can see the car-park for Lake Louise and where we had parked !!!

Time for tea/coffee at Lake Agnes Tea Room
They must either bring in supplies and staff by horses (there are trails) or helicopter !!

Lake Agnes.
Another pretty lake, again we have seen better and not sure at this point that the hike was worth the effort of the one and half hours it took to get here ! 50 mins to get down again. We feel the trail should have a warning about the severity as while we were having our sandwich sitting by Lake Louise the paramedics had to bring down a lady who had had a nasty tumble and that was the second rescue of the day and still only 1pm.

Another view of Agnes. Interesting mountain formations

Back down in the car park, not sure what bird this is but he seemed a very cheery fellow hopping about

Next stop Moraine Lake which is a 12 km drive up an easy winding road from Lake Louise. It is on the tourist route and do have to say it is much more attractive than LL.
We take a look at the steps to get to the main viewing area, look at each other and say we have to do it !!!!

Well worth the climb

No I didn't enhance the colour !!! This is looking directly down onto the lake from our viewpoint

This and next pic, the sun glistening on the far end of the lake

Back down Highway 1 and turn off onto The Bow Valley Parkway and Johnston Canyon Lower Falls

A canyon walk along a 1.2 km mostly paved up hill trail

Quite dramatic and a good example of the powerful effects of water

The "walk" through the tunnel to get an even closer look at the falls

View from other side of tunnel

The "catwalk" along the side of the canyon
Although we were a bit disappointed with Lake Louise we still had another very good day.........

Sunday 28th August: Banff -Lakes, Rivers and Hoodoos

We have settled into our new home, chef is very excited as the kitchen is very well kitted out. It's another dark room, they do like brown decor in these parts and trees covering the few windows !!
It is a beautiful sunny clear blue sky morning and stays that way all day.
We have decided to stay fairly local today, first stop, above pic, is Cascade Lake, not sure why it is called that as no cascading but a nice lake !) 

Next stop Lake Minnewanka (no comments please, we have done all of the jokes!)
This is a beautiful lake, it used to be much smaller but there have been 3 dams built over the years the last in 1941 despite local protests and now it is the biggest lake in Banff National Park.
We walked along the easy 1.5 km lakeside trail to Stewart Canyon, more a canal than a canyon

Another view of Minnewanka.
The old town with the building of the last dam is underwater at the bottom end of the lake. It is a big attraction to scuba divers, in fact many were in the water or at the side of the lake as we drove past that area on our way to the next stop

Two Jack Lake, sorry didn't find out why it is called this

We were hoping to see the hoodoos in Yoho National Park, but having read up on it since being here it might not be possible so we wanted to see these just in case. The view points are on a fairly easy walk up a steepish track, a good leg stretch.

The Hoodoos with the Bow River and Valley in the background

The beautiful blue of  Bow River.
The Bow River source is in the Columbia Icefield and it flows right down through Banff.
 While walking up to view the hoodoos we spy a great spot to have our lunchtime sandwich and although it means walking back to the car and back up again it is well worth the effort. There is a bench seat in the most peaceful spot with this fantastic view, the sun was shinning what more can you need.  It was the best sandwich spot so far on this trip.

The thin "strips" of different shaped hoodoos

This and next 4 photos are of Banff. It's slightly bigger than Jasper and certainly seems to have more tourists.
It is very hot temps in high 20's a good excuse for a Cows Ice Cream, the number one in Canada, it was indeed very very yummy

We've had another wonderful day..........