Thursday 1st September: Highway 1: Banff to Revelstoke

Pre set off for Highway 1 to Revelstoke again the warning light that tyre pressure is low so a detour into Banff and this time it is one of the front tyres that is 5 lbs down but best to know as another long journey through mountainous terrain. We retrace our steps from yesterday and did stop at the Spiral Tunnels for comfort and coffee break but not lucky today with train sighting but the drive through Kicking Horse Pass is so fantastic we can't complain

A photo stop at Natural Bridge....it was raining yesterday when we were here.

Just past this point we were driving along minding our own business when a very large Ram jumped over the concrete crash barrier onto the road, luckily there was not a lot of traffic about at the time and it was a 40 kph area. Some time after this I happened to see a black bear in a layby on the oposite side of the road............

View from Rogers Pass Summit with fresh sprinkle of snow on the mountain.
We are no longer in the Rockies we are now in the Selkirk Mountain Range.

Monument at Rogers Pass Summit.
In the layby opposite, the police have set up speed cameras and boy are they having a large catch. Some way farther on there is another speed trap..........we are actually surprised as we had been under the impression that Canadians stuck to speed limits, not so apart from Vancouver Island....... 

Well a very nice surprise when we got to our next temporary home, The Nelsen Resort Hotel, we have been upgraded....we had booked a full kitchen of course but as we are staying for 5 nights and the hotel is not at all full we have been given a top floor suite with extras....we are happy bunnies.....

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.........