Bow River and Falls and the "Springs"

Monday, August 31, Banff National Park, Alberta Canada

Slept in a bit today and then had a really nice lunch on the patio of the Rose and Crown pub (left) in Banff town.

Here, we learned from a really nice Saskatchewan couple the proper hat for me to be wearing on my hiking travels - a Tilley hat, so we went in search of this hat. Unfortunately, we learned that my giant freak head doesn't fit any standard size hat that any normal store would stock, so I will need to order my hat on-line.


After lunch we strolled along the Bow River that runs right through Banff toward Bow Falls (right and below). Same turquoise blue water as at Lake Louise. The color is the result of what's called "rock flour" that is rock that is ground bump by glaciers and becomes suspended in glacial ice and melt.

The view down the Bow River into the Bow valley.

Homer Simpson moment - mmmmmm BEER!

This was at the Waldhaus, a german still restaurant that is part of the Fairmount Banff Springs Hotel, or what the IN crowd simply calls "the Springs". At this point, we were still interlopers staying at a cheaper place downtown, so we must still call it the Fairmount Banff Springs Hotel.

Some of the flowers from the Fairmount Banff Springs Hotel.

Banff, Lake Louise and $8 Lemonade

Sunday, August 30, Banff National Park, Alberta Canada

Debbie flew up to Calgary late Saturday night. I picked her up and headed back to Banff to stay at the Caribou Lodge. We started the day off with a great breakfast in Banff Town at Melissa's Mis-steak. Can't miss breakfast if you are ever in Banff.

After breakfast, headed out to Lake Louise. Hard to imagine a more beautiful view than the classic one to the left of the turquoise blue water, the mountains and Victoria Glacier in the background. Lots of people out in canoes paddling like crazy because they were $40 an hour. I'm thinking of buying some canoes and heading up there - any interested business partners?





We had planned a leisurely stroll around the lake, but ran across a trailhead at the fair end with a path up to a tea house built in the early 1900s by the railroad to encourage tourism in the area and decided to make the climb.

It wasn't too bad of a climb, but it was a warm sunny day and we didn't have any water, so we were glad to get to the top, because we heard they had good lemonade.



The "good lemonade" turned out to be a small cup of room temperature Crystal Light, since they have no electricity or fresh produce. For $2.75 Canadien we both got a cup and downed them in two sips. We decided we would run out of money before we ran out of thirst, so we tipped and left, taking our $8 paper cups with us.






Luckily, there was a spring fed creek right above the tea house. At first we used our hands to cup the water, but after about three dips in that glacier melt, you couldn't feel your fingers any longer, so then we had the bright idea of using our expensive cups - worked much more effectively.





Another view of the lake on the way back. About this time, I chided Debbie for losing the two paper cups. Not so much that we would need them again, but for the litter factor.

Several minutes later, I realized that I no longer had our camera bag that I had lugged up to the tea house. We remembered that we had stopped to have someone take our picture and both of us had laid down the items we were carrying and then let early onset Alzheimer's kick in and we forgot all about them. Walked back down the trail to try and find our stuff and passed a lady with the same camera bag as I had. Sure enough, she had seen it and was carrying it back to turn it in. You gotta love Canada - in the states our stuff would have already been offered on eBay.

Best view of all from the Glacier Saloon at the Fairmount Chateau Lake Louise. For about $9 per beer, you get to relax and look out over the lake. Don't expect nuts though - the birds there are really nasty so they don't allow nuts on the patio.

Bears, Big Horns and Birds

Thursday, August 27, Glacier National Park, Montana

Today, I took the Highline Trail to Granite Park Chalet. Along the trail, ran across a couple of bighorn sheep doing that head bumping thing they do to get the girl sheep. And to think us human males just tell them what a good job we have or car we drive - pretty lame.

Ran across this ptarmigan along the trail - I believe he tastes (and looks) like chicken.

The hike was pretty uneventful until we got close to the chalet at which point, there was a group of four people stopped on the trail, which usually means something good.

They had been walking on the trail and practically walked into three grizzlies - a momma bear and two cubs. The cubs were pretty big, so they had to be second year cubs, which probably explains why the momma bear did not feel too compelled to eat the four humans that walked in on their dining.

Since they were pretty much occupying the trail (left), the four wisely decided to wait for backup and take pictures instead. Myself and two others joined them for a dinner party of seven. We made sure of the essentials - four cans of bear pepper spray and at least one person with a bad leg in case we had to run for it.

The two cubs demonstrated quite a bit of inappropriate behavior, probably just showing off for the tourists. You might have thought we were in Arkansas, but no, we were in Montana. Hope I didn't offend anyone from Arkansas, but then again if you were, you probably couldn't read anyway - ooops, there's another one. Forgot Bill Clinton was from Arkansas - was Monica his sister? Oops, that's three digs, sorry.

This was about as close as the momma got. By now, they had worked their way down the hill from the path a bit and someone in our group made the suggestion that now might be a good time to go past them in a group.

So, we set out with of course the bum legged guy in the front and me behind him, ready to trip him if there was a problem. I was also thinking about what a great picture it would be walking by and started to reach for my camera, at which time one of the people at the back of the line suggested that we pick up the pace a little bit - at that point, we were probably only thirty feet away and I guess the tail end of the line felt just a little bit exposed.

The picture to the right is of the chalet. You can hike up there and spend the night as they have bunks. If you buy a coke there, don't be fooled by the refrigerator that they are in. Since they have no electricity, it is used only for storage.

It was about here that some creepy ranger wannabe came down and chewed us out for not making noise and making the bears get off the trail. We told him we were too busy taking pictures and making jokes, but he left unimpressed and chased them away.

St Mary Falls, Virginia Falls and Hidden Lake

Wednesday, August 26, Glacier National Park, Montana

Early morning picture of St Mary Lake on the far east side of the park.

Started the day by doing a pretty easy hike to a couple of pretty waterfalls on the east side of the park. The one to the left is St. Mary Falls and the one below is Virginia Falls.

Glacier has some of the fattest squirrels I have ever seen. This guy was up by the Logan Pass visitor's center ignoring the humans and devouring one of the millions of wildflowers here at Glacier. They must need to be so fat to get through the winter which lasts from about the end of September to the beginning of July.

From the visitor's center, you can do a pretty easy hike up to the Hidden Lake overlook. Along the way there were several mountain goats grazing in the pasture along the boardwalk to the overlook.

These bighorn sheep were also posing along the way to the overlook.

Below is the view from the Hidden Lake overlook. Beautiful high mountain lake surrounded by mountains. You can still see traces of snow on the mountains.

Another picture from the overlook, but with me blocking the view.

From the overlook, you could hike down about 600 feet to the lake itself. 99% of the people that hike to the overlook don't bother, so it was a nice way to get away from the crowd.

Along the path down to the lake, I heard this incredibly loud whistle and thought someone was alerting us to a bear or rockslide or something. Turned out it was the marmot to the right signaling to some other distant marmot about the evening's plans or ordering a pizza. This whistling went on for some time as I think he was having some difficulty getting his point across. Perhaps he should try using PowerPoint next time.


Last picture is of some of the wildflowers in bloom here - amazing, they are everywhere. This has got to be the greenest place I have ever been. Such a short growing season that everything peaks at the same time.

Driving to Glacier National Park

Tuesday, August 25, Yellowstone National Park and road to Glacier National Park, Montana

Not many pictures from today, but I had to get one last buffalo pic. This guy was walking down the middle of the road in Yellowstone and I took the picture out the car window. He looks a little like Bob the Buffalo from two days ago, but I doubt it was.

The drive from Yellowstone to Glacier was pretty, but not spectacular. The picture to the right is of what I assume is a wild horse - it was walking along the highway without any fences.

Yellowstone Canyons and Waterfalls

Monday, August 24, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Last full day in Yellowstone. Drove out to the north entrance and took a picture of the Roosevelt Arch (left).











I hadn't been into the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone yet, so I spent most of the day visiting the canyon and its two waterfalls - Upper Falls and Lower Falls. To the right is the brink of the Lower Falls, which is the larger of the two falls. This viewpoint is about 600 feet below the north rim of the canyon, but its a pretty easy walk down.

View of the Lower Falls (below) from the South Rim of the canyon. The Upper Falls is around the corner to the left and out of sight from this point.

The picture below was taken from Uncle Tom's trail, which takes you from the South Rim to near the base of the Lower Falls. It takes over 300 steps to get down to the viewpoint

Lower Falls from the bottom of the Uncle Tom's trail.

Sunday, August 23, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Drove back up to Yellowstone today after leaving the Tetons. Had my first failed hike when I attempted a backcountry trip. Having never done one before and being by myself, I ended up packing way too much for my level of fitness and about 1000 feet into the hike my legs were completely shot from the weight of my pack. If I get another backcountry opportunity, I will take way less stuff and hopefully be a little more successful. There is a big difference between hiking up a climb with a Camelbak and a full backpack - live and learn.

Decided to just do an easy hike today, so I headed out toward Cascade and Grebe lakes. Very pretty little lakes out in the pasture and surrounded by what were forests until the fires of 1988 and 94 . You can see the stands of dead trees to the left behind the lake. What sounds terrible, the fires provided an opportunity for grasses, flowers and other plants to take over the floor of what before would have been only pine needles.



Along the path, I encountered this lone buffalo I nicknamed "Bob" since he was out hiking by himself. Since Bob and I were going in the same direction, he was a little tough to get around and everytime I got close, he'd turn and give me a look such as the one in the picture to the right letting me know who the dominant male (I think) was on that trail. You can see from all the fallen trees that passing him off the trail was a bit of an adventure as well. Eventually, two other hikers came along and lead me on a path around Bob.

This is a picture from Grebe Lake, the second one along the trail. I turned around at this point.

Millions upon millions of dead trees from the fires all over Yellowstone. Amazing that after twenty years, the products of the fires are still so evident. You can see though that the pine trees are slowly coming back in. I learned that many of the pine trees have built-in ways to deal with fires - their pine cones only release seeds when the temperature exceeds 400 degrees, such as during a fire. Pretty amazing ability to have evolved in that way, but fires are a way of life.

On the way back, I figured I would run into Bob again and sure enough after rounding a curve, I found Bob laying down and taking a bit of a breather. I started him and he jumped up for this picture. At this point, I was really glad he was Bob the Buffalo instead of Bob the Bear.

You can't really see them well in this picture, but the wildflowers that grow in these high alpine prairies are just amazing.