Banff, Lake Louise, Icefields Parkway, Columbia Icefield

Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. This was the setting for a four-day mini-vacation. The photo above is from Lake Louise, and we'll give you more details about that area below. We didn't have to earn this particular shot -- even the tourists in flip flops or Guicci loafers were treated to this view -- but that just made some of the other views taste even better.

We drove north, through Calgary, and then west to Banff. Getting through Calgary was a bit more complicated than we expected. (Stupid Walmart Atlas!!!) As the driver, I am willing to admit that it WAS the map, not the navigator that made Calgary a fun time. It was time for the Calgary Stampede, and we ended up driving right through the excitement. An hour later, we did make it through Calgary and were on our way. We snagged a campsite in Tunnel Mountain Campground and then proceeded to explore the town.

The city/town of Banff itself, is like Bar Harbor on steroids. Picture shops, restaurants, and a bazillion tourists, but instead of being located on the ocean it is surrounded by mountains. The first challenge was to find a place to park, and once that was accomplished, we had to choose between dozens of places to eat. Yeah, life's tough. After dinner in a local restaurant, we tried to get back to the campground. It seems that between the time we got our site, and the time we tried to return, everyone from Calgary had finished the work week and wanted to camp in Banff. There was a long line trying to check in to the campground. It would take people over an hour to get from the road into the gatehouse. When we finally got back to our site, we had a good view of the line, and it never ended until they closed the gate at 11:00 pm. I guess we won't complain any longer when we have a few customers in our KOA lobby.

One cool thing about Canada's national parks is that when you sign up for a campsite, they ask you if you want a fire ring. If you say yes, you pay a fee/day. Then, they have this gigantic pile of firewood that you go to and take what you want. So, instead of trying to find a local selling small bundles of wood for exorbitant amount of money, you can really make a fire. We enjoyed this perk all three nights we stayed there.

We were up and away early to go to the Lake Louise area of the park. We wanted to do a hike to "The Plain of Six Glaciers". It starts out around the shore of Lake Louise, and then climbs up to an old tea-house built in the 1920's. (I think-anyway it IS old) All along the way you have incredible views of glaciers ahead of you. It's easy to see why this area has so many visitors, when views like this are accessible to everyone.

We did have to cross a few wet spots. This is where I was wishing I had my waterproof hikers on. I chose to wear just my trail sneakers....and it worked out fine. My rock balancing skills paid off! The camera man was ready just in case of a spill, but things went smoothly.

Above you see some of the glaciers and we actually heard this one break off. It sounded like thunder and echoed off the surrounding mountains. It looked like waterfalls coming off the glacier, but it was really snow. It happened twice while we were on this hike. Now we come to the views that we had to earn, and for some strange reason those pictures always seem to be more beautiful.

This is the view looking back when we had climbed awhile. We started the hike at the chateau you can see at the far end of the lake.

This is after one of the pieces broke off the glacier. You can see the snow falling down like a waterfall. The first time that this happened, we actually thought that we were looking at a waterfall. It wasn't until the snow stopped falling that we realized what must have happened.

This is at the tea house. We had scones with strawberry jam and tea and lemonade. Wish all hikes had a tea house at the top of the climb! It's amazing how good dry scones and tea can taste -- nothing like a hike to whet the appetite.

This big boy was waiting for us the following morning as we decided to drive the Bow Valley Parkway on the way to the Icefields Parkway. We had decided to spend the day on a scenic drive and visiting the Columbia Icefields visitor center.

This is a view of the meltwater and the blue ice on the glacier. The dirt is because glaciers are made from compressed snow. Snow forms around a center of dust or dirt, so when it melts the dirt is left behind.

This is Glen standing on the glacier. It was pretty cold and slippery. We aren't ready to try ice climbing any time soon! It felt like we were standing on a few feet of snow and ice, but the glacier was actually 1000 feet thick at this point.

This big ice bus took us a mile out onto the glacier. It is an amazing machine, but we don't want to buy one. Each one costs a million and a half!! And each tire is $6200.

This is looking from the ice bus to the side on the return journey. You can see the side moraine and above it, is another glacier. I think it was called Double A glacier as the mountains on each side both began with the letter A.