June 23 - to detour or not to detour - Jasper here we come!

As we were preparing to leave this morning for our 800 mile detour, the campground owner came out with good news! He knew our plans so he wanted us to know we didn’t have to go that way, the road (Canadian Hwy 1) over the mountain from Golden to Lake Louise in Banff was open. We were so thrilled to not have to make that detour drive!!  Hurray!!!!

 Leaving Golden, driving east, you go through Yoho National Park, on the way to Banff. Yoho, named for a Cree word expressing awe, is a park of rock walls, waterfalls and glacial lakes. It's a park with snow-topped mountain peaks, roaring rivers and silent forests. It's a park whose history is bound up with a railroad: spiral tunnels inside mountains and stories of runaway trains.   

On our way into the park, we passed what we thought was a statue of a Big Horn Sheep, right on the side of the road. But, as we passed, it moved its head! It was real and we missed an opportunity for a picture!

 About half way up the mountain pass, was a view point for the railroad tunnels built into the mountain. When the rail first came to this area, the tracks went straight down the mountain and there was a high rate of accidents because of the sharp descent of the mountain grade. Long story short, they hired an engineer to look at the problem and his solution was a "crazy eight" tunnel, built into the mountain so that the descent could be made at a safer degree of grade and speed. Yoho is nearly solid rock so the tunnels are a marvel of engineering!  Here is the entrance to one:

Yoho is in British Columbia and borders Banff National Park on the east, which is in Alberta. In Banff we could get as far as Lake Louise and no farther as the roads are still closed due to flooding and mudslides. We ate lunch in the shopping center of Lake Louise Village, then drove the rigs up to the lake.


 A short hike from the parking lot and WOW!! Lake Louise is a picture perfect lake surrounded by towering mountains topped with massive glaciers. I have never seen anything so dramatically stunning! The only thing ruining this beautiful spot is the gigantic monstrosity of a hotel that boasts over 500 rooms.  One look at the lake and I was trying to figure out how we could take the kayak out on it. 

There is a small boat house over to the left and they rent canoes, Nita don’t even want to go near this place, but Phil, John and I head that direction.  We learned there was a guided boat tour leaving right away, and I was all for it.  Nita  swore she wouldn’t get into another canoe after the disaster in Nebraska.   But she agrees to go with us. Turns out, our “boat” is a large canoe that will seat 7-8 people. Phil is asking questions about how easy is it to roll this thing and the guide, Bruce, is telling him that we won’t be swimming. So, next thing we know is that we're putting on  life vests and we are getting lessons on how to paddle a canoe effectively, and how to get into this “boat” so it doesn’t tip over.  I think Nita was really to kill me at this point.



We managed to get into the thing without tipping it over, Phil is in the front, making him the captain, and he sets the rowing rhythm. Nita is really laughing at this, because she says he is the king of no rhythm!! John and I are directly behind Phil, then another couple from Quebec who barely speak English, then Nita, with Bruce behind her. And then we are off for our tour of the lake and our history lesson of the Hudson Bay Company and the canoes that delivered supplies to the fur trading outposts and then brought the furs back to the east coast for shipment to England.

Phil is taking the picture over his head so all you see is his hat

The lake was fairly calm, so it didn’t really take long to reach the turning around point and head back towards the hotel on the other side of the lake. This side has a walking trail and we become the “tourist attraction” as we paddled our little boat and sang rowing songs led by Bruce. This water is mostly snow melt and is freezing cold, but there are 4 or 5 guys practicing for a polar bear plunge (in their underwear!), and I’m wondering just how much these dudes have had to drink!!

We managed to get back to the dock, and per instructions from Bruce, managed to stop the canoe and back it into the dock, just like we were pros!! Safely back on land, we headed for the rigs to continue our journey up to the Ice Fields where we had planned to spend the night.

Along the way, we stopped in a few view points, the most spectacular to me was Bridal Veil Falls, not only because of the view of the falls, but the valley we had just driven through, really impressive!!

Bridal Veil Falls

We finally pulled into the Columbia Ice Fields parking lot where we paid $16.00 for the privilege of ‘camping’ in their lot for the night. We are dry camping, which means we have no electricity, water or sewer. John and I are used to this, but Phil and Nita are not really set up for it. Phil tried to wire in 12 volt plugs for their C-Pap machines, but that didn’t work, so they used a small battery pack charger for them.  It worked great and they said they slept like babies.  They must have as we could not raise them on the radio in the morning and went up to the lodge and had breakfast waiting for them to get up!!!!