Jasper to Banff

There were five baby elk and three adults out front as we prepared to leave.  We drove back into Jasper for gas before heading out and checked with park personnel as we went through the gate as to whether the road would be open.  Although hazy (smoky), the ride was beautiful especially in the area of the ice fields.  Past the ice fields and over Sunwapta Pass, the rivers start flowing south again.

Scenes Along the Way

Pink Flowers in Braided River

Part of the Columbia Ice Fields

Glaciers Near Icefields Centre

Athabasca Glacier

Icefields Centre

Sunwapta Pass - Ted Likes the Bald Slate-like Mountains Best

South Side of Sunwapta Pass - Rivers Running South Again

The roads are rough and we developed a terrible rattle in the dash board on the passenger side.  It about drove us nuts.  We later learned that a strut that attaches to the front end cap pulled away from the fiberglass and it needs to be epoxied back on when Ted can find the right stuff.  Thankfully nothing more serious than that.

It wasn't until we were right at Saskatchewan Crossing that we saw fresh smoke.  The fire has been burning for ten days since we went through but didn't look like it had burned a lot. (See previous blog for amount of damage so far as I wrote this way before posting)  It was still smoldering but we didn't see any flames.  There was no stopping for four kilometers and after that it was pretty much clear again.

We stopped at Bow Lake at about quarter past eleven for a quick brunch.  Neither one of us had eaten breakfast as we were intent on getting ready to go.  I should mention that the wildflowers were pretty all along the roadside the whole trip.  It is difficult to get a good picture of them while traveling down the road.  

Bow Lake and Crowfoot Glacier from Bug Splatted Windshield

We took a chance and drove into Tunnel Mountain Trailer Court hoping to get a site for three nights and lucked out.  Ted banged his head for the second time in three days, this time on the slide by the bedroom.  It bled like the dickens but didn't look bad once the bleeding stopped.  He does have a goose egg, though.  We rested for awhile and had an early dinner before going out sightseeing.  

We drove down Tunnel Mountain Road and into downtown Banff.  It is quite a settlement with lots of shops and restaurants including downtown malls.  The buildings all look historic and like they belong in mountain surroundings.  It was quite busy and we didn't stop.  We first drove out the Vermillion Lakes drive that parallels the highway heading southwest which doesn't make sense to me as Lake Louise is northwest.  This is a large wetlands area with several shallow looking lakes just off the Bow River.  We walked out onto a dock and there were lots of weeds in the water, not really appealing so we didn't put the boats in.

One of the Vermillion Lakes 

Another Vermillion Lake, Same View

We then drove the Minnewanka (rhymes with Willie Wonka) Loop which is northeast of town.  Here we were back in the mountains but unlike further north, there is almost no snow.  Lake Minnewanka is the largest lake in the Canadian Rockies.  Formed by a dam built in 1912 and another larger dam built in 1941, the Casade River was raised over eighty meters (almost 250 feet).  There is a boat launch and beaches and you can drive across the earthen dam which we did stopping on the far side to stick our toes in the icy water.  A little further on we looked down to see three more loons swimming in the shallow outlet.

Beyond the outlet of the lake is another lake called Two Jack.  We drove down to the shore. There were people swimming, boating and picnicking in this pretty little lake.  We took a side road to Johnson Lake and again, a pretty lake with people recreating.  When we got to the end of the loop, we headed back toward Lake Minnewanka to see what we had missed in a short side road we had driven by.  There were interpretive signs talking about the coal mining town of Bankhead that had been in the hills behind us with the mining operations in the field below from about 1911 to 1923 when the mine closed.  By the 1930s the policy was to have no mining in national parks so they moved thirty-homes six and a half miles over rough mountain roads into Banff in forty days.  It was quite a feat and a walking tour of the town points out these beautiful old homes.  There are trails that lead to the old mines but we weren't interested in joining the mosquitos for a walk.

Johnson Lake

Coming back into town we checked out Cascade Pond.  Though pretty and a nice picnic place, it is too small to waste our time putting the kayaks in.  I vote for Two Jack.  We stopped at a lookout for hoodoos near the campground but we were both too tired to climb the path so decided to go back  A guy standing near us said that from the base of the mountain we were facing to the tallest peak it was three kilometers which is almost two miles high.  The woman thought it was Mt. Rundle and after looking at the map, I think she is right.

Cascade Pond