Banff~Columbia Icefield~Jasper

Friday July 18, 2008

Banff~

Kurt and I left Calgary yesterday morning and drove to Banff National Park. We hiked to Helen Lake. It’s a rather small lake, but the scenery on the hike was beautiful. We had planned to go further than the lake up to a viewpoint, but there was a storm rolling in and it suddenly got cold and windy. We ate a quick lunch and then put on our rain gear to hike back down. On the way down we heard someone making loud noises. As we got closer we found a group of people waiting on the trail for some grizzly cubs to move out of the way. What an awesome site to see! I have no idea where momma bear was, but these two cubs didn’t seem bothered at all by the group of humans. We got some good pictures and eventually they moved on enough that we could pass. That is truly the most exciting thing I’ve seen hiking. I’m just glad there was no momma bear close by!

We camped in the Columbia Icefields Campground and spent the evening killing mosquitoes. Take a look at the picture of the carnage! We had beautiful views of the mountains from our campsite. The Canadian Rockies are incredible and the glaciers along the Icefields Parkway are amazing! It rained during the night. It’s nice listening to the rain and being cozy in the tent, but I hate having to pack away a wet tent. That’s what we did this morning. We are now at the Icefields Centre and I’m waiting for Kurt who is on a conference call. Once he’s done we’ll continue our drive to Jasper and then on to Edmonton.