Day 50 Banff National Park, Canada Lake Louise Overflow Campground

Captain’s Blog

Thursday

Banff National Park, Canada

Lake Louise Overflow Campground

July 23, 2009

Day 51

Captain’s Blog

Wednesday

July 22, 2009

We left Waterton around 9:30 AM heading for Banff National Park. We took the scenic route and once again we found ourselves on long ribbon like roads with a never ending landscape of beautiful rolling hills, valleys and mountains.

We ran into acres and acres of Windmills punctuating the hills and valleys looking like giant white pinwheels. It kind of took away the beauty where the land meets the sky. I guess that’s progress for you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cattle ranches are enormous and all surrounding by fences. One rancher must have wanted his ranch to stand out from the rest because he placed baseball caps on every post of his fence. There had be a thousand baseball caps.

Hat Fence about a mile long.

We have been hearing about the gray wolf population but had yet to see one, then on the side of the road there he was - quite beautiful and really big.!!! How lucky are we too have seen one of those elusive creatures. We were traveling too fast to get a picture but there was a stuffed wolf in the visitor center so we took a picture of that one.

 

 

 

 

Jewel has been showing a defiant side of her personality. I think she is getting tired of riding. Every time we stop she wants out and when we take her out for a short walk she refuses to get back in the MH. We have to pick her up and put her in. Then she gets even more defiant and jumps on the bed. I tried bringing her out to the couch for the ride but she jumped back on the bed and snuggled behind the pillows. I left her there but it is a rough ride in the back of the MH. When we stopped again she got off the bed on her own and headed for the couch where the ride is much better. She is becoming a little devil.

 

 

 

 

The mountain ranges out here are spectacular and really amazing to look at. We ooh and aah around every corner. It doesn’t matter how many mountains we see we’re still impressed.

We stopped at a roadside pullout and checked out the views of a mountain that was being pillaged by mankind. The granite from the mountain was being mined and it really looked awful.

After four hours of travel we finally arrived at Banff National Park and asked the ranger if there were campsites available at the Lake Louise Campground. He thought there was because it was still early but he failed to tell us that lake Louise was another 35 miles away through construction. You ask, why didn’t they know that – because the information from the rangers is useless, the signage vague or non- existent and the maps supplied were confusing and inaccurate. When we arrived at the campground of course it was full. Luck would have it we could stay at the overflow lot . The overflow lot is about 2.5 miles from the campground and usually costs a little over ten dollars – no – hook-ups but because the lot is being used for construction equipment we could stay for free. Free works for us, so we camped along with about thirty others among the construction equipment.

After dinner we headed out to Lake Louise to view the famous lake and Chateau Lake Louise  a five star hotel on the lake. The lake with the mountain backdrop was stunning. We decided to take the 4.4 Kilometer round trip hike to the end of the lake. As we walked the angles of the mountains and color of the lake changed. The lake is a beautiful aqua-blue from the run off of the mountain snow and glaciers. Along the way we stopped to watch two rock climbers  making their way to the top of the cliffs overlooking the lake.

<---- Does this look like a face or what?

 

 

At the end of the lake we then had a great view of the  hotel as the backdrop.

After leaving Lake Louise we headed to Lake Moraine another beautiful lake with aqua-blue waters and mountain backdrop. We enjoyed Lake Moraine even more then Lake Louise because it was less congested. We sat and took in the beauty of it all and once again felt fortunate to be here.

We plan on staying at the overflow again and head into Banff tomorrow. Lots to see and do.