This is another view from our hotel room
in Banff… The clouds came and went on an hourly basis and we did have a few
showers too.
Do you or another family member like to
shop? Banff has a plethora of retailers
to choose from…ranging from cheap souvenirs to high end art, clothing, jewelry,
as well as minerals, rocks and fossils costing thousands of dollars.
There is even a store in Banff that sells
products that are made from muskoxen!
Qiviut is combed from the musk oxen’s naturally shedding undercoats each
spring, "Qiviut" yarn is highly prized for its luxurious feel that
will last for years because of its amazing features: it gets even softer when
washed, doesn't shed, will not shrink no matter what the water temperature, and
retains warmth even when wet yet provides cool, breathable comfort in warmer
weather. Oh…and did I mention that it’s
just a little pricy? How about $955.00
for a nice woman’s sweater, or if that’s a little too much, a nice shawl can be
had for only $835.00!
To visit a Qiviuk retail website to pick
up a little something for a loved one for Christmas, just go to www.qiviuk.com. ‘Unfortunately’, Laurie is allergic to wool
and though Qiviut is not wool per se, it didn't agree with her skin, so we had to pass on a Qiviut 'souvenir'!
Now the sun is out… That’s when the
scenery is spectacular! Note the traffic
and crowds. Banff is not a place to get
away from people…
This is the railroad depot in Banff…
Trackside, it has that classic railroad look but it’s been modified in the
front and thusly I feel that it was robbed of part of its charm. This depot is used by the Rocky Mountaineer
and the Royal Canadian Pacific train service. The station was originally built for the Canadian
Pacific Railway.
For information regarding train travel on
the two tourist rail lines mentioned above, you can go ‘tourist class’ via the
Rocky Mountaineer at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountaineer
and/or luxury class aboard the Royal Canadian Pacific at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Canadian_Pacific.
This is a view of Banff from along the
Mount Norquay Road, which leads up to the Mount Norquay Ski area.
This misty photo shows some of the ski
runs up on Mount Norquay… To learn more about skiing at Mount Norquay, just go
to http://banffnorquay.com/. They’ve been in operation since 1926…
There are limited options for a drive in
the mountains around any of these towns in the Canadian Rockies. One short drive takes you east from Banff
across the Trans Canadian Highway and up the Minnewanka Loop to Lake
Minnewanka. The lake, (called "Water
of the Spirits" in Nakoda), is a glacial lake located in Banff National
Park, about 3 miles northeast of the town of Banff. The lake is 17 miles long and 466 feet deep.
A hydroelectric dam built in 1941 raised
the lake 98 feet. As a result, the
resort village of Minnewanka Landing that had been there since 1888 was
submerged. Boat tours are available and a hiking and mountain biking trail runs
along the northern shore of the lake with six backcountry campsites. Mount Aylmer, (10,374 feet), which is only a
couple of miles north of the lake, is the highest mountain in this area of the
park.
We came across our first notable wildlife,
these Rocky Mountain Sheep beside the road...as we drove along the Minnewanka Loop.
As you can see, these sheep weren’t
afraid or even nervous around cars or RV’s.
To learn more about these Rocky Mountain
Sheep, just click on the following: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bighorn_sheep.
This one just strolled down the road
ahead of us for a bit, holding up traffic and dropping little ‘presents’ in
front of the car for us to run over…
So…like I said, the Minnewanka Loop
wasn’t a long drive. What to do
next? Well, I decided to head north on
the Trans Canadian Highway for a bit.
I’m sure that you noted the police car
sitting by the overpass… However, did you really note that the overpass is a wildlife
overpass? The busy Trans Canadian
Highway through the park features several of these overpasses as well as many
large wildlife underpasses. For more
information and a video on these safe wildlife crossings, you can go to http://digitalnomad.nationalgeographic.com/2013/08/23/the-alberta-story-wildlife-crossing-in-banff/.
We followed the Trans Canadian Highway
north to where Highway 93 cuts across the mountains toward the town of Golden British
Columbia…and we headed west.
We crossed into British Columbia and we
passed a lot of spectacular scenery.
However, the traffic was horrendous with people headed home after the
long August weekend…and the weather turned windy and rainy as well.
So, we turned around on Route 93 and
headed back into Alberta. The wild rose
is the Provincial flower, the lodgepole pine is the Provincial tree and
Provincial bird is the Great Horned Owl.
Alberta has a population of close to 3,700,000 and it covers 247,137
square miles. The province has a
population about equal to that of Oklahoma in an area equivalent to Montana and
Oregon combined. To learn more about
Alberta, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta.
As we returned to the Alberta side of the mountains, the weather
again began to improve and the scenery was spectacular…
As the sun came out, everything became
much more photogenic!
Given the improvement in the weather, we
took another side road, this time north off of Highway 93 and up to Emerald
Lake in Yoho National Park.
To learn more about Yoho National Park,
you can go to http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/bc/yoho/index.aspx.
Then it was back to Banff in time for
dinner… Per our Aussie bartender, it had been Chinese cuisine the previous
night and tonight we’d decided we were going to check out his recommendation
for Greek food!
Just click on any of the photos to
enlarge them…
Thanks for joining us for our afternoon
drive in the Canadian Rockies!
Take Care, Big Daddy Dave
Gorgeous country up there… The Canadian Rockies are on our LONG list of places we want to visit. Your photos make me anxious to get there sooner rather than later…. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Betsy
these pictures look absolutely beautiful David!!!
ReplyDeleteDear Dave, What a nice trip. The country is beautiful. The animals are beautiful too. Blessings, Catherine
ReplyDeleteYou got some great shots of the spectacular scenery - I enjoyed your drive.
ReplyDelete