Canadian Rockies

 Our travels had us going east through Northern British Columbia and then into Alberta.  We stopped at the famous sign that signals the beginning of the Alaska Highway, but for us it was the end.   We asked a nice stranger to take our picture, “can you get the whole sign and us, please?” And this is what we got.  You get what you pay for!😁

   

Our next stop was at the beautiful Carson Pegasus Provincial park and our site was nestled right on the shoreline of this beautiful lake.  

The next day we were routed to go east through Edmonton, AB, south to Calgary, and then west to Banff.  That seemed silly, but I think it’s because I had built our itinerary in the winter. The more direct route may have been closed at that time.  Our gps showed us that we could simply just go south through Jasper National Park on our way to Banff.  There, we joined our friends Ami and Scott for a bonus day in Jasper. (We originally had planned to meet them at Banff National Park the next day) We met up at our Jasper campsite for a Halibut Taco dinner and great catch up time.  The next morning, we all enjoyed a lovely hike up in the hills of the park. 

From there, Vic and I left Ami and Scott and trotted down the road to Banff National Park.  It was a spectacular drive going through the Canadian Rockies. Glaciers, huge peaks, magnificent expanses.

 

 We settled into our campsite at Tunnel Mountain Trailer Park Village 2 where we had a spectacular view of the mountains.  We uncoupled the truck and camper here so that we could easily go into town and drive to the local hiking trailheads. The next day, Ami and Scott rejoined us.  They stayed in town at a lovely hotel.  We all endured a grueling 5 mile hike which was a straight uphill climb to a beautiful vista and lunch, a couple fun meals in town, shopping and tours of the thermal basins and cascade gardens.

  

Our view from the top of Castle Mountain, 2 1/2 miles of straight uphill climbing 

A pizza for all tastes

The guys hanging out while Ami and I did some necessary shopping therapy 

 

Thermal basin in Banff 

We rented e-bikes and rolled all over the surrounding Banff hills with little effort and got huge rewards 

 Cascade Gardens

I went in a solo bike ride along the Banff highway. My Strava app said I went 39.81 miles, but honestly it didn’t seem that much.  The scenery was gorgeous and just being to really stretch my legs felt so good.  

The only signpost along the bike route 

Along the bike route were these wildlife gates I had to go through. Felt a little eerie leaving “the bubble” alone on my bike 

After fully exhausting ourselves and Scott and Ami, we all said our goodbyes.  They went home to Virginia and we loaded everything back up and continued on our journey.  We had one more night in South East Alberta at a cozy little county owned campground in the middle of miles and miles of yellow fields.  

From our last campground in Canada, we drove the one hour to the US border where we waited for over an hour to get to the window.  I had totally forgotten to eat/get rid of our peppers, avocados, and eggs so we were further delayed when I (the driver) had to go inside and have a chat with the border agent.  It broke my heart to have to get rid of these perfectly good groceries, but I understand the need to do this. Hope I don’t forget next time…

I am writing this sitting on the front porch of Yellowstone National Park Headquarters in the Mammoth Hot Springs area.  There is a good Wi-Fi signal here where I can post this blog.  In the time I spent sitting here, smoke from area wildfires has rolled in and making my eyes tear up.  I think it’s time to move on…

The Mammoth Hot Springs terraces are in the background and a ranger is giving a talk about elk antlers to a family and smoke is all around