Lake Louise to Jasper

On our way to Lake Louise we traveled the Bow Valley Parkway known for its wild life viewing opportunities, as it is unfenced and here we saw our first Coyote running across the road. Unfortunately we were to slow with the camera.  It is a slow drive but worth it as it runs parallel with the fenced Trans-Canadian Highway which has special wide arched shape bridges covered with ground trees and vegetation to allow animals to safely cross this highway.

The village of Lake Louise, a very small town, is also part of the Banff NP a mere 56km from Banff.  It is known for its Ski resort and the famous glacier fed Moraine and Louise lakes which is a huge tourist attraction for those seeking the purist of mountain experiences.  The restored Railway station from the early 1990s in its rustic log architecture now serving as a restaurant.

And a display of a cable car at the Visitor Center

Moraine Lake in the valley of the Ten Peaks has crystal clear water and glistering glaciers.  An avalanche of rocks formed this lake only leaving a narrow spillway now cluttered with tree trunks.

 

The 70 m deep Lake Louise is a glacial lake in origin, color and temperature.  The cold ice melt water, from the 6 glaciers at the head of this valley feed the lake.  It can be frozen to 1 meter deep in winter. The glaciers grind the rock beneath it to fine powder called “rock flour”  and it is this sediment in the water that absorb all incoming light the striking turquoise and vivid blue that reflects back to your eyes.

The Fairmond Chateau Lake Louise is a world famous hotel on the eastern shore. At the time of our visit it had a couple of rooms on a very special price for R5400 per night. The upper Victoria glacier is about 7 km from the hotel and it is 80 m thick which is twice the height of this hotel. When ice break of from the front of the glacier the sound of the crash takes 20 seconds to reach the hotel.

 

The view from our RV park

I knew services in the USA and Canada are expensive but I learned once more how expensive it really is.  My Inner rear tire was flat so I had to have it fixed before the long drive to Jasper.  No tire shop in Lake Louise and the only mechanic workshop in town charged me R1400 to diagnose the extender that screw into the inner wheel’s valve as the culprit.  He did not have a spare extender and I had to buy that at another town.

Yoho NP is the second smallest park of the Rocky Mountain parks but it has 36 peaks over 3000m.  It lies in British Columbia just north of Kootenay NP and east of the Banff NP and the Trans- Canadian Highway cuts through it.  It is famous for the Burgess Shale fossils a World Heritage site that preserves marine life from more than 505 million years back.   A very interesting railway track is visible from the highway and we were lucky to see a train traveling through the lower spiral tunnel. Two spiral tunnels were built to overcome the very steep gradient of the Kicking Horse Pass. These tunnels make a 360 degree turn in the mountain and below you can see how the train actually crossing over it selves with the front and the rear end of the train snaking through this tunnel.

A Natural Bridge in the Kicking Horse River displays the power of nature as it cuts down its bed. The solution of the limestone in the river and the abrasion by sand and gravel being carried by the water grinds it way over ages.

The pristine jewel colored waters of Emerald Lake is indeed a descriptive name.

The 13km drive up to the Takakkaw Falls has very steep switchbacks which make for exiting driving. It is recommended you leave the RV and trailers below at the start.  It is fed with melting ice water from the Daly Glacier which is hidden beyond the cliffs

The leisurely drive to the Ice Fields passes no less that 25 scenic glaciers and mountain peaks lining the road. The National Geographic Magazine calls this road one of the worlds 10 greatest drives.   

The Columbia Ice Fields 3.5 hours north and halfway to Jasper, was our next stop.  It is composed of 8 glaciers and covers an area of 325 square kms, the largest south of the Artic circle and it is also the most accessible in North America.  It is also unique in that this is the only continental divide that feed rivers into three different oceans nl. Artic, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans.  At the Columbia Ice field Center you can book your “Columbia Ice field Experience” which is an escorted 90 minute excursions on the Athabasca Glacier aboard a special “Brewster Ice explorer Snocoach”.  The surface glacial ice water one can drink but the water from the bottom of the glacier is not drinkable due to the Rock Flour, which will upset your stomach.  It is hard to believe but they claim everybody in North America could stand on this glacier with still room for others, for a fairly chilly get together.

On the edges of the glacier the ice is covered with rock and dirt protecting it from the elements. We all thought we are still traveling to the glacier but our guide told us we were already on it. This glacier moves 1cm every 90 minutes so we also to a ride down with it whilst we were there.

All the campgrounds in Jasper were jam packed so we were directed to the Snaring Overflow Campground 13 kms towards Edmonton with no services where we camped for 2 nights. Jasper is home to the highest mountain in Alberta, Mt Columbia. It is also Canada’s largest park  with 10878 square Kms of breath taking beauty and it attracts  over 2 million visitors a year.  Sights seeing for the next day were Mt Edith Cavell and the Cavell pond a glacial broke off the glacier with little icebergs floating in the pond with the Angel Glacier also hovering over this exceptional and unusual lake.   It is also on this road that we saw a mother black bear with two cubs walking across the road a mere 30 m ahead of us. Unfortunately by the time we got the cameras ready it was too late for this once in a lifetime photo as they disappeared in the ever green forest.

Maligne Canyon cuts a 50 m deep gorge into the limestone and with a series of six footbridges crossing the gorge it provides spectacular views of the gorge and its roaring waters.  This natural feature  is unique to  in that it shows how limestone  has been eroded by dissolution leaving ridges, towers, fissures, sinkholes and other characteristic landforms.

Mt Edith Cavell is known for its hanging glaciers which causes little tsunamis when it tumbles down and into the lake. So this is dangerous to venture too close to the lake and the glacier.  The Angle Glacier hover over the pond with its wings spread.  Small Icebergs floating in this lake with debris protecting the glacier from the elements next to the pond. The lakes name is in honor of Edith Cavell a British nurse  executed during WW1 for assisting prisoners of war  to escape from Belgium.

 

Link to my blog:   http://hseksteen.blogspot.com/

Useful links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Louise,_Alberta

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Icefield

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoho_National_Park

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasper_National_Park

Kootenay NP to Banff

Time to head east into the Rockies and this route takes you through the western side the Kootenay National Park which is a wonderful entrance to the Rockies.  Kootenay is a world of contrasts, from the peaks with hanging glaciers along the continental divide, to turquoise blue lakes, rushing rivers and colorful mineral pools and then the semi-arid grasslands of the Rocky Mountain valley.  

West entrance to Kootenay NP

 

 

Spot our first sighting of a Big Horn Sheep watching our moves below, with others further down the road.

 

The Vermillion River Valley  

 

 

The Dramatic Marble Canyon 26 km north of Radium where we camped at the Marble Canyon campground.

 

 

We were ecstatic to explore the Rockies and decided to leave early the next morning to proclaim a site on a first come first serve basis.  This was high season and these parks are all full over the weekends.  We have been towing a car for four and a half months with great success and only minor mishaps.  The five basic rules for towing a car are: ignition in auxiliary, all electric switched off, Handbrake down, the toggle switch in tow position and car in neutral.  I was very well aware of how critical these rules are and we implemented 3 checks before we start every day. Namely once the car is hooked I ensure all these rules are indeed in place.  My wife then do a check to confirm we ready to go and I once again go through the routine before we take off.  We did this meticulously as we had minor over sights in the past e.g. not all electrics off, resulted in a flat battery, and ignition not in auxiliary means steering is locked and front tires suffer severe damage. Like any routine check it becomes so routine that you don’t do it well and assume all is OK.  This oversight and basic complacency was going to cost us dearly.  

Well sin number one in towing a car is to leave the car in gear and to leave it in first gear is the ultimate of stupidity.  As I said we checked and cross checked if all is OK, three times we did so religiously every time we start to tow and somehow we did not see the car is in first gear.  After 10 Kilometer of towing at 80 kms an hour up and down hills, I said to the wife the RV is under strain as if I am going uphill when there is no hill.  I started to hear a noise like having a flat tire and pulled off to do a walk around inspection.  The RV has a V10 6.8 liter engine so you don’t really feel a stubborn and complaining 4 cylinder car in tow.   Well the car was in smoke with oil dripping out everywhere.   I realized immediately the seriousness of the situation.  We are in the middle of nowhere and 170 kms away from the nearest Honda service center.  Our plans for the weekend came to nothing and finding a proper service center was top priority.  Luckily we could still tow the Honda CRV to Calgary Alberta where the verdict was to replace the engine, gearbox and drive train at a cost of roughly C$ 6000 and it will take one week to source and install used parts.  We considered selling the RV for scrap and continue without the car but offers was a mere C$300 and on top of it all, we in a different country where we would need clearance papers to sell even a vehicle as scrap etc adding to the difficulty, so we had to get it repaired and one can hardly buy another for C$6000.

Calgary was not on our itinerary and here we find ourselves stranded for 8 days with only an RV as our vehicle to sightsee the city.  Some weeks back we heard about the once in a 150 years flood that tormented Canada but we did not pay too much attention and now we find ourselves in the middle of the disaster area 3 weeks after event. Flood damage visible everywhere in the low lying areas with many RV parks and homes washed away.

This downtown subway was under water to the white board.

 

 RV camp sites was at a premium as the homeless now live in RVs in the few parks left so prices are high. Our first night we stayed at Calgary west campground next to the venue of the 1988 Olympic Games but it was almost $55 per night.  We eventually found a Park at a reasonable rate north of Calgary.  For 4.5 months we enjoyed the luxury of having a car to do errands and sightseeing so being restricted to the RV in a big city brings all kind of challenges, but this is what may RVers do so it was time for us to learn what the other type of RV lifestyle is about.   Towing a car means that you are much more mobile and flexible as the RV becomes the center of your temporary stays which also means you get to see places you other wise would not see.  Planning  your sightsee trips and stopovers are not that critical as you can move around much more freely and at leisure with parking not being a crisis, obviously  it comes at a cost as we just learned as well.  Having just an RV as your means of transport means you need to do excellent planning of itinerary and routes in great detail because if you miss the road, sight or just get lost it is very difficult to recover as this tank is difficult to maneuver in traffic and finding suitable RV parking is also a challenge.   You need to pack up and secure everything every day even if it is just to for a short day trip.   We quickly learned how the public transport in Calgary worked and we left the RV in Park and Ride areas for our daily sightseeing excursions by train or bus.  But you are restricted to bus and train routes and any other sightseeing or errands must be done using the RV.  That is also costly and frustrating in my mind.   I still believe the RV with a tow car is the better option to go.

We visited the Heritage center where all the buildings from the 1900s were restored and it is a living museum. I took a photo of the one class school as it reminded me so much of my primary school days and an excellent Gasoline Alley Museum that take you back to the golden age of vehicles. This is one of the largest public collections in the world, they claim,of antique vehicles and oil and gas artifacts.

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Calgary down town

 

 

Here in Calgary we literally met 2 South Africans every day on the streets. One emigrant told us about SA Meat Shop owned by South African selling Biltong at R750 / kilo, Dry Wors, Boere Wors and Ouma Rusks at R100 a box and probably another R200 in petrol to get there.   We have been craving for these genuine SA favorites so we just had to satisfy our taste buts.

 

After 8 days being ripped out of our travel plans we could finally leave for Banff once again which is about 114km west of Calgary. It was a Saturday and the huge campgrounds, nearly 1900 sites at Banff, were all full.  Luckily they could accommodate us latecomers in an overflow parking area which was nothing more than on a side of a tarred road.   Besides the mosquitoes which almost waited outside the RV door to fly in when you enter or leave, is was not as bad as we were not there for the camping amenities but for sightseeing.

Hooddos  on the Bow River and young elk in the RV park.

 

 

Banff NP was Canada’s first NP and it certainly is a jewel in a 350 km string of wonderful and beautiful NPs in the Rockies.  It is also a very busy and amore crowded than the other parks with 4.7 million people visiting Banff every year. This unspoiled wilderness is also a World Heritage Site and a top tourist attraction all year round.

The Rockies is unique in it shape and rock formations.  Through erosion these mountain ranges already lost 10 km of it original height. More recently, rain and freeze-thaw action have done the bulk of the work and during the ice age glaciers that once covered the mountains did the finishing touches leaving behind the jade green lakes and unusual gorges, rivers, jagged peaks, deep forests, canyons and rock formations.  This process of tearing down the mountain is on going, until it will be completely leveled.  But no reason to worry, it wont be leveled in our lifetime.

 

Banff’s downtown is a busy spot but it is a very attractive little town in a very beautiful setting with knife-edged Mt Rundle ever present. Look at the very attractive bronze street names in the pavements on the street corners.

 

 

Several Hot springs around town.  This is the Upper Hot Springs.

 

Bow Falls in the Bow River just a short walk from town.

 

Mt Rundle is one of Banff’s signature sights featuring on many postcards or paintings.

Vermilion Lakes is a very important wetland for migratory birds.

To avoid the highway an alternative route from Calgary to Canmore on the way to Banff is the Bow river Valley road.

  

Cave and Basin National Historic Site is a Sulfur hot spring once used as a spa for wealthy globetrotters but nowadays it is preserved as a Historic Site. Endemic to these thermal springs is the endangered Banff springs snail the size of a popcorn kernel. The underground lake only had a small opening where sunlight beams down, but early explorers dug a tunnel to make it more accessible.   This is also the site where the idea to create this National park was born.  Hot water from this spring flow into the Vermilion lakes below.

 

 

Johnson Lake south of Winnewanka lake is also a very special area of the park due to is grasslands and mixed forest which many large animals rely on for survival in this montane Zone of the park.  

 

Lake Minnewanka east of Banff is the parks largest lake. It is man made and is an important habitat where Grizzly bears feed on Buffalo berries.  Human and vehicle traffic is regulated at various times during the year not to disturb the endangered bears and other wild life.

 

Link to my blog:   http://hseksteen.blogspot.com/

Useful links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banff,_Alberta

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kootenays

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Louise,_Alberta