A Travel Day Departing Lethbridge at 7:30 AM found us traveling through Fort McLeod, home of the founding of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, headed for Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Interpretive Centre, a UNESCO world heritage site where Indians chased buffalo off a cliff, butchering them for food, clothing, etc.
 Bad News for the Buffalo |
Finally, Some Mountains We began to see the Canadian Rockies at Canmore, making the rest of the drive a very scenic one. When we finally arrived at Lake Louise Campground, we had to wait in line for about 45 minutes to be assigned a site, a reminder of our wait at the border. After dinner, we did a brief hike along the Bow River, with the snow-covered peaks of the mountains in the background. We’re not supposed to be out after dark because of the bears, so we headed in and called it a night.
Day 2 Day 2 in Lake Louise found us up early, hiking the Bow River Loop, a loop around the hard-sided vehicle campground and the electrified, fenced-in tent camp on the other side of the river.
 Kay by the Electrified Bear Fence |
 Indian Paint Brush along the Trail |
As we traveled the trail, we didn’t spot any fish in the Bow River. Upon returning to the motorhome, we had a great breakfast of eggs, sausage, and English muffin—enough to get us through mid-afternoon. We drove to Lake Louise for the mandatory photo; Lake Louise is one of the most photographed lakes in the world! Foreign tourists, i.e. non-Canadians and non-Americans, were everywhere, especially Asians. The poor economy apparently doesn’t extend to the Far East or Europe. After fighting the crowd, we drove to Moraine Lake, as pretty as Lake Louise, and hiked almost to its end. Again, there were lots of foreign tourists. After a brief rest, we drove to Banff, one of Donald’s favorite places—just kidding; way too many people for him. He agreed to go to attempt to access the internet and read email, and found success at Starbucks, plus a good latte, while Kay had a quick coffee and left to shop for groceries. When we were here in 2000, there were several elk frequenting the golf course, but we were under the impression they had been removed. We did find two lying near one of the greens, and saw either a coyote or wolf in a clearing near the Bow River in Banff. Here’s a photo, what is it? On our return trip from Banff to Jasper, traffic in the opposite lane, southbound, was backed up for over 15 miles—Canadians returning to Calgary and other places after a long weekend. Thank goodness we were going in a different direction. Tomorrow, we head up the Icefields Parkway, one of the most scenic drives in the world.Kay’s Take I forgot to mention that one of the couples on the trip is English and he is a ‘hoot’! He offered a suggestion for us while traveling, esp. thru Alaska. He said ‘get you some boiled sweets to hand out to the flaggers or road crew workers as you pass thru it makes their day and really cheers them up’. We all said “What’s boiled sweets?” It’s hard candy, wrapped if possible.
We went hiking several times the second day. We hiked a great trail that circled the river that ran thru our campground. We crossed the river two times on bridges and the walks in the woods were beautiful. Donald took pictures of many wildflowers. I did sing and whistle – didn’t want to scare any bears! We were on bear alert, I think the berries were coming in. We did drive to Lake Louise and hiked; then to Lake Moraine and hiked. We ran across another couple in our caravan on that hike. We went back to “Mellie” our RV and rested a bit. Then we drove the Bow River Valley Drive to Banff. Some of our group took the gondola to the top of the mountain and ate at the restaurant up there but we did not. We went to the Starbucks and hooked on to free wi-fi and enjoyed some lattes. Listen up, ladies! Kay was people watching thru the Starbucks window and a bald-headed, muscular, short guy walked by and our eyes locked for a moment. He kind of smirked and I realized that he was Bruce Willis and he thought I wasn’t going to recognize him. He was dressed very casually – faded t-shirt, sleeveless, and shorts. He looked older than he does in films and definitely shorter than I had imagined. But, I’m absolutely positive it was him and why not? Banff is a very popular spot to escape the heat of summer. Then I went to the local Safeway to get some basic supplies. Needless to say, in a resort town and in Canada, this was an unusual experience. The store was somewhat ‘gourmet and definitely organic’. I didn’t recognize many brands at all, esp. in the canned goods. We drove thru the Banff golf course to see if any elk were there and we did see several. We came to this area on our honeymoon. At that time they had two herds of elk spread all over the courses and the golfers were having to ‘dodge’ the elk as they played and rode in their carts. We had read that they had relocated the elk herd but we wondered if some had returned. We also saw another animal that was either a wolf or a coyote. We have a picture of it as it was running off. It seemed too large to be a coyote, but its ears are pointed. I think it’s a wolf and Donald’s still deciding. In the visitors’ center was a large grizzly bear, mounted. The story behind it was very interesting. She was a mother bear with two cubs who raided a campsite and garbage bin at Lake Louise. They relocated her and the cubs to another park over 30 miles away. She and the cubs came back within 30 days and did it again. They relocated them again, this time to a park over 100 miles away. Within 3 months they were back. The mother was put down and the cubs were relocated to another province several hundred miles away and were also put on tracking bands. Unfortunately, the male cub has shown back up in the area and was raiding a garbage bin. He’s been relocated, but the officials aren’t hopeful. The female cub hasn’t been seen again. Early learned behavior is hard to break in bears and humans, I think. The Canadian park system is very strict on their campers keeping ‘bare’ campsites to keep bears out and away from humans. The entire country seems to be very eco-smart and eco-sensitive. I guess that is one benefit to a socialistic government.
Campground Lake Louise Campground (Trailer), Lake Louise, AB. This is a Canadian national park campground, electric only, and because of the bears, is limited to hard sided RVs only. Tent campers have an area across the Bow River with an electric fence around it to keep the bears out.
Driving Statistics
Beginning Mileage: 11,256.0
Beginning Time: 7:15 AM MDST
Ending Mielage: 11,527.7
Ending Time: 1:30 PM MDST
TOTAL MILEAGE FOR THE DAY: 271.7
CUMULATIVE MILEAGE FOR THE TRIP: 2,136.2
