Banff, Lake Louise & wildlife

Well half of our plan for last night worked out.  We drove down the mountain into town, found a parking place (which, to my surprise, were absolutely free.  In a tourist town like Banff, I thought that was really cool.), and walked to the Old Spaghetti Factory.  The food was great, as it always is, but they had already run out of spimoni ice cream so we didn't get our free dessert, which is sad because I really love that stuff.  Anyway, we hurried out of the restaurant as soon as we were done and drove up Sulpher Mountain to the Upper Banff Hot Springs and walked up to the pool, but just as we got near the top, some people coming down told us that the hot springs were closed for the evening.  We were really surprised to hear that because my mum had looked in the Banff N.P. guide that we got when we drove into the park and said that the hot springs were open until 11 p.m.  It was just after 10 when we got there.  So we walked the rest of the way to the top and found a sign that said the pool was closed at 10 p.m. on Sunday nights, but was open until 11 p.m. all the rest of the nights.  So, we didn't get to go in, but made plans to come back today.

We drove back down the mountain and then drove to the Banff Springs Hotel so we could look at it.  It's one of several really huge chateau hotels that were built for the fancy train travelers coming to tourist spots back in the day.  The most famous of these hotels, now owned by the Fairmont hotel chain, are the Chateau de Frontenac in old Quebec City and the Chateau Lake Lousie, another 45 minutes down the Trans-Canada highway.  I would LOVE to spend a night in any of the chateaus, but they're super expensive, even for the cheapest room, so I probably never will.  But it is fun to walk around in the lobbies and pretend you're staying there.  But last night, we just drove around the perimeter before heading back to our campsite.

This morning was beautiful and my mum went outside to take pictures early before the rest of us were up.  Later on, while we were waiting for other people to be ready to go back into town, Jonathan, Ty and I watched some ground squirrels play.  Ty got some good pictures of them and then people were ready to go.  We headed back to Sulpher Mountain, but before going to the hot springs, we went to the gondola that took us to the top of the mountain where there is some observation decks and an indoor restaurant.  We got a LOT of pictures up there of the Rockies surrounding the Banff valley.  The hike up to an old research hut was closed for construction, so we didn't get to do that, but it was fun being up at the top of the mountain again.  The last time our family did that was when I was in grade 10 and we took the Japanese girl who was staying with us that year to see all the tourist sights in the Rockies.  Once we (meaning my mum and Jonathan) had had our fill of taking pictures, we went back down the gondola and then visited the hot springs.

The sun was brightly shining, so it was kind of warm to be in the hot water, but if you sat where you could catch some of the mountain breezes, it wasn't too bad.  Hot springs are definitely better to experience in the evening/night.  After our soak, we got dressed and drove back into town to find my favourite candy store, which wasn't too hard.  This store is absolutely packed with all kinds of awesome candy. Some kinds you find in other candy stores, but there are many that I've only seen in that store or in olden day candy stores in ghost towns turned tourist attractions.  We had a great time pushing past other candy store visitors to see all the sights and by the end, most of us had bought something, some (me and Bryn) more than others.  We also were treated to ice cream since we hadn't been able to eat any with our meal last night.

Then it was back to the campsite to load up the trailer and get moving again.  About halfway to our next stop, at Lake Louise, Jonathan saw something down the river that flowed right beside the road.  He quickly pulled the car onto the shoulder and I declared the tall, stately blob in the distance a moose.  He confirmed that with his long camera lens and took lots of pictures before we continued on to see the sights of Lake Louise.  Once we parked, we jumped out of the car to tell my mum we had seen a moose.  She was really sad since she said she had seen it too, but my dad wasn't able to pull the whole truck and trailer off the road, so she didn't get any pictures of it.

Then Bryn joined us, and we walked to the lake, which is definitely prettier in the summer when the snow and ice on the lake melts and the glacier on the mountain behind the hotel contrasts beautifully with the turquoise water of the lake.  But it was still pretty and Jonathan and my mum took quite a few pictures in our 20-minute stop,  Then Bryn, my dad and I walked to the hotel to show Jonathan the lobby area.  It really is a unique place, especially if you've never seen it before.  I've been inside a ton, but it still never gets old for me.  After that stop, we kept on driving (through lots of construction) until my mum pulled over to the side of the road.  Concerned that something was wrong with Bryn's car that she was driving, we pulled off and parked in front of her.  She didn't get out of her car or anything so we were confused until I noticed a shape moving up near the railroad tracks.  "A bear," I shrieked to Jonathan and he grabbed his camera, quickly changed to his long lens, and started snapping.  When we looked back at my mum, we saw she was doing the same thing.  We stayed there for a big until the bear wandered off across the tracks and we lost sight of him.

Then, just before we got to Golden, we stopped at a construction site to take pictures of a group of mountain sheep, who didn't seem to mind the attention.  There are almost always mountain sheep on the east side of Golden, so I was sure we'd see some, and I was right.  After the pictures and a quick stop for gas and food at Subway (a place we ALWAYS stop to eat at during our road trips through the Rockies), we were on our way again.  A ways down the road, I saw two black bears, what looked like a mother and a cub, way down a railroad track as we came around a curve and down a bank, but there was nowhere to pull off the road since we were on a built up part with no shoulder, so we couldn't stop and get any pictures of those bears.  But later on, my mum pulled off the road again, turned around and drove to the shoulder on the other side.  Jonathan and I were right behind her.  There was  silvery-looking bear chomping on some greenery or berries right near the woods.  When we drove up, he looked up, stared at us for a second and then dashed away into the brush before Jonathan could get a picture of him.  We waited a bit, but he never returned.  Later we found out that my mum had gotten a couple, fuzzy pictures of him on her small camera.

Soon we were off driving again and saw no more exciting wildlife, except for some soaring birds, for the rest of our trip.  But Jonathan still used his time wisely and took a bunch of pictures of the impressive mountains (I think we were in the Selkirk mountain range by then).  Soon it got darker and I was sad Jonathan wouldn't be able to see all the scenery of driving into Kelowna, but I was also pretty happy our trip was coming to a close.  We finally drove into our driveway around 11 p.m. and it felt great to be home.  Now I think I'm going to hop into bed.  I've decided to keep up my commentary of my life at least while Jonathan is here.  So never fear, there will be more to read in the coming days.  Good night.