Lake Louise, Banff National Park Part 2

Tuesday, September 12th

As predicted the clouds moved in this morning. Also as predicted, Ray is in rough shape and must have a down day to recoup. But oh so worth it.

Tomorrow we plan to take the Bow River Parkway into Banff as we have lots of time before we check into our campsite there. Hopefully we see some wildlife and it does not rain too hard. To date other than the Big Horn Sheep just east of Golden, the biggest animal we've seen is a big fat Raven visiting our camp first thing in the morning.

At 10:30 am I ran into the village and picked up some fixin's for lunch at lofty prices ... oh well we are treating this portion of our trip like a holiday. Reality will set in when we leave Banff.

Ray took this picture this morning walking Freya of the trail near our campsite. Gorgeous. Almost looks like a painting.

By lunch the clouds were thickening, so I think sprinkles will occur soon. By 1 pm it was a constant drizzle/light rain for the rest of the day. Both of us hunkered down inside, with Ray only going out every few hours to give himself and Freya a stretch. Instead of going out to eat I made Prawn Pesto Fettucini.

Wednesday, September 13th

Still drizzling. Today is pack up day and head to our reserved campsite in Banff.  We had planned to take the Bow Valley Parkway, a secondary route with more scenery but with the rain ??? It will have to decided when it is time to depart.

9:30 am departure and as it was not raining and we have 1 1/2 hours at the earliest we could check-in in Banff so we did take the Bow Valley Parkway. Here is the sign entering the park.



I had a few glimpses of some new snow on the mountain tops but they quickly disappeared under the clouds. This would have been a beautiful drive if the sun was out.  Here are a couple of picture I took through the window and one stop we did try to show snow on the mountains but the clouds made quick work of that.

Delays for 5 minutes even on this back road, seemingly for no reason.

Otherwise here is what we were supposed to see along the parkway, compliments of google!

Morrant's Curve

Backswamp area along Bow River

Protection Mountain

Storm Mountain

Castle Mountain

Hiking Johnston Canyon, Banff National Park

We will have to save these things for another trip. :(

As we pulled into Banff the rain started in earnest. Just before the entrance to the campground we noticed everyone stopping. There was a great big Elk. Ray took a picture. The elk seemed totally unconcerned with everyone taking his picture.

Isn't he pretty.

The clouds opened up so we did a quick setup and a quick walk for the dog and then it was off to find some lunch. The Banff Ave Brewing Company did the trick. Great beer and food.

The rest of the day we hunkered down and I made bread and did laundry as we have full hookup. I booked our tickets for the cruise and gondola on Saturday as the weather should be much improved and we head to Calgary on Sunday. We will see other things in between the rain showers. Hopefully no too much snow falls this evening and into tomorrow. It will be pretty on the mountains though for our Saturday pictures.