2015 Canada West: Banff (6/22/2015)

Monday, June 22, 2015
Got an early start, leaving Calgary to head west into the Canadian Rockies.

Drive-by photo of the Canada Olympic Park
ski jumps and chairlift

First view of the Rockies today
(we had seen them from the airport on 6/19/2015)

Entering the Canadian Rocky Mountains

Brynne with the Big Head (2008, by Al Henderson)
in Canmore, AB (Canmore is from the Gaelic for Big Head)

Canmore's North West Mounted Police (NWMP) barracks (1893)

Canmore's Ralph Connor Memorial United Church (c. 1881)

An Ursus americanus/American Black Bear
on the side of the road to Lake Minnewanka (KSS)

Lake Minnewanka's $1.8-million biffy/outhouse
(2006-2008) with eco-friendly green technology

The old biffy

Lake Minnewanka

Spermophilus lateralis/Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel

Driving into the town of Banff, we saw a moose grazing at the side of the road.

The Fairmont Banff Springs
(rebuilt 1928 in Edwardian Victorian style)

The Fairmont Banff Springs corridor to the lobby

We had the breakfast buffet in the Bow Valley Grill in the hotel.

Our view at breakfast

Statue of William Cornelius Van Horne,
general manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR)
whose vision it was to build hotels and
bring the tourists to view all the scenery

Vermilion Lakes reflection of Mount Rundle and Sulphur Mountain

As we turned off on the Bow Valley Parkway/1A in Banff National Park, we saw a large herd of Ovis canadensis/Bighorn Sheep cross the road. They took off into the woods when a cyclist clattered across the cattle guard (called a Texas gate in Canada).

Banff National Park:
Johnston Canyon

Johnston Canyon catwalk (KSS)

Took the 1.1 km/0.7 mile hike
to the Lower Falls (and back!)

Lower Falls punchbowl

Kent in the tunnel for a closer look at the falls

Moss along the catwalk

Layered rock

Tamiko bends a tree (KSS) 

Castle Mountain

Heading north on Bow Valley Parkway

Next: Lake Louise.