Last day in Banff

It was cloudy and drizzling AGAIN the morning we were ready to move from Lake Louise on to Calgary.  The forecast had been for improving weather so I kept being positive there was going to be blue sky SOON but it was just not happening.   We decided to try one more run down the road you are supposed to see the wildlife on before moving on down the road. It was about 7:45 and we were just started down the road when we came upon our two young men from France we had given the ride to the morning on the way to Lake Louise.  This time they had their bicycles with them and it was raining.  They offered to ride in the back again but we put the tripods down and out in the back. They loaded their bikes and we piled all the other junk in the front seat so they could ride in the back seat out of the cold. 

I asked them if their bikes were broken but they said “no they were broken” – meaning they were just worn out.  The one spoke much better English than the other but it seems they were engineering students and as part of their education they have to spend four months in another country to learn more about other cultures.  They are supposed to earn all of the money themselves. They belong to some organization that has a website they can get on and find farms that have work for these students for room and board to get them experience and make it cheaper to tour the country for that long. One of them had worked for three weeks on a chicken farm in Ottowa and the other had worked on a blueberry farm in New Brunswick.  What an experience.  They rented bikes in Calgary and thought they would tour the Canadian Rockies but did not realize how steep the hills were!  Anyway we took them on into Banff.  After we let them off at the interchange to turn back to Lake Louise to pick up our trailer we realized we should have taken them on into town and bought them breakfast but they were grateful for the 40 miles further down the road they did not have to ride.  What a brave thing to do.

We loaded the trailer back on the truck and headed on out.  We had bought a package ticket when we went out on the glacier ice coach that included a boat cruise on and gondola to the top of the mountain at Banff but the weather had been so BAD the whole time we were there we had decided we would just do them when we returned this direction after the Stampede next week.  But as the day moved more toward noon the sun actually did start to at least peek through so we were about 15 miles on the other side of Banff when we made a spontaneous decision – very rare for us and stopped at a municipal campsite and took off the trailer and returned with the truck to do the two things in Banff.  We had checked out the parking lots the day before and there was no way we could have made it in them with the trailer even though the visitor’s center had told us there would be no problem at either one of them.  I guess that is why we don’t make many spontaneous decisions!!

We went out on Lake Minnewanka which is actually a reservoir as a result of two small damns built on it. It was fun and we learned lots about the lake and its history.  The boat had two 250 horse power John Deere engines in it so it moved along pretty fast.

When we came back to the dock we saw a group of mountain sheep ewes and lambs on the road over the top of the dam stopping the cars.  Dad got off the boat as fast as he could and got some fun pictures.

They traveled on across the dam and into the parking lot - walking right among all the people and cars and even totally stopping a big tour bus while slowly moving where they wanted to.  Here is a cute picture of the only two lambs in the group.

After we did the boat ride we went up to the mountain for the gondola ride. I was nervous about hanging up in the air going up that mountain but decided to be BRAVE and just do it. It was an awesome view so I am glad I did.

A view of the town of Banff and Lake Minnewanka from the top of the mountain.

And a picture of the two happy tourists on top of the lookout ta ken by a tourist from Japan with a camera like Dad's that she was asking him to help her set up!  He took her with her husband in return.

After using the other two parts of our package ticket we just went back and picked up the trailer from the campground slick as a whistle and headed back on down the road to Calgary for the next portion of our adventure.  

Here are a couple of pictures I found left on the thumb drive that I didn't get included in any of the posts.  Two shots of a goat licking the side of a road for minerals to supplement his diet.







Just too beautiful to not include - this was out our window as we drove.