Hidden Ridge Chalet Banff

... see the canal, pretty interesting seeing the massive container ships go through and only have inches to spare.<br>From Panama it was of to Canada to visit a friend in a place called Saskatoon.<br>While in Saskatoon I went ice skating for the first time and became hooked, also took a road trip down to a place called Grasslands national park, which was really interesting besides my constant fear of treading on a rattlesnake. We ...

... The meadow looked beautiful and peaceful. The mountain was brushed with fresh snow and the pass we were supposed to ascend was shrouded in cloud.<br><br><br> <br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br ><br> Over hot chocolate and a lengthy potato pancake ...

... edge.<br><br>We will camp at the Icefield Centre which has no hookups, but who needs that when you can view a glacier outside your window? Actually, dry camping is not difficult for us since we have plenty of water and a generator.<br><br>Most of the group is planning to take a SnoCoach tour. A SnoCoach is like a bus with monster truck tires that transports visitors onto the glacier ...

... cars to get off the road. We left the airport, navigating the roadwrks, and went the wrong way, turned around and went the right way, only to realise the road we were actually on was the right one! WTF! the road names were the same for the road heading west and south from the airport... the problem was we didn't expect a road to change names 90 degrees at an intersection! so back on track and we were on our way ...

... and Tunnel Mountain (after getting lost because I just can't read maps - and I am a Navigation Instructor in scuba diving ... ;) ...). We wrapped up the day at the Old Spaghetti Factory and some American sitcoms at home. The next day was a glorious again with the sun shining and our hiking boots (or in my case cross-country running shoes) were ready for another challenge: Sulphur Mountain. There is a cable car going up but we wouldn't be we if we didn't hike up (or as ...

... which I think takes about 3-4 hours or the lower falls trail which took us 1 hour, round trip. To get to the falls we walked threw a small, short cave. The falls was frozen blue in several layers on the outside with water still running underneath it. After seeing the lower falls I wanted to see the high falls but not on such a cold day. We heard about the Ice Sculpture contest in Lake Louise so we drove up 45 ...

... some pictures of pool and basin where tourists used to come to bathe in the "healing waters," and watched a movie about the discovery of the springs. You are not allowed to touch the water now, on account of preserving the natural habitat. You are allowed to bathe in the hot springs that are a few kilometres above the cave and basin or in Radium, but we did not have time to do either today. We wanted to go on the Banff Gondola ...

... side of the main strip, there is a 10,000 foot peak. Not bad for a background. Pooh ended up buying a couple of aluminum water bottles (plastic bottles are the latest things that causes cancer), and I got a Banff shirt made out of a cool material &amp; a long-sleeve red Canada shirt. So instead of 1 hour, we spend around 3 hours. We rode the bikes back to the truck - this time without Pooh falling over. We drove back the 30 min. to the RV and had a small dinner ...

... lived an hour away from Sam, so we were talking to him a bit which was nice. This time we met at the bus at 3.00 and started to drive back to Cold Lake. Again we stopped for dinner, and again everyone was really tired. We got back at about 12.30 and by the time we got our stuff, cleaned up the bus and got home it was about 1.15am on Sunday. I stayed up for a little while to talk to Charlotte and then I went to bed and slept in until about 12.30.

... so we went. It is bloody hot! 40 degrees. I still thought it was seedy (not in a good way!) Kind of cool though to be hot and comfortable outside when its really cold (if that makes any sense). I looked like a lobster when I got out, like when you get out of a hot bath. After this we made our way out of Banff. We got on the Trans-Canadian Highway, and headed for Lake Louise. It was really straightforward and we had no problems getting there. It took about 45 minutes. Lake ...