Well once you leave the Jasper National Park and the Columbia Icefiends you enter into Banff National Park. Did you know that this is was the first National Park in Canada?
Well as I finished up in Jasper National Park we were about to have some fun. As we were driving down the 93, we felt like we had driven over something - not sure what though. We passed a camper van pulled into the side changing its tyre and as we drove along next thing a warning light goes off in the car - Low Tyre Pressure....mmmmmmm. We pulled over and got out to have a look. The tyres didn't look flat and well the ones on the passenger side looked a little flatter than the driver side but we couldn't decide which tyre was the one with the low tyre pressure. So we got back in and drove to Lake Louise and pulled into a Gas Station there. I got Stacey to pull up to the tyre pressure pump and as she looked at me with a what am I supposed to do now look I checked the pressure on the back tyre - it looked a little low - 15 pounds. I checked the front the see what should be in it and well it only had 25 pounds which seemed a little low - and low it was as the two tyres on the other side had 40 pounds in them....ooooppppsss. Tyre repair shop closed til the morning. So we pulled over to one side and decided to change the back tyre and try to get to Banff. As we unloaded the luggage and took out the doughnut we were both down on hands and knees trying to decide where the jack went when three very nice Americans (2 from Texas, 1 from Arizona) came up and asked if we needed a hand, and without hesitation Staceey says 'Sure'... They found the holes in both tyres and well we thought that if we put tape on it, we could get to Banff... it probably wouldn't hold it though. So they guys changed the back tyre and we bought some stuff to but into the front tyre in the morning when we had to move it again..... They strongly recommended we did not drive the 58km to Banff that night but stay local. So we did. We found a hostel and a lovely one it was too. Very new and fresh. We were sharing with a South African that didn't know Maxine.
We found a lovely little cafe type restaurant across the street that had the best pizza we have had in a long time. A few beers later (as it was raining outside) we returned to the hostel for an early night. Well it was a kinda early night. Stacey was snoring and well as we had discussed previously I was to poke her and tell her to turn over.... so I did. Well at this point I should mention that Stacey has a little difficulty in hearing things and when she is half asleep it is even worse. Well that night when I poked her and got back into bed she goes 'Aine is the door open' I answer 'no Stace it's not' She obliviously doesn't hear and asks again.... 'Aine is the door open' I answer once again 'No Stace its not'.... snapping of fingers... 'Aine is the door open... dam you so I'll check it myself....' as I get out of bed to assure her the door is in fact closed..... The following morning we realised that our lovely roommate heard all and couldn't help but laugh herself to sleep... we were wondering what the noise was.
Well we were up at 7am - to snow and lots of it (for me). We showered, dressed and went outside to see if the tyre was flat or dead flat. It was dead flat. Well as we looked at the tyre we realised it had to have the special pumping stuff put into it. So as I looked at Stacey I definitely knew it wasn't going to be her doing it. So I pumped up the tyre as my hands froze and got it high enough for us to go the 1km or so down the road to the auto tyre place - all in the snow. When we finally found it we also found a rather cute mechanic to fix our tyresssss. We explained it was our car and not a rental and he promised to take really good care of it. Stacey spent the rest of the day going into potholes just so she could go back to the garage to look at him again. As in the case of the police officer who pulled us over, we also forgot to get a photo at the shop with our cute mechanic.
The dramatics over we had to change our plans somewhat so we decided to tour Lake Louise that day. It was not possible to do all the hikes we wanted but as the weather forecast was to disimprove we decided to hike to trail around Lake Louise as far as we could and then visit the Hotel. Well we managed to get a good distance on the trail and we were glad of the warmth when we got back to the hotel. We also met our very nice Americans on the trail that morning!!! They're hiking was limited that day as the hike they had planned was dangerous because of the snow.
The hotel was interesting - and as of all the other hotels it had burnt down too but the latest wing had only been opened in 2004. It was here we discovered that the Lake was named after Quenn Victoria's daughter Louise WHO DIDN'T EVEN VISIT THE LAKE!!! Like all the other hotels there was a certain amount open to the public to view.
Well we finally aimed for Banff that afternoon, getting there in time to go up the Gondola. At the top of the mountain we hiked over to the top of Sulpher mountain to the old weather station. As it had been snowing so much where was plenty around but it was remarkable warm up there. Along our hike there was a kid making snowballs and we managed to have a snowball fight with him..... and a little further along his brother attacked us from the other side.... not good... we lost....
The views from the top of the hill were just fab. I could have stayed there all day.
Stacey finally dragged me back to the Gondola and even though I built a snowman that fell off the railing just after I took a photo she swears that it wasn't her fault.... mmmmmm
Down the Gondalo we went and off the springs..... Stacey learnt here that her sign language doesn't work on me.... so when she turns her hands over and back... I don't know what this means.... What she really wanted to say was 'It might be a good idea to remove your jewelry'. Well my Niagra Falls ring was destroyed in the sulphur but my other ring has come back to normal again. Maybe I should explain what the baths are.....
Back in a year I don't remember, 3 rail workers on a day off found a hot spring - they thought they'd make lots of money from it. The Candian government were having none of it but after paying them off, this is what established the Canadian National Parks. The area around the spring was the first national park in Canada. We visited the original the following day.
The spring we went to we could soak in and soak we did. It was so relaxing.... After food and a nights sleep we covered the first spring and the Banff Springs Hotel (another one of those hotels you can take a tour in that was built by the rail road company) and a little shopping, we eventually left the Rockies and aimed for Calgary... just as all the weather warnings were in full swing.
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