The beautiful Canadian Rockies

Trip Start Jun 22, 2007
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Trip End Sep 07, 2007


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Flag of Canada  , Alberta,
Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Canmore is a small town on the Bow River just outside (about 4 miles) the entry to Banff National Park. The Bow River is a long one that runs all the way thru the park.  The water in this river is amazingly clear and a bright blue/green.  The rv park we were in is called Spring Creek and is situated around a housing/condo development which is under construction.  The RV Park will be replaced by condos soon......alot of that going on in this area.  The real estate seems to be booming and prices are out the roof......at any rate is is a beautiful area situated on the edge of the Canadian Rockies.

In Banff town we took a gondola ride to the top of the for views of over 10 of the surrounding mountains.  It was a nice day and the pictures cannot do it justice.  The place is packed with tourists and has limited parking.  The lines to get in the park looked like the lines to go into Disney World, and the lines at the gondola were worse Another self portrait Lake Louise
Another self portrait Lake Louise
 .  Anyway it was worth the wait to see the views. 

Lake Louise is farther into the park to the north of Banff and we took the jeep up with the dogs for the day.  The lake is a gorgeous glaciel lake but more of the same as far as the crowds and lines are concerned. 

We would like to do some fly fishing and have pittled in the small streams here around the campground but in a conversation with the local fly shops I learned the fishing is not great due to the glacial run-off at this time.  They were hoping for better conditions later in the week. 

We put the kids in doggie day care one day and made the drive up the icefields parkway to the Columbia Icefields and glacier.  It was a great drive and a really interesting tour.  The "snow bus" vehicle they drive you over the glacier with is amazing.  It is made by a company in Calgary Alberta and all are in use here except one which is owned by the US government and used in Antarctica for scientific exploration.  It has low (15 psi) pressure tires and a special locking transmission which allows it to make the steep (30%) grade down to the glacier.  We learned so many interesting things about the glacier and the importance of the Columbia river I can't go into it all here but visit the columbiaicefields.com if you're interested.

We departed Canmore a day early since the Canadian holiday weekend was coming up.  Next - a one nite stop at Radium Hotsprings on the way to the US Border town of Roosville Montana.
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