Banff and Lake Louise
June 14 - 17, 2015
After entering Canada at Glacier National Park, we headed for the Canadian national parks, Banff and Jasper. Maybe our memories are not as good as they used to be, but it seems that the Canadian parks have gotten very expensive since we were here last in 2008. The entry fee is per person per day, not per vehicle. For the two of us, it was $100 for six days, including the senior discount - wow!  I guess we have been spoiled by the Golden Age pass in the U.S. that allows us free entry into all the national parks.







The town of Banff is not particularly interesting, but surrounding area is very pretty with rugged mountains. This pretty little lake is called Johnson Lake.









Indian Paintbrush on the shore of Johnson Lake.









Minnewanka Lake is a much larger lake near Banff.







Strolling along the road on the shore of Minnewanka Lake were four bighorn sheep.








This raggedy looking fellow has not yet lost all his winter coat. I recall from an earlier trip to Alaska that you can tell the age of a bighorn by the ridges on his horns. However, you have to pick out the major ridges and ignore the minor ones. If I counting them right, this fellow looks to be about seven or eight years old.







We took the Bow Valley Parkway from Banff to Lake Louise, and encountered two black bears along the way. This one was too busy eating to pay much attention to us. That is just as well, since I violated the park rule of staying 100 meters away from bears in order to get this picture. A lot of good my bear spray would have done me; I had left it in the RV.








This statue is in memory of a World War I internment camp, Camp Castle, which was located nearby. After Canada entered World War I in 1914, thousands of immigrants from Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Bulgaria were placed in 24 internment camps located across Canada. Between 1915 and 1917, more than six hundred  men in Camp Castle worked on roads and bridges in the national park. This little bit of Canadian history is very similar to our own history of having interred Japanese-Americans during World War II.







Lake Louise is a very pretty, but also very popular and crowded, area of Banff National Park. In the distance is Victoria Glacier, which is still some 300 feet thick.








We were surprised to see a voyageur canoe on Lake Louise. It seems out-of-place since the voyageurs never got here. But, I guess anything goes if it makes a buck out of the tourists.








On the shore of Lake Louise is the famous Chateau Lake Louise. It is a very upscale hotel. If you have to ask how much it costs to stay here, you can't afford it. We didn't stay here.











The lobby of the hotel. It is pretty elegant.

We had dinner in one of the six restaurants in the hotel; it was paying back Nancy for a postponed Mothers' Day dinner. The food was very good.



We had hoped to go kayaking in Lake Louise today (June 17). We have been sitting all morning in the RV in the parking lot of the hotel waiting for the rain to stop and the clouds to clear. But it doesn't seem to be in the cards. Tomorrow we head up the Icefields Parkway to Jasper. Hopefully, the weather will clear overnight so we get some good views.