Canadian Rockies Day 4 Yoho and Banff National Park

So now that we are back, we have usually decent internet and all the pictures have finally decided to upload I am going to go back and update the blog for each day as I have time.  

Last time I wrote we were in Banff and on day 3, now we are in hot rainy Minneapolis and I will pick up where I left off with day 4.  This was our last day in Banff itself.  Since we had already done some of the must see things in Banff Park, we headed out to Yoho National Park

Map of all the Canadian Rockies National Parks

We had breakfast in our room, but stopped in town to buy lunch and get some coffee before our drive.  This is a view of the main street in Banff which had lovely views of mountains all around.

Banff Starbucks.  Basically like the ones in America (they even take rewards!) but cheaper thanks to the exchange rate

We drove about an hour to get to Yoho National Park.  The turn off was around Lake Louise.  Here is the Boundary sign

First stop in the park was in Field at the park info office.  There we got a couple of souvenirs and looked at the exhibits.  This park is actually famous for its large fossil ares.  I had wanted to go see them, but like most things in the park that area isn't open yet.  I guess the roads must be pretty high because most areas we wanted to see were still listed as snow covered.

First actual hiking stop was Emerald Lake.  This is a pretty little alpine lake with lots of hiking trails nearby.  There is also a lodge/conference center that looks like a good place to stay if we ever come back

We only did the relatively flat lake loop at this lake.  Here is our stats for that walk

The views around the entire lake were amazing!  The lake was perfectly calm and when we got there there was almost no people yet so had the place to ourselves.

There was some new wildflowers along the walk

View from the far side of the lake where there was a large open area between the river and the actual lake

There was a huge area of lady slippers along the shore!

Not sure what this water bird is, but it looked pretty cool.

View of the lodge area as we approached the end of the hike.

On the way out we stopped at the natural bridge. 

Dinky and the natural bridge from one of the viewing areas.

After that our next stop was Wapta Falls.  Wapta Falls is the largest waterfall by volume in the Canadian Rockies.

Before the hike we had a picnic lunch from the supplies bought in Banff.  It would have been an even better lunch without all the bugs around!

 The trail to the falls was not very long and relatively flat compared to the other hiking we have done

Wapta Falls from the top.  Lots of rushing water and we could feel the cooling mist

Wapta falls from the bottom.

This is what a lot of the trail looked like.  Relatively flat with some ups and down and some shade thanks to the trees.

After that hike was discussed what we wanted to do.  We decided to try to visit the Cave and Basin Site in Banff and hopefully do some canoing if time.  After about an hour drive we arrived back in Banff and had about an hour to see the Cave and Basin Site

This is the original hot spring cave that drew tourists to Banff.  I lasted about 1 minute in there because it was the worst rotten egg smell you could imagine.  Why anybody would want to sit in that water is beyond me.  Right now they don't allow any soaking in the pools at this site.  They built the upper springs area which we visited the night before.  This site is now more of a historical park with information focusing on the hot springs.

This is the renovated changing area that now houses exhibits

View from the top of the building of the surrounding mountains

At the top of the building there is a trail to visit the source of the hot springs.  This kinda gross looking stream is close to the source.  If you look closely you can see the endangered snails that they are trying to protect.

After seeing the main historic areas we decided to go on the marsh walk.  Before we reached the trail we stopped at this exhibit about the internment camps that happened mostly during the first world war.  Seems Canadian history on these camps is about as bad as our history.

We somehow missed the marsh trail and ended up doing a longer walk along a horse trail.  There was still great views like above (but unfortunately this caused us to miss the time for the last canoe

We stopped here to pick up some Banff souvenirs before heading to Lake Minnewanka to see if we could catch the last cruise. 

Lake Minnewanka is the largest lake in Banff park.  Here is dinky checking out the area.  Sadly the companies website was wrong and there wasn't a 6 pm cruise.  So instead of doing the boat cruise we just sat to enjoy the lake and plan an alternative.

Some mountain goats that crossed the dam while we watched and then disappeared into the woods

We settled on the relatively short tunnel mountain hike before dinner.  This is a short mountain right in the middle of Banff that is popular with the locals

View of the Fairmont on the way up the mountain

View on the non city side of the mountain

Great views from the top of the mountain looking toward Banff town.

Those red chairs again.  Unfortunately while we were up there two girls decided to take at least 20 min naps in the chairs.

View of the trail.  It was actually a lot of switchbacks so while it did go up many hundreds of meters, it wasn't that steep.

Final stop before dinner was the Cascade gardens in town.  They were clearly not quite up and running for the summer yet, but it was still pretty cool

There were some perennials out like these guys.

The grounds include the headquarters for the park.  It looked more like a castle than administration buildings.

Castle with Indian heads I guess?

View of main street in Banff as we headed to dinner.

We ate at the Bear Street Tavern in Banff.  They had a great beer menu with a tasting option

We had a nice large beet salad and a hawaiian pizza that was pretty good and not overly expensive.

Final stop of the night was the hot tub back at our hotel.  We made it just in time to see the pretty pinks of sunset around 10:30 pm.

Canadian Rockies Day 3 Lake Louise and the Tea Houses

Day 3 of our trip was again all about hiking.  This time though we mostly hiked on one long hike at Lake Louis. We started the day like the day before, with bagels coffee and oj in our room with the great view.  We were on the road by about 8 am when we took the transcanada hwy to Lake Louis.

Also just a note to anyone reading the blog as we go.  I am one day behind because we have slow internet so I need an entire day for pictures to upload.  I will try to keep up in Jasper, but our internet is supposed to be even slower.

The transcanada hwy to Lake Louise

We had our first wildlife encounter/near car accident.  There were about 10 cars just stopped on the hwy to observe this bear.  Next up we stopped in Lake Louise again for some mochas, a bathroom stop and making sure all water was filled for the hike

Lake Louise the base for our long day of hiking.  Way way way in the background you can see the glaciers we hiked to.

The start of the trail up to the Lake Agnes TeaHouse.  It was a pretty good uphill, but not as bad as parts of yesterday's hike

Big beehive once we got to mirror lake.  We are of course eventually going to hike up to the top of that.

Right before getting to the Lake Agnes Teahouse there was this lovely waterfall

We made it to the teahouse right before the made rush.  The teahouse has been there since the 1920's I believe.  It has no electricity and the staff have to hike everything in.  Even with that they have about 80 types or tea.  We had the apple crisp and a pot of black raspberry

Lake Agnes.  We hiked around it and then up to the big beehive (big hill on the left of the picture)

View of the teahouse from the other side of Lake Agnes

Yep we hiked through more snow, but thankfully they had just lifted the avalanche warnings.

The top of big beehive was totally worth it.  Here is the view of Lake Louise from the top

There was a nice little shelter overlooking the lake

Dinky's view during the hike

And time to get down from the beehive and continue to the Plain of 6 Glaciers

Good views most of the way there (and not much shade, which made it a little hot)

A few new wildflowers showed up on our hike (see google photos if you want to see more!)

Trail with the glaciers in the background

Lots of cool waterfalls like this one were along (or in some cases over) the trail

Looking back at Lake Louise before we turned the corner to the Teahouse

We got to the teahouse expecting it to be closed, but thankfully it wasn't.  We snagged a shaded table and ate the lunch of salami, bread and cheese that Zach carried.

Then we had chocolate cake and lemonade!

This cute dog was sniffing around us a lot...I might have given him some of the cheese I couldn't finish

After our little rest it was another 1-2 km to the Plain of 6 Glaciers viewpoint

It was not the most fun hike up toward the waterfall, and I twisted an ankle on the way up, but we did eventually make it.

Dinky and the rocks.  I have decided that I have no desire to hike up these loose rocks ever again.  It was about .5 km of feeling like I was going to slip and die at any moment.

Finally we started back to Lake Louise.  This time on the lower trail which eventually had some shade.

The lake is getting closer!

And we made it to the lake!

View from the lake trail walking back toward the trailhead

We were both so tired by this point.  It was about 80 degrees and we had been hiking for 7 hours covering 13+ miles

One final look at the lake before heading back to Banff

We needed more calories so we stopped for milkshakes before getting on the hwy.

Sadly we just missed the last canoe rental of the day.  So we decided spur of the moment to get back on the Bow Parkway and look for more wildlife before heading to dinner.

We went a little more than half way back to Lake Louise and stopped at all the little information signs on the road.  This is the furthest one and is a memorial to the Ukrainian (and other) men who worked in the internment camps to build the park during WW I

Castle Mountain viewed from one of the stops

Our first wildlife stopping was the canadian ground squirrel.  These guys were loud, but very cute.

Next stop was a short hike down to a pond where we saw a loon.  (I later learned they are more common here than I thought)

Pretty cool reflection of the mountain on the pond

First wild rose spotting.  Alberta is supposed to be wild rose country and there does seem to be a lot of them.

I love these birds.  They are kinda tropical looking (but I haven't figured out what it is yet)

More loud ground squirrels at another stop

Natural cave in the mountain

We set a timer so we could get our pictures taken in the red chairs.  These chairs are all over the national parks and they encourage you to sit and enjoy the scenary.

Another one of those tropical looking birds

We were almost back to Banff when Zach spotted this Elk on the other side of the road.  He swung around so we could get a closer look

Giant elk, but luckily he was more interested in dinner than us.

One last great viewpoint before exiting the parkway as it was closing for the night.  They close it between 8 pm and 8 am so the animals have some space.

Finally back in Banff for some beer and burgers at Eddies Burgers

I had the elk burger which included some amazing truffle fries and blueberry chutney

Final stop of the night was the Banff Hotsprings.  They fill it partially with the sulfur spring water and partially with other water to cool it down from the 50 degrees Celsius it starts at.  We spent about 30 min floating in the pool and relaxing the sore muscles.

And finally done for the night.  This is the view from near the hot springs as we headed back to the hotel.