So where was I... oh yea, at the Canadian border...
The Canadians are still really into they're Olympic game propaganda - this little rock guy was everywhere there was a flat surface to stack rocks.
We stopped for a lunch break on the road. Canadians really know how to make a nice rest stop! I was fine with stopping by this little lake for a quick sandwich. Until I saw the Bear fur when we got out of the car. Nothing like eating a sandwich on full alert.
We continued north for a few hours and stopped JUST outside the Kootenay National Park to camp for the night in the town of Radium Springs. The campground was real nice, in a little valley off the road. Apparently, the mountain goats like to hang out on the hillside, but of course... no goats. When I checked us in the lady at the front desk gave us a real, real stern warning. NO walking on the trails, NO walking into town, make LOTS of noise, pack up the food, etc. Why?? Momma bear and her cub have been making the campsite their home! We were told if we heard a shotgun noise that it was fine, just the "bear banger" that people carry on them to scare the bears away. We set up camp and relaxed a bit. While we were getting our dinner ready we hear a very loud, very close bear banger.
After settling in we decided to go check out the hot spring right up the road, inside the park. Now the weather on the trip had not been real good up to this point, just generally cold (hence the emergency sweat pant shopping trip at the K-Mart in Libby, MT - desperate times, desperate measures). The hot springs were a very welcome part of the trip. The hot spring was naturally about hot tub temperature... a very wonderful soak. Chris practically had to drag me out of the water!
We stopped for photos of the entrance to Kootenay National Park. This was definitely a preview of the amazing sites waiting for us. (Notice it was raining, it was pretty much the only rainy night we encountered)
By the time we made it back it had stopped raining (for a minute or two, true mountain weather around these parts) and we got an amazing view from our campsite.
Hey! Look who I found!
We were up and on the road early the next morning - next stop - Banff!
The first view point in Kootenay National Park. The mountains got real big, real fast! I only wish it was actually clear, can you imagine a nice crystal clear blue sky day around here?
We continued our drive and stopped at the Paint Pots for a quick hike. I don't remember the entire story, but there is some pretty incredible geological activity in BC/Alberta. These pools are extremely strong with iron and the Aboriginals would use the mud as paint.
The next stop on the way to Banff was Marble Canyon. I wanted to stop, but didn't have much expectations... Super steep marble walls, bright blue water. A great stop!
Crazy rock!
In 2008 there was a real bad forest fire - the damage is still very obvious:
Unfortunately on the way back to the car, I pulled a classic Carissa. My foot slipped out from under me (how?? who knows...) and I TOTALLY biffed it. The result: A badly sprained ankle AND a tear in my jeans. The ankle will heal, the jeans, not so much.
And finally - BANFF! Banff National Park sits on the providence line between British Columbia and Alberta. Neither of us had been to Alberta, so that was kinda fun to check off the list. And! It was Continental Divide appearance #2!
Chris was in Alberta - I was in British Columbia!
Welcome to Alberta - Wild Rose Country!
We settled into our campsite - yet again in bear country. They're not really kidding about the bears. They have grizzly's and we happen to be there during berry season when the grizzly bears are particularly aggressive.
We got this friendly reminder on the way into the campground.
We didn't have too much daylight left so we heading into the town of Banff. The town of Banff itself is very touristy. It was kinda fun to browse for awhile.
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The Fairmont Hotel is a VERY fancy hotel (we stopped in to use the bathroom while we were out walking - a definite upgrade from the campground bathrooms). The hotel had a crochet lawn in the back!
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Here's the view from our campsite. As far as I'm concerned this view first thing in the morning isn't too bad. The mountain is called Tunnel Mountain because they were going to put a train through it to promote tourism when Banff was first founded. Because of the time/danger of blasting through that giant mountain they ended up re-routing the train before they began blasting.
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Well there is still more vacation left to torture you guys with, but that should do for this update! Hopefully I'll be able to get through it this weekend, better late then never, right?
