Cypress Hills area; town of Banff; Overlooking Moraine Lake; See Judy's blog for photos of our last days.
Day 76 Miles 188 Lake Louise Campground, Banff National Park. The drive here was beautiful with incredible turquoise lakes and majestic mountains along the way. We stopped at the Columbia Icefields Visitor Center which had spectacular views of the neighboring glaciers. Dramatic detail of how large the glacier was at the beginning of the 20th century was displayed. Markers in the parking lot illustrated the location even more recently. At one pull out stop we met three couples from Pennsylvania beginning their trip to Alaska. While visiting with them, emergency vehicles began flying by, police, fire and several ambulances. Somewhere on the route we’d just traveled must be a terrible accident. I had been amazed at the speed of some of the cars and motorcycles on roads with a lot of traffic and a lot of pull outs. In addition there were a surprising number of bicyclists!
We continued into Lake Louise and found a line at 1 p.m. waiting for camping sites. Most like us did not have reservations. I walked up to the kiosk and was assured it was worth the wait. We might not have electricity but we would get a site. As it turns out they put us together on one long site and only charged us for one. No electricity but good proximity to the toilet/shower facilities.
We started withMoraine Lake which is further out of town. The guides warn of parking problems at both this lake and Lake Louise and vehicles were parked down the road. Judy drove again and does much better at parking in tight spaces managing to get us into the lot. Incredible numbers of people were there admiring the beautiful turquoise blue lake. Rental canoes were moving in and out and they looked tempting. We opted to walk most of the trail that goes along one side of the lake through the woods.
We then headed to Lake Louise and the famous hotel there, now part of the Fairmont chain. Even though it was after 5, the parking was crowded and hundreds seemed to be taking their photos in front of the lake with the hanging glacier in the background. Judy assisted a Japanese family with their camera and then they took one of us with our cameras.
We decided to treat ourselves to a drink in the hotel lounge. We were able to get a table at the window overlooking the lake. The lounge menu had some good, not too expensive choices which appealed to both of us. The food was excellently prepared and served. I couldn’t resist and had their apple strudel. It was the best I had ever eaten. What a way to cap off a fantastic journey together.
Day 77 Miles 349 Cypress Hill Provincial Park, Elkwater, Alberta This was farewell day. Judy heads west toward BC and I, east. We have been so fortunate that all has gone so well in the last almost 2 month’s time. We asked someone to take our photos before heading off. We each needed to pump out and took more photos there much to the amusement of those around us. There are at least 5 dump stations and all were busy.
I headed out on Transcanada Highway 1 which will be my route until I reach Winnipeg Manitoba. I wasn’t sure of my destination for the day but my first stop was to check out the town of Banff. Crowded with tourists as advertised but I walked the main street. Jasper and Banff both remind me of Aspen Colorado. Back on the road I stopped a short while later for gas at Canmore. The two stations I found at Banff were very crowded and had little room for maneuvering which was somewhat true at Canmore, as well. An attendant pumped the gas, rushing from vehicle to vehicle.
In Calgary I encountered a long traffic jam due to road construction with lane reductions. Fortunately I had stopped at a pullout earlier to eat some lunch. I concluded that I better just stay at the Walmart in Medicine Hat. The address I had from my Walmart atlas was not the location. I then found a closed Walmart before locating the new supercenter. No other Rv’s at 6 p.m. but I was told I could stay. It was hot so I decided to go get gas and then check the GPS for a park where I could hang out a while. The park that came up was the one where I had considered camping and it was 27 miles away. I hit the road again.
Cypress Hills Provincial Park is a wonderful facility and they had a full schedule of activities planned for the tomorrow’s Parcs Canada Day ending with fireworks (July18(. It is a very large park, but unfortunately all that remained was overflow parking on their rodeo grounds. Isolated from the park itself, it’s a quiet grassy area with another Roadtrek belonging to new owners from Vancouver.
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