Where Yarmiks Roam

Week 37 - National Parks in Canada - September 11 - September 14, 2023

Monday - our goal for the day was to get to Banff NP and find a place to park our camper.

Driving north on The Cowboy Highway we discovered the Bar U Ranch National Historic Site...I know, Who Knew. It was formed in the 1880's and is now an interactive facility where you can learn lots about the olden days. On "old guy" showed us around, and he did a really good job. Of course, even though the place was still open for the season, many displays were locked up. We really enjoyed visiting the bunkhouse and the kitchen/dining room.

Onward to Banff

A really neat thing we found were wildlife overpasses that go over the Trans Canada Highway #1. These overpasses are really wide, and there is fencing all along the highway. I suppose the animals are carefully guided by the fences to cross the road on the overpass rather that running across an interstate road and killing themselves and the automobile passengers.

It was really (..really...) stressful entering Banff NP and finding a camping site. For starters, National Hwy 1 goes right through the park so it was hard for novices to realize that the highway and the city of Banff and the national park are all kind of combined. You can only reserve a site online...but you can get no information online. Supposedly everything was full, but that just didn't make sense since it was the shoulder season. When we finally got off of Hwy#1 and onto Alt Hwy#1, we went through the NP Entrance where we showed our year long pass. We had the presence of mind to say, "online info says everything is full." She told us that there were some campgrounds that were only 'first come first serve' spots which can't be reserved. Duh. So, "Which ones are those?" She read off a bunch of names which I hurriedly wrote down. After figuring out a somewhat confusing pamphlets full of maps, we set our sights on Mosquito Creek Campground which was the closest one to us. Arriving at Mosquito Creek we pulled in to the last remaining vacant campsite and felt very happy. We later learned that, "if all spots are taken, the overflow camping is allowed." sure enough, by morning there were numbers campers and trailers parked on the edges of the roads and people in tents camped right in the center of a big patch of grass. We stayed in spot #31 for three nights.

This is the view from the door of the camper.

TUESDAY - Zelensky is helping me make breakfast.

Our plan for Tuesday was to visit Lake Louise (sigh..everyone has to visit LL because it is so famous). It is supposed to be soooooo beautiful. There is the resort town of Lake Louise and the actual lake of Lake Louise. (Louise was Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and wife of Governor General the marquess of something. It is so popular that, even though we were there at 9am, the was no remaining parking for RVs. We decided to get gas and unfortunately got in line behind a diesel customer whose pump was malfunctioning and was pumping slower than the kittens can lap up water. We must have been trapped in line for 45 minutes. Afterwards we treated ourselves to an expensive piece of fudge.

Since Lake Louise was unavailable, we decided to to to YoHo NP. We knew nothing about it except that it is a NP and just further west on the Trans Canada Hwy. The drive there was fantabulous

We stopped at the visitor's center to get ideas, and I got a sweat shirt.

There were two roads to take in Yoho. One road was to Emerald Lake. Lots of beautiful views.

Zelensky enjoyed the view from his special perch.

And then there was Emerald Lake. Maybe I've seen too many lakes,.....nice

In the afternoon we took the second road - The Kicking Horse Road. It was great. Twisty and windy, and steep - think Amalfi coast.

Here is Natural Bridge.

And further up Kicking Horse Road was a neat waterfall

By this time we'd run out of roads in YoHo so we decided to go back to the parking lot at Lake Louise. And.....there were parking places - - for 20.00. I thought it was highway robbery.

Yes it was beautiful...but so many cars and people that it was not a peaceful beauty....felt like we were at Lake Como

Here's our photo for the Ages

We were DONE for the day and headed back to Mosquito Creek for dinner and sleep.

WEDNESDAY the 13th - our goal was to drive from mosquito to Jasper which takes you through the Icefields....which is the highest place with glaciers in view. Nearly every turn in the road presented yet another magnificent view. After awhile, one gets "numb" with the beauty.

We noticed a turnout on the right...no sign or info...and we turned in, parked and followed a little trail. This was the viewpoint for the Howse Pass (names after John Howse, Hudson bay Co). Truly, it is one of the most beautiful vistas I've ever seen. It was breathtaking. I didn't want to leave.

We continued north and stopped at Coleman Creek - to honor Natalie and Clay.

Where we collected a rock for her and Clay.

Still heading north the views were still grand.

And we got to the Columbia Icefield which is a big open area with a glacier in the distance and little tiny specs of people walking up the glacier. There was also a BIG visitors center and a bizillion people buying tickets ($135) to ride a large tired red bus up the glacier and standing in line to get something from Starbucks.

The glacier is on the left.....can't see the people

The displays were interesting. They showed all of the glaciers and the directions to which their melted water flow. The Athabasca and Saskatchewan glaciers feed the Columbia River.

We left the crowd and headed north to Jasper. I was expecting a little European town...like maybe in Switzerland. But it kind of looked like it could be a small Bend. We headed south back to Site 31 at Mosquito Campground. On the way we photographed this nice river.

THURSDAY the 14th - we were leaving Banff and Jasper and heading southwest on Hwy 93 on our way to Columbia Lake. Who knew that road passed through Kootenay NP. We stopped at a sign describing the Paint Pots. These are mineral pools containing ochre which is a natural clay pigment with a lot of iron in it. I walked on the trail a bit to walk in the paths of the indigenous people.

Cool foot bridge.

I never did get to the Paint pots (pools) because the trail meandered through some ochre muddy spots, and, honestly, I didn't want to risk slipping. So I'll just have to imagine a pool with rusty colored water.

Further on the road we came to an interesting place with a bridge over a roaring river in a gorge.

We had now come to the point in our travels which was the purpose of the whole trip. We'd come here to find the source of the Columbia River - (2021 we were at the source of the Mississippi and in 2022, we found the source of the Missouri). We entered the little town of Invermere and came upon an Information Center!!!! We stopped, and it was a great place - all the local maps we needed and helpful hints from the employee.

We needed a place to spread out and plot our strategy....which is not in the back of a camper with frisky kittens. We went to Dairy Queen where we bought our lunch - the first and only time on our trip we ate out.

The Columbia River emerges from the northern end of Columbia Lake which is within the confines of Columbia Lake Provincial Park. Our newly acquired maps showed us exactly how to get there.