Day 25
What a day! After a leisurely start to the day (even missed breakfast , taking advantage of our suite at the Fairmont in Lake Louise), our day consisted of four (actually five) highlights - Lake Moraine, Lake Louise, a bear sighting (yes!), Johnson Canyon, and another bear sighting.
Our first stop was Lake Moraine – the colour is breathtaking so blue, so clear.
It is also a highly visited tourist site cars were parked a kilometre or so back from the main parking lot. We headed to the parking lot (figuring someone has to be leaving), and after 3 circles, we got a spot. Lake Moraine is a .5 sq/km glacial fed lake in the Valley of the Ten Peaks. We are just in awe of the clarity of these glacial-fed waters. There are five trails around the area; we chose the Moraine Lake Lakeshore Trail (one of the shorter trails) because we had so much to still see in the day.
We headed back to the Fairmont to wander about Lake Louise and then pack up good thing we could still park underground at the hotel, as both huge parking lots were filled with vehicles, and the street leading to the parking lots was bumper to bumper vehicles. Lake Louise is a beautiful sight, pristine emerald coloured waters with glaciers overlooking the lake. Six glaciers fill the 70m deep lake. Breathtaking!
Both Lake Moraine and Lake Louise get their colour from the glaciers that grind the rock beneath them into a fine powder, called rock flour. Meltwaters wash the powder into the lake, and the resultant silty water absorbs all the colours of incoming light except the striking turquoise and vivid blue that reflect back to our eyes.
We decided to take the Bow Valley Parkway on route to Banff much more scenic than the Trans-Canada Highway. We stopped along the Parkway at a few lookout spots, and planned on stopping at Johnson Canyon. A few kilometres before Johnson Canyon, Todd excitedly exclaims, A bear !! get the camera!
Just ahead of us a black bear is sauntering across the road into the woods! I get the camera out, and go to lean forward for a pic from the front window, but get stuck by the seatbelt. As the bear headed into the woods, I rolled down the side window, and started snapping away (had my sunglasses on, and wasn’t even sure I was seeing it in the viewfinder
.). Yeah! we saw a bear
so exciting! He was just a young bear we figure because of size, but we were satisfied.
We knew we were coming upon Johnson Canyon because of all the vehicles parked along the roadside. Johnson Canyon has a number of small falls and two major falls, a lower and a higher. The hike to the 20 m high Lower Falls is about 1 km and the hike to the 40 m Higher falls is another 3 km. We decided to hike to the Higher Falls first, along a trail that snakes along the rugged terrain of the canyon. It was worth the mostly uphill climb to see the majestic cascade of water falling to the mossy gorge below.
On our hike back towards the Lower Falls, we looked down into the gorge below and were shocked to see a photo-shoot. A bride and groom were having wedding photos taken at the waters edge with the canyon in the background
..no idea how they got down there!
The Lower Falls was interesting. We climbed through a small tunnel of rock that leads to a close up view of the Lower Falls where a refreshing mist gently falls. It was a great view.
Just after Johnson Canyon, we spotted another bear in the woods, but he didn’t stay for his photo-op. Two bears in one day!!
We arrived in Banff around 5:30 pm. We are staying at a B&B just outside of the downtown area great location. We decided on Saltlik for dinner good thing Todd made a reservation, as there was a long wait if you didn’t. The meal was delicious. We each had a Caesar Salad, the shared the New York Steak (blue cheese sauce and crumble on the side for Todd), a baked potato, and grilled asparagus. We were not disappointed, but we were very full.
After dinner, we took a leisurely walk around the downtown area enjoying the night air and people-watching a great end to a great day .