Despite the rains last night, this morning looked promising with only a few clouds and some blue sky. Darryl was anxious to get on the road while the weather was good as the forecast is still calling for storms this afternoon.Darryl took photos of the low clouds hanging around the crowns of the mountains on either side of Canmore.
Photos for me are sparse today as I'm getting a bit photo'd out. Yes, it's true!! I'm storing up energy for the Stampede tomorrow!
At 10:45 am, we ran into a sunshower as we were leaving Canmore, but no rainbow this time. We are heading back into Banff National Park today and also to Johnstone Canyon.
At 11:30am, we stopped at a bridge near Castle mountain where a pair of Osprey are nesting on the bridge trusses. We got photos of them on the nest, in nearby trees and also in the air (Darryl did with his camera, I was shooting with the powershot so I have video of them, but no photos).
At 11:30am, we stopped at a bridge near Castle mountain where a pair of Osprey are nesting on the bridge trusses. We got photos of them on the nest, in nearby trees and also in the air (Darryl did with his camera, I was shooting with the powershot so I have video of them, but no photos).
Hopefully, Darryl will also post photos from today as he took many more than I did and should have gotten some really good ones of the osprey.
At 11:45am, we came to “Moose Meadows” – surely there would be the elusive moose here? Ah, not so – according to the signs posted at the scenic overlook, it is rare to see moose even there – you are far more likely to see elk or deer, but rarely moose.
At 11:45am, we came to “Moose Meadows” – surely there would be the elusive moose here? Ah, not so – according to the signs posted at the scenic overlook, it is rare to see moose even there – you are far more likely to see elk or deer, but rarely moose.
From 12:00 to 1:30pm, we were at Johnstone Canyon – which was obviously the place to be! The parking lot was full, two lots, actually, and there were cars lining both sides of the road for a kilometre in either direction. Busy, busy spot!
The trails there were not that clearly marked and Darryl and I took a wrong turn and although we were following a trail, it wasn’t the one that lead to the waterfall. After about a kilometre, we came to a rock cliff and we could go no further. We did take a lot of photos of the stream and of each other climbing through and over rocks and branches, but we could not get to the falls. So, back we went to locate the proper trail, which we did. Darryl took the walk up the trail to the falls while I checked out the gift shop in hopes of finding a book I had been looking for since Radium…no luck.
I sat outside in the sun and watched a woman with a beautiful border collie while each had their own ice cream cone.
Darryl came back and said the trip was really worth it and he wished he had more time to go further. There are several falls in succession leading to a spot called “paint pots”. It was a 3 hour hike in to the paint pots, so we’ll have to do that on another trip.
At 2pm, we came into the town of Banff, and again, as we had at the last half dozen information centres, I went in in hopes of finding the book I’ve been looking for since Radium – and I found it!
In case I haven’t already explained in a previous post (I can’t remember and I don’t want to get online right now to check) – when we stopped in Radium earlier this week, I bought a book called “Wildlife Watching” by Michael Kerr which has become our bible the past week as we travel through the various parks. The book is interspersed with Kerr’s unique brand of woodsy humour and I noted at the back that he has authored another book called “When Do You Let The Animals Out? A Field Guide to Rocky Mountain Humour”. When I bought the first book in Radium, I know I saw this book there as well, but at the time had no interest in it, now, however, I’m kicking myself six ways to Sunday for not buying it on spec. I have gone into every Information and Visitors Centre in every town, village and park we’ve been in since looking for it to no avail until I finally scored a copy in Banff. The staff in the visitors centre were giving me odd looks when I walked in and spotted it across the width of the entire building and dodged and weaved my way through the other tourists and displays to snatch up the copy off the gift store shelf!
At 2:30, we took a short detour outside of Banff to the Vermillion Lakes, where Darryl spotted a bald eagle in a distant tree but otherwise, there wasn’t much to see. After which we detoured through Banff Springs Golf Club where occasionally elk are seen but again we came up empty handed, and so we left the beauty of Banff and the mountains behind and headed for our final stop of our vacation, Calgary.
Along the way, we drove through a horrendous downpour and thought perhaps we might even see a funnel cloud – the clouds on our left were black and very ominous looking with occasional flashes of lightening, while on our right, they were white and fluffy with lots of blue poking through.
At 5pm we arrived at my cousin Ellen’s apartment where we will spend our last night here. She informed us that my cousin Corinne and her daughter Dalyce are on their way here from Hays to spend the night as well as Daylce has a volleyball tournament in Calgary tomorrow – that means there will be 5 people in a 1 bedroom apartment for the night – should be cozy!
Ellen made a delicious stir-fry with rice for us for supper which we enjoyed with a glass of white wine made by my cousin Joy and her husband, Randy. We’re just sitting here now having tea and waiting for Corinne and Dalyce to arrive although I’m not sure I will last much longer and might soon be heading off to bed for the night.
Tomorrow will be a very full day as we are planning to spend the morning at the Calgary Zoo and then have tickets for the Calgary Stampede tomorrow and then are meeting a fellow moosedogger, Lynda, for dinner tomorrow night before we have to go to the airport at 10pm to catch our flight back home.
At 2:30, we took a short detour outside of Banff to the Vermillion Lakes, where Darryl spotted a bald eagle in a distant tree but otherwise, there wasn’t much to see. After which we detoured through Banff Springs Golf Club where occasionally elk are seen but again we came up empty handed, and so we left the beauty of Banff and the mountains behind and headed for our final stop of our vacation, Calgary.
Along the way, we drove through a horrendous downpour and thought perhaps we might even see a funnel cloud – the clouds on our left were black and very ominous looking with occasional flashes of lightening, while on our right, they were white and fluffy with lots of blue poking through.
At 5pm we arrived at my cousin Ellen’s apartment where we will spend our last night here. She informed us that my cousin Corinne and her daughter Dalyce are on their way here from Hays to spend the night as well as Daylce has a volleyball tournament in Calgary tomorrow – that means there will be 5 people in a 1 bedroom apartment for the night – should be cozy!
Ellen made a delicious stir-fry with rice for us for supper which we enjoyed with a glass of white wine made by my cousin Joy and her husband, Randy. We’re just sitting here now having tea and waiting for Corinne and Dalyce to arrive although I’m not sure I will last much longer and might soon be heading off to bed for the night.
Tomorrow will be a very full day as we are planning to spend the morning at the Calgary Zoo and then have tickets for the Calgary Stampede tomorrow and then are meeting a fellow moosedogger, Lynda, for dinner tomorrow night before we have to go to the airport at 10pm to catch our flight back home.
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