Banff National Park, Canada
We had a great trip to Banff Canada for a week.The best part was the days we shared with Grandma and Grandpa Yost. I took over 400 pictures, so It will be hard to choose only a few to blog. The views were amazing, alot like Yosemite National Park, in that you have to be there to actually understand the grandure. It is a place you have to see, pictures and words do not do it justice. I hope you enjoy visiting the Canadian Rockies with us............
Here we are in front of the visitors center of Athabasca Glacier. It seems to be receeding an average of 33 feet every year. The toe of the glacier came up to the road when the center was built(I don't know the year)
Here is the marker of the glacier in 1982. The hike from the parking lot to the glacier was about a half mile. We are about half way between the two. The person up the trail in the light blue sweatshirt is Grandma Yost. I should explain the wind blowing off the glacier was "freezing" (no pun intended), and the light rain coming down did not help the situation. We were unduanted by the elements though and trudged onward.
Here we are standing on the edge of the glacier. I must admit we ignored the many warning signs NOT to do this. There are hollow areas under the ice that is constantly changing, and people have died by falling through the glacier into the freezing water. At least we were not as dumb as the guy up on the glacier jumping up and down to proove it was stable.
The edge if the glacier on the side of the valley was breaking off big hunks that fell into the glacier river. The different colors of blue in the ice were beautiful.
Although we nearly froze to death for the hour or so we walked up to the glacier, it was very interesting and one of our favorite adventures of the week.
How do you like my new hat? This is one of the many glacier lakes tinted a beautiful shade of tourqois.
The one thing Erica wanted to do above everything else, was to ride a horse! The trail ride was pretty fun, but one hour in the saddle was enough for my legs. We walked through the forest, around the Banff Castle, and even crossed the river. In the picture below, Erica is the cowgirl in the middle.
This is Lake Louise and the Fairmont Chateau. The picture below is the view from the opposite side of the valley at the top of the ski lift. We saw a few grizzly bears below us on as we rode the lift up the mountain. There was a nature center at the top, but you had to walk a few hundred yards from the ski lift and it so happened that a grizzy bear decided to take a nap next to the trail, so they closed acces to it till he decided to move along. Needless to say after waiting around nearly an hour we decided to move along ourselves. Hope that bear had a nice nap.
Here is the grizzly bear we saw on the way up the ski lift.
I like this picture because it prooves Josh and Erica love each other most of the time:)
This hike was awsome. (Oh heck they were all awsome!) It is called Johnston Canyon. The trail was built with steele catwalks anchored to the side of the canyon wall. It was easy walking with great views the entire way. Megan and Grandpa didn't like the exposure too much, but they were very brave.
Here is Megan and Grandpa hanging out and comiserating together about their dislike of heights. They were good support for each other.
This next hike was also very fun. It followed a stream bed all the way up a canyon. Basically we just rock hopped up the stream. I have so many pictures of this hike I feel frustrated not to post more.
The trick on this hike was to spy the ancient pictograghs on the rock walls.
At one point the creek bed became completly dry. Tracy wanted to go a little farther, but it started raining lightly and we noticed a little stream of water forming and flowing down the rock bed. At this point I started to freak out just slightly and insisted we turn around before we ended up being dumb hikers in a dry stream bed during a flash flood!
This was a super fun family hike! There was no whining from being tired and no uphill trudging. Just lots of rock hopping, puddle jumping and wonderful memories.
Our last hiking adventure was to Wapta Falls. This was one of those " you gotta be there" places. We hiked about a mile or so to the top of the falls. Then we followed the trail down to the bottom and played at the river.
All the rocks along the river were worn smooth and flat. It was a rock skimmers paradise. We all practiced rock skipping and built a rock statue. You will notice the winter olympic symbol this year is a little rock man. I am not sure the story behind it, but I think it has to do with native art tradition. Anyway we relaxed on the sunshine (which we had not seen much of the entire week) and cooled our feet off in the glacier water (very cold!) Then we walked around to the bottom of the waterfall.
We hiked up the ridge (behind Tracy in this picture) and the spray from the waterfall was like taking a shower. It was a great adventure to end our trip to the beautiful parks of the Canadian Rockies.
After working up a big appetite on our hike we stopped in a little town called Golden. We were starving!!! We found a BBQ house that will forever be our favorite place all because of two words:
"MARTY'S PLATTER".
Just the thought of it makes us say "MMMMM.....".
This is Marty's Platter. It is a whole family meal with every type of meat that they smoke at the resurant. It had chicken, beef ribs, pork ribs, beef brisket, pulled pork, and sausages. It also came with potatoe wedges, BBQ beans, grilled corn, and a Ceasar salad (by request instead of coldslaw). We ate, and ate, and then ate some more! If you are ever near Golden, BC you must take your family to the Fire Pitt BBQ and Smokehouse and order the Marty's Platter! Oh.. my mouth is watering just thinking about it.
Well that about sums up most of the highlights. Thinking back on the trip there were so many more things we enjoyed, but to much to put here. But one thing is for sure, going away is a lot of fun, but nothing is better than a good nights sleep in my own bed.
