Banff

I got back from Pittsburgh/Seattle on a Wednesday, then left on Friday for Banff. Brad, Steffi, and I all drove to Banff with the intent of camping along the way. The trip was an overall pleasure, as seeing mountains and glaciers is always fun. Unless of course you are frozen inside a glacier, then maybe not so fun.

We left at about 4:30 at night, and Brad decided to do the drive sans map. That meant we drove to Nanaimo so that we followed the Trans-Canada Highway the entire way. A good idea in principle. However, we arrived at the ferry terminal at 6:45 and missed getting on the 7:20 ferry. So we waited for the next ferry at 9:25. It actually left at 10:00, so we got off the ferry near downtown Vancouver at about 11:45. Then we decided to drive out of the city before finding a place to sleep, and I was outvoted for setting up camp and we ended up in an expensive hotel.

Nevertheless, we had a leisurely drive to Banff the next day and got there in time to set up camp in the dark and eat dinner in the dark. Sunday and Monday we spent exploring all that the national park had to offer. Ok, just pieces of it. We went to the ultra touristy Lake Louise, where I took a plethora of pictures. We walked past the "hikers" in high heels and kept going on the trial. Fortunately, the further we went, the less people there were. We made it to the top after 2.5 hours, about 30 minutes after the tea house closed. Oh well. I guess if some guy in our group didn't take so many pictures it would have gone faster. It took us 50 minutes less to walk down.

Monday and Tuesday morning we saw an array of smaller things, such as hoodoos, Lower Bankhead, a canyon, and a natural bridge. We drove back on Tuesday and made it to Hope. Then we left on Wednesday and made it back home by the early afternoon. It was a good trip, and a good last view of Canada before Steffi headed back to Germany the next Sunday.

Photos are here.