Photos from Canadian Rockies

These pictures are from the Canadian Rockies (except for the first one). This group pretty much follows my first "trip report" (May 24). Enjoy!!

Dennis

This is Devil's Tower National Monument in northeast Wyoming. It's something like 600 ft. tall. Geologist say it's the core of an extinct volcano. The shell that was around the core eroded over many millennium. The Indians have a different version. Their legend says that a party of Indians were camped in the area and a group of little girls went to play in the woods. They came upon a bear which chased them. The girls were so scared that they jumped onto a flat topped rock and prayed to the gods for help. Miraculously, the rock rose up and kept the little girls safe from the bear. The bear was so mad that it jumped up and tried to claw its way to the top of the rock. The grooves you see in the mountain are from the bears claws. The girls stayed on top of the mountain and eventually became one of the constellations (I can't remember which one).

This was taken at Tunnel Mountain campground in Banff National Park (Alberta, Canada). We drove there from Calgary in a snowstorm (keep in mind that this was May 15). The next morning we were greeted by this scene. The street was too warm for the snow but it stuck to the trees and grass. It was a nice tranquil scene. The campground was pretty empty so it was real quiet. The place was full of elk droppings. Yes, we saw a lot of elk while we were there.



This is a picture of the city of Banff taken from the top of Sulphur Mountain. No, we didn't climb it!! We took the gondola. The city center is off to the left side of the photo. Banff is in a big bowl surrounded by the Canadian Rockies. There was still lots of snow in the region even though it was May 15th.






Here's another shot from the top of Sulphur Mountain. It shows the extent of the snow on the ground. It was a little cold and windy but it was beautiful.









This is Lake Minnewanka in Banff Natl Park. It's really beautiful but it was still frozen. As we visited other lakes in the Canadian Rockies we found that they were all frozen. I guess late May is part of winter, not spring.








This is the lower falls in Johnston Canyon (Banff N.P.). It's a really popular spot with something like a million visitors a year. The trail to the falls was narrow and a good portion of it was made-up of metal walkways bolted to the rock walls of the canyon. With all that foot traffic I hope they did a good job building those walkways. I think the falls were something like 60 or so feet high












If you've never seen Kootenay Natl Park, this is it. There are no words to describe the visual impact of this scene. I still say "WOW" when I look at it. Breathtaking is a gross understatement.








This is world famous Lake Louise in Banff Natl Park. I hope it makes you go "BURRRRR" because it was really cold there. The wind was descending down the face of the frozen mountain in the background, across the deep frozen lake and right into our face. The air temp was near freezing and the wind was gusting to 20-25MPH. Jeeeez, was it cold!!! I hope you guys appreciate the pain I went through to get this photo for YOU!!



Ahhhh, that felt good. This style of fancy outhouse can be found throughout the national parks in the western US and Canada also. They actually call these "vault toilets". Curious name, don't you think?? I usual deposit my valuables in a vault. This deposit was not valuable.







We drove to the Columbia Icefield one day and rode this monster snow coach up to the Athabasca Glacier. Look at the size of the tires (that little speck standing next to it is me). This thing has 6 wheel drive and a top speed of about 15 MPH. The tires are something like 3 ft. wide to spread the load and reduce the impact on the glacier.

Here's a picture of that monster snow coach taken from a distance. Look how small it is compared to the glacial valley. The glacier we're standing on is a few thousand feet thick. That sounds big but it has receded a couple miles in length over many decades. They let us spend about 1/2 hour on the glacier. It was really impressive and very cold.





Avalanche!!! Actually, it's the glacier calving. Kathy was quick enough to catch this shot before everything settled down. That pile of snow could easily hide many large buildings. The picture doesn't portray the size of this valley accurately. It's massive!!







This is our rig parked in a campground in Hinton, Alberta, just to the east of Jasper Natl Park. Notice the snow-capped mountains in the distance. What a sight to wake up to each morning. There really are some advantages to this RV lifestyle. The day we drove to this campground (May 18th) it snowed nearly the entire time. When we arrived at the campground there was 6" of fresh snow on the ground, we had 2 more inches that night, and flurries the next day. The regulator on our propane tanks froze-up in the middle of the night. Can you say "no heat" when it's 25 degrees out?? Now you see one of the disadvantages of RVing. BTW, we drove through a snowstorm to get to this campground.

Now, if you don't believe that we had snow, here's the proof. Kathy whipped-up this snowman in no time. The snow was wet and sticky so it formed nicely. Sam (the snowman's name) lasted a few days before he melted.















This is Maligne Lake in Jasper Natl Park. Ho hum, another knock-out scenic shot. Boy, am I getting tired of pushing the button on this camera to get these postcard pictures. That little building with the red roof is a boat house. Since the lake was still frozen the only boat you could use was an ice breaker!!!






OK, now for my favorite pictures. Bring on the animals!!! As many of you know Kathy and I are primarily wildlife photographers. We do scenics when there are no animals around to shoot. Here's a small collection we found through the Canadian Rockies.

This is a Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep. You normally only find these in the high country but in winter and spring they come down to lower elevations because it's warmer and easier to find food. We saw them regularly as we drove from our campground in Hinton, Alberta to Jasper Natl Park. They were really cooperative for pictures. They had no fear of people or vehicles.







This is the boy's club. Three good sized rams in a group. Notice the full curl of the horns on the ram closest to the camera. He's a really mature male. These guys were part of a group of probably 2 dozen big horns that were feeding by the road one day. The group was a mix of rams and ewes (females) but I didn't see any lambs. Maybe they were hiding in the woods. These guys sure look well-fed, don't they??




Here are a couple elk that we spotted in the campground at Banff. These are both cows that still have their winter fur. We never did see any bulls while we were there.












What would a batch of pictures be without a rodent shot. They are so cute and cooperative. This is a Columbia Ground Squirrel. Kathy saw a Hoary Marmot too but didn't get a shot before it went and hid.











OK, one more rodent picture. Can anyone guess what this is?? No, it's not a chipmunk. This little guy is a golden-mantled ground squirrel. Now, aren't you glad you tuned into Dennis' blog??











You really know you're in the high country when you see Mountain Goats. We only saw one small group at low elevation during the 3 weeks we were in the Banff/Jasper area. Luckily they were cooperative and gave us some great shots.








Well, that's a quick view of our stay in the Canadian Rockies. I hope you enjoyed it. We sure did (except for the night without heat). The next batch of pictures will follow our exploits as we drove up the infamous Alaska Highway 1390 miles from Dawson Creek, BC, through the Yukon Territory, on to Delta Junction, Alaska and finally to Fairbanks. See you then!!