Banff or Bust

The next morning, we started our adventures around Banff.

Our first sight of the Banff area was Mount Rundle flanked by the Vermillion Lakes. I had researched this view online prior to our trip, and all the photos I had seen looked spectacular. I was a little disappointed at the view considering the 'hype' from my research, but what can you expect when it is cloudy. Oh well, still a nice view!

The scenic byway along the Vermillion Lakes still offered some nice views of mountains nieghboring Mt. Rundle.

It is was interesting to see how such simple everyday concepts we take for granted as normal differ in other countries, even for non-exotic, nearby places.

Move over New York......

Our first view of the picturesque downtown Banff.

All the stores had cutsie exteriors for the tourists, like us ;-)

Maybe if I wasn't such a black thumb I could grow flowers in Duluth like that......

Even the churches were cute.

Another view of downtown Banff.

For being such a cold place, Banff sure had some neat flowers (no clue what these are).

Here's another one of those 'I'll just get a picture of the sign later' photos. Of course we never saw the sign again, at least where I had a vantage point to get a photo. Luckily, the crop feature on Photoshop works well to cut out those pesky RVs.

Although I am not a real fan of clouds, especially any meaning eminent rain, these were pretty neat.

Since it was cloudy, we thought we would visit a few other sights instead of Lake Louise in hopes of a sunny day for the next day. Our first stop was the Spiral Tunnels.

You can see the entrance to one tunnel in the upper left and the other is hiding in the lower right corner. Basically, trains can make a figure 8 over themselves by going through the tunnels, which is some pretty fancy tunneling work.

Since it started sprinkling a bit, we thought what better place to go next than a waterfall. We headed to Takakkaw Falls in Yoho National Park, which neighbors Banff National Park.

Apparently Takakkaw is not a made up word, and means 'magnificent' in the Cree Indian language.

Pat infront of the falls.

Some rapids at the base of the falls.

We even had a nice view of some nearby mountains along the trail to the falls.

A trip would not be complete without a bridge photo....

On the way to our next sight we saw an elk, who wouldn't show us anything but his best side.

A view of the mountains along the road.

Next was the natural bridge. I was guessing this would be a little different than the natural bridge we had seen in Arizona.

No, this isn't the bridge yet. The water cascades over the rocks were too good to pass up for a photo.

Another view of the water cascades.

Here it is, the natural bridge. And yes, the water was that blue.

Another view of the natural bridge gives a clearer view of its orientation.

We thought we would wander a bit further before turning around to go to the campground, and were treated to the beautiful scenery of Emerald Lake.

I told Pat to take notes because this is what I want our house to look like, scenery and all. For some reason he didn't get out a pen and paper...... oh well, the photo should do!

There was not a bad view of the Emerald Lake Lodge.

I liked the contrast between the red canoes and the blue-green water.

Now come on, is it really too much to ask for a house and view like this? ;-)

I think this would be a good spot to return to for an anniversary someday.