Monday 18 June 2007

First expedition to Banff National Park.

Our first exploration into the mountains took us to Bannf. Kerri, Shane, Canne and I rented a Jeep Cherokee for the weekend and headed up to Banff National Park on the Sunday. It was bucketing rain when we set off, but we still managed to get some OK weather and saw some nice scenery.
We made a stop in Canmore for some awesome muffins. This could be a manditoty stop for future trips.


We skipped Banff on the way out trip and took a divert off the Trans-Canada along the Bow Valley Parkway. The shot below was taken along the way.



What would a trip to a national park be without some wildlife spotting?
These White Tailed Deer were just grazing on a roadside grassy patch. This photo is a Doe and its' fawn. Another tick for the "Been there seen that" box!


This was a prize scalp. This Elk was grazing on the bushes beside the Bow Valley Parkway. He's a big boy! He wasn't the slightest bit concerned about us.


Surprise bend is almost at the end (Lake Louise end) of the Bow Valley Parkway. I'm not sure why they called it Surprise Bend. Whatever the reason, I just couldn't help it! A picturesque setting and a Canadian Pacific freight train. I just had to take a photo!
OK. No more train pics.


I did wait for the train to pass & took a few shots. This one was taken up river (opposite to the previous shot). I remember this stretch from the Rocky Mountaineer.


Lake Louise

Beautiful isn't it? The picture tells the story.
Pity it's one of the few tourist traps around these parts. I imagine it's a bit more peaceful during winter when it's only the diehard local skiers in the area.


Apart from Lake Louise being a tourist trap, I somehow managed to bring along a couple of them with me. Shane is more shutter happy than I am and the girls (Canne pictured and Kerri) were getting very pissed off at us. Shane has a similar picture of me taking this shot. Idiots!
This won't be the last road trip into the mountains.


Everywhere we go, Kerri seems to find an opportunity to take the hiding behind the tree in the forest shot. Here's yet another.


The Trans-Canada Highway

It isn't a bad patch of scenery heading along the main Trans-Canada highway. This is fairly typical of the road between Lake Louise & Banff.


We just pulled over on the way from Lake Louise to Banff. These two shots were taken from the same point but two different aspects. Castle Mountain is in the second shot.


Vermillion Lakes Lookout

Here's another great spot. It overlooks Vermillion Lakes, the same place where I took a series of awesome shots from the train just outside of Banff. Mount Rundle is in the first photo.



Banff Merchandising stores.

Similar to the shop in Vancouver, Kerri found another stuffed bear to have a photo taken with. Once again they wouldn't let us send it home the her mum.
HOW RUDE!!!