Yoho National Park

Friday and it's one of my Earned Days Off (EDO) that I have every two weeks. Kerri & I planned (very late in the piece) to spend the three days in Jasper. It turned out that we couldn't get accommodation up there for under $200 per night & decided it wasn't such a great plan. The backup plan was to stay in Banff. There are far more hotels & we managed to find a place to stay. It wasn't a bad plan in the end because we saw some really great stuff in places we hadn't expected.
Finally I have a half decent photo of Castle Mountain (below) about half way between Banff & Lake Louise.

Moraine Lake

Words can't even come close to describing this lake. It's Moraine Lake which is near Lake Louise. Lake Louise gets hammered by tourists, as does this one, but not nearly as much. Lake Louise is world renowned because of the tourist photos taken with the Fairmont Hotel. Having been to both now, I would have to say that Moraine is far better. It's a much deeper blue & the mountains surrounding the lake are far more interesting.

This is unlikely to be the only time we visit this magical place.

Golden Mantle Ground Squirrel

Our first wildlife for the trip. We received a booklet at the entry to Banff National Park and it has a couple of pages of animals seen in the park. I'm are trying to take a photo of each one. We already have the elk and white tailed deer.
This little guy was hanging around where the tourist traffic was very busy. He was very bold, but also very fast. Notice the orange black & white stripes on his back. Almost chipmunk colouration.

Yoho National Park

After we had visited Moraine Lake, we headed into Yoho National Park that borders Banff National Park. The boundary of the two National parks is also the boundary for Alberta & British Columbia (B.C.).

Takakkaw Falls is near the little railway town of Field. 

The water fall is fed by the Daly Glacier & has a vertical drop of 254m making it Canada's second highest falls. Notice the kicker at the top of the falls. The water drops onto a ledge just below top of the falls & shoots outward.

It is impossible for a photo to show how impressive & imposing these falls really are. You will notice me pictured at the bottom of the falls (above). It gives an idea of how tall these falls are. The volume of water coming from the glacial melt about is awe inspiring & the roar of the water crashing on the rocks below is just as impressive.

 I wasn't even me taking the train shot this time. Kerri snapped this one in Field when we were having a sticky beak. We were looking for accommodation options for when we go hiking in Yoho National Park.

Kerri liked the look of this building for some reason. I managed to point out why it wouldn't be the best place to stay overnight. This could be a problem when staying in Field. The Canadian Pacific Railroad runs 24-7 and the noise from the trains in Banff at all hours was annoying enough and the trains run quite a far from the hotels. I don't know what the alternative is in Yoho, but I'm sure we'll work it out.

Field's a funny little place that is there because of the railway. Aside from that, it's ideally placed if you want to explore the pick of Yoho National Park. It's less than 20kms from four gems including the two waterfalls (I've already mentioned), Natural Bridge and Emerald Lake. Just behind Mount Stephen in picture is Cathedral Mountain.

Natural Bridge

I'm sure this isn't the only Natural Bridge in the world. I know of 2 in Western Australia and one in South East Queensland for a start.
This one straddles the mighty Kicking Horse River. The impressive part of this feature is the amount of water flowing through this point. The water from Tekakkaw falls flows through this point and joins the Kicking Horse River just upstream of here.

Emerald Lake

This lake is beautiful like the couple in Banff National Park, but instead of the turquoise in Alberta, this one is an emerald green colour (hence the name).
Unfortunately, like it's Albertan counterparts, you need to get there early before the tourist buses get there. The breeze is also a factor. You get some fantastic photos with the mountains reflected in the water. As soon as even a mild breeze kicks in, the reflection goes. Too much sun tends to wash out the photos as well. I'm kind of looking forward to the winter months when the international tourists aren't swarming over these places.

Columbia Valley.

Continuing our exploration, we headed West along the Trans-Canada Highway roughly following the Kicking Horse River. It was no where nearly as exciting as the journey on the Rocky Mountaineer. The road takes a much higher route & you only see fleeting glimpses of the river. When we reached Golden (about 60kms from Field) we turned to the south through the Columbia Valley to Radium Hot Springs 100kms south. It's mainly cattle and timber country & although there's a mountain range on both sides, it just didn't cut it compared to the mountain ranges on the border. The only decent point of interest was this shot with the sun highlighting the trees on the edge of the river in the Columbia Valley.

The Rocky Mountains have a whole bunch of hot springs around the place, including Banff & Jasper. Apparently the Radium Hot springs are the hottest of the lot. It just looked like a couple of 25m swimming pools to me. (Hanmer Springs in NZ were much nicer.) I can see the attraction in the middle of winter, but on a 30+ degree day the middle of summer?
The photo below is a strange wood carver's shop in the middle of the township. Not much else to mention otherwise. It's a convenient gateway to Kootenay NP.

Olive Lake is only about 10kms inside the Kootenay National Park. It isn't hard to work out where the name comes from.

The colour of the lake is definitely an olive green & it comes from a mixture of the glacial turquoise & the brown of the rotting timber in the water (I think). Very pretty spot and there were only two other people when we were there.

Hector's Gorge

Heading back toward Banff (north east) from Radium Springs & Olive lake, you drive over quite an interesting mountain pass & come to the Kootenay Valley Viewpoint. The rest of the trip isn't that interesting, but I imagine the fishermen think it's paradise with a bunch of perfect trout streams.
Closer to Banff is Hector's Gorge (below). There are a few other points of interest that we'll probably check out in the future, but it was about 7pm by this point & we just wanted to stop driving. We covered about 550kms for the day.

Hiking Boots

My turn for new boots. Kerri has her fancy schmancy Alberta Boot Company Cowboy Boots. Now I have a schmick pair of hiking boots so I can conquer the Rocky Mountains. They're super comfy too.

Canadian Football

I have had the theory for a number of years that you should go to whatever sporting event that the locals go to. In Canada there are basically two options. No 1 is definitely Hockey. They are fanatical about it, but it's currently off season. No 2 would be the CFL. So yesterday the boys & I went to a CFL game. The Calgary Stampeders were playing the Toronto Argos.

CFL is very much like Gridiron, but there are 2 less players on the field & there are only 4 downs instead of 5. They also tend not to stuff around between downs like the Americans do. What it means is that there is much more throwing & running when compared with the American variant. It's a much more interesting game to watch.
Calgary won 33-10.

The side show, as always, is the cheer leaders

Below are the lads at the CFL game. From left to right. Shawn, Shane, Dale & me. Notice the random beside Shawn with the local colours on his face. A good time was had by all.

Squirrels

Finally! I managed to capture these common, but elusive little creatures. You see them all the time, but they don't sit still long enough for you to pull out your camera & take a snap, let alone a good one. So today I was sitting out on the balcony, having a couple of beers with Kerri & my mate Shawn, when we spotted 3 squirrels down in the courtyard hunting for nuts (as squirrels do).
Shawn is down from Grand Prairie which is about 700kms to the north west of Calgary. I met Shawn in Perth when he was working with us at Hatch for a while.

There seems to be two colour variations of squirrels in Calgary. The one pictured is the grey variety.

This one is the more common black squirrel. Cute aren't they? They're very bold as well. They don't get too worried by people, but they don't exactly hang around unless you have nuts to give them.

Stampede Showgrounds

Saturday was Stampede day proper for us. Shane had lined up grand stand tickets for the Chuck Wagons so we figured we would have a good look at the showgrounds proper before the races at 8pm. It's a lot like the royal shows back home but quite a bit smaller. The primary difference is that instead of the dog trials, & equestrian, they have Rodeo events & Chuck Wagon races.

The picture above could just as easily be sideshow alley at the Ekka in Brisbane or any of the royal shows around Oz. The food is just as bad, just as expensive and the cost for the rides are as bad as back home.

One thing they do have at Stampede is mini doughnuts! Just like the normal sized ones, but so much better for some reason. Maybe because there's more sugar and cinnamon.

There's the Horn, AND THEY'RRRE OFFFF!
This shot is from the start of the race. Notice how many horses & riders are involved & they all squeeze into a standard horse track by the first corner.

Below is a great example of how close these guys get to each other. At the start, the Wagons do a figure 8 around the barrels & get very sideways until the first corner.
Unfortunately last night, not two races after this one, there was a big "accident" on the first corner where one of the drivers got too close to the one on the inside, tripped up the other team's horse & bought the whole wagon down. I won't go into too much detail, but a horse died on the scene & two were destroyed afterward. All three were from the same team.
The driver of a following wagon was thrown out of his wagon & ended up in hospital. I was quite upset by the whole thing & I don't think I was alone.
Because of one man (known as "The Chief" because he was a genuine Indian Chief once) of 30 years experience who should know better, two horses lost their lives. I'm not amused. I may be a little harsh on the Chief. He was apparently boxed in by Kelly Sutherland, another guy who should know better. I called it as I saw it.
Unfortunately it soured an exciting evening.

Stage Coach

Oddly enough, this was my highlight of the night. This stage coach wasn't that spectacular, but the 8 Clydesdale's were. I've not a big fan of horses since one bit me when I was a kid, but these were very impressive animals & the coach just topped it off.

Calgary Stampede!

This week, the City of Calgary went completely wacky. The world renowned Calgary Stampede has been on since last Thursday night (5th). Everyone in town & from out of town dons the cowboy get up including boots (see previous entry with Kerri's new boots), a cowboy hat, & denim jeans. The funny thing is that most of that gear, now self respecting man on the land would wear any of it. It's very much all for show, but it's quite effective when everyone does it, including the local ex-pats.</p> <p>All the bars in town gear up as country as possible & they are packed to the rafters for most of the week. The long daylight hours add to the mayhem as nobody realizes how late it is (even on a school night).

Thursday night we went to the Stampede grounds for a bit of a nosey & then to see the band Live, play live. For a $15 entry, it was a bargain for anyone who wanted to go see them. And it seemed like everyone in Calgary did!
I'm not a big fan of crowds & got a bit snakey when a group of guys started trying to bust through to the front. Eventually we found a spot a bit less congested & I quite enjoyed it after that. Kerri had a great time.
We also had a bit of a sticky beak at the Chuck Wagon races while we were there. More on that later.

Johnny Knoxville

Some of you may know this guy as Shane (amongst other things). He has recently adopted a new wardrobe style due to the Stampede fever that hit Calgary 2 weeks ago. He's unwittingly turned himself into a bit of a ringer for Johnny Knoxville of Jackass & Duke's of Hazard fame. I think he even likes the new tag.

Calgary Zoo

Kerri, Shane & I decided a trip to the zoo would be a good idea considering that the rest of the locals were either at the Stampede or had skipped town to avoid it.

The Calgary Zoo isn't nearly as impressive as Taronga Zoo in Sydney, but it was OK. They are gradually upgrading the enclosures to a more modern standard so some are really good & others are straight out average.
The two bison pictured didn't seem to upset about their paddock. It would have been a holiday camp for them getting fed well & not having to walk too far to find it. The Canadians actually farm these guys commercially & THEY TASTE DELICIOUS! The meat is very lean & tasty. I swore I wouldn't eat bison before I came to Canada, but since I found out they were farmed, I changed my mind.

The Calgary Zoo seems to have Owls everywhere. Not only do they have aviaries specifically for them, but they seem to appear in all sorts of strange exhibits. One (same as pictured) was perched high above the entrance to the nocturnal house & dropped a white surprise on the lady standing next to Shane!

I shouldn't laugh. I'm just glad it wasn't me.
The one pictured was a particularly big one I reckon he was close to half a metre tall & kinda creepy looking. We nick named him John English.

The Grizzlies didn't seem to concerned about the whole captivity thing either. They seemed to be just lying there contemplating their own reflections in the pool. They were taking hibernating a little too seriously.

They have 3 elephants at Calgary Zoo including this bull. Notice the steel sleeves on the end of his tusks. I assume it has something to do with stopping him damaging them on the enclosure. This was Kerri's favourite, a big bull.

Kerri's new work.

All things going to plan, this will be where Kerri will work starting in a couple of weeks. It's the Alberta Children's Hospital. Brand Spankin' new & very flashy. It's perched up on top of a hill in the North West overlooking the Bow River & the Calgary Winter Olympic venue. The all things going to plan relies on the red tape the heath department go through to let you work for them. No wonder they are short of personnel in Alberta.

Calgary Tower

This is a better shot of the Calgary Tower. No particular significance, just a better shot.

Calgary Stampede Parade

The first major event is the Stampede parade, where they close of two of the main streets in the downtown area & have a series of floats, marching bands, horses etc. All very impressive I'm sure except it's held on a Friday when some of us have to work. Lucky for Kerri, she was able to walk a few blocks from the apartment & check it out. She took a bunch of photos & I've just picked out a few of them.

Canadian Mounties

More from the Parade. Kerri has a thing for the Mounties. She keeps threatening to run off with a cute one. How Rude!

Big Chief Riding-horse

These guys are apparently actual "First Nation people" (as they're called here). They are doing pretty well these days with the oil field royalties coming out of Alberta at the moment.

Mega Poopa Scoopa

With all the horses & other livestock in the parade, they had a street cleaner go past every now & then to clean up after the animals. It's rather cleaver disguising them as floats.

New Wheels

How many kids with Attention Deficit Disorder does it take to change a light bulb? Let's go ride bikes!
It doesn't really come off the same when you type it, but most of you will know the joke anyway. I have to give Dave Hughes (comedian) the credit for that one.
More importantly, Kerri & I bought ourselves some new push bikes this afternoon. Expensive habit when you throw in extras like helmets & bike locks to name a couple. It was roughly a $1000 afternoon between the two of us. We had to hunt around a bit, but managed to get a couple of reasonable bikes for crappy mass produced bike prices. Below is my new set of wheels.

We are very excited about the bikes. Not having a car & having to rely on public transport to get around, has narrowed our range of territory in Calgary. Now that we have bikes, we can get almost anywhere. Calgary is quite flat so it doesn't take too much effort to go anywhere of interest. There are some great bike paths along the river & around the reservoir. Kerri's bike below.

Hot air Ballons

So I wondered back into work today after a week away from the office at an Intergraph SmartPlant 3D course (those in the piping game will know what I'm talking about) & settled in to check some e-mails & gaze out at the mountains. Sure enough, the mountains were still there but with much less snow on, but check out the other scenery floating past! Pretty cool hey?
I'm in strife if work ever gets busy. How am I going to watch the world go by when I have my head down & bum up working hard???

Kerri's new boots

These aren't really my thing, but Kerri had to have them, particularly with the Stampede looming next weekend. They're not cheap let me tell you. Kerri likes them so that's the main thing. They're made by the Alberta Boot Company & the shop in downtown Calgary is huge! The number of boots in that one shop is quite overwhelming. They have hundreds of different styles & they're made from either Cow Hide, Kangaroo Hide (very soft leather) or Snake Skin (very tacky if you ask me). Kerri's are a burgundy colour made from Cow hide. I saw a number of pairs in there for well over $800 CAD!
1 Canadian dollar (CAD) is about 0.9 Aussie Dollars at the moment.

I'm on the lookout for some hiking boots myself. The ones I'm after are about $170! Ouch! They will get a bashing over the next two years with the road trips into the mountains & they'll come in handy in the colder months around Calgary.

New Barby.

Finally after a solid week of assembling stuff (Ikea mainly) we finally finished everything.
The last item on the list was the barbecue. Yes barbecues are used places other than Australia & South Africa! They are very popular here in fact. Every apartment in the city seems to have a Barbecue, outdoor setting & a push bike on the balcony. Summer time is looked forward to & they certainly make the most of the warm weather around these parts.

Caddy Shack

Anyone who has seen the movie Caddie Shack would have an idea of what these little guys are. They have a bunch of different names here, Gophers, yellow gophers, picketpins, flickertails, and tawny American marmots.

The correct name here is Richardson's Ground Squirrels.
Whatever they're called, they are prolific around here to the point of plague proportions. They're prolific diggers & you have to be careful not to roll your ankle on the entrance to their burrows. They are either very bold or very stupid because you can get very close to them before they take off.