Johnston Canyon

Friday afternoon in Banff was quite wet and miserable with the clouds sitting very low on the town. The weather bureau had predicted more of the same for today. We figured, sleep in and see what the day would bring after that.
We woke around 7.30 and looked out the window to this.

It was apparent that the rain in Banff the afternoon and night before meant that the higher altitudes had received a good dusting of snow at the same time.
The morning sun had managed to shed a pink glow on the clouds around Banff. With this sight, we quickly got ourselves organised and hit the road before the weather closed in again.

In Summer, Johnston Canyon is absolutely crawling with tourists. It's the most heavily used hiking trail in the Canadian Rockies. Every day about 10am the buses arrive with hordes of tourists to add to the numerous hikers with camper van and car transport. We've driven past there before when there has been an overflow of cars out of the overflow car park (and it's a bigun') and onto the Bow Valley Parkway. Having been to the canyon now, I can't imagine what it would be like with that many people on such a narrow trail. Horrible I imagine.
Saturday we woke up to a cold but nice day and decided to try to get to Johnston Canyon before the crowds did. It worked because we only saw 1/2 a dozen other people on the 3km walk up the canyon.

The first stage of the trail runs from the car park along a walkway that's slung off the side of the canyon (below) with the stream, that's constantly cutting the canyon, below. The stream has the same blue as all the lakes around Banff National Park.
I'll let the photos do the talking from here on.

Water Fall 1
Johnson Canyon has 7 waterfalls along the 3km hiking trail. This is the first one you come to and is called Lower Falls. Inventive name yes?
It's the second highest of the seven.

Waterfall 2.
Only three of the waterfalls in Johnston Canyon have names. This one is the first of the unnamed falls.
I quite like the side chute to the left that appears to come from a hole in the rock.

Waterfall 3
This is the 3rd and most difficult to view of the falls. Again it's unnamed.
I did the wrong thing and went off the track and down a fairly steep hill to get the shot.

Waterfall 4
This is Stellar falls. No other explanation required.

Waterfall 5
Another of the unnamed falls in Johnston Canyon.

Waterfall 6
This is the tallest and most dramatic of the 7 waterfalls. The Upper Falls are near the end of the trail. You can view the falls from below or follow a short trail to the top of the falls.

This rock wall wraps around the corner to the left of picture (below) and forms part of the Upper Falls. This wall is 30+ metres high (I don't know exactly). The photo doesn't really give it perspective.

This picture below puts the wall's size into some perspective. The platform I'm standing on there is the lower viewing platform for the Upper Falls.
Notice the leaching colours on the wall. Some of it is from minerals and some from algae.

Waterfall 7
This little waterfall sits just above the Upper Falls. I suspect most people would see the Upper Falls and think that was it. In fact you need to walk a little further along the path from the top of the Upper Falls.
The trail actually heads way into the hills to the Ink Pots and beyond, but that's a story and a hike for another time.

Copper Mountain

The Johnston Canyon hike is mainly focused on the waterfalls and the trail is surrounded by forest. You tend to forget about the surrounding mountains. On the return journey, you notice many different things to the way in.
There was a break in the timber at one point, letting the mountains on the other side of the valley show themselves. The big dump of snow over night made for some interesting scenery.

Mt Norquay Lookout

Mt Norquay is the nearest ski mountain to Banff. It's not that exciting at this time of year with the lack of skiing options, but it's an interesting short drive from Banff, across the Trans-Canada and up the hill to the lookout point. You get a pretty decent view over Banff and the surrounding mountains. About 1km up the road is the Norquay Ski Resort.
For the record, that's Mount Rundle to the left of picture and Sulphur Mountain to the right with Banff in the valley below.

Bow Falls

You may recall a photo from our last trip of the Banff Springs Hotel taken from across a ravine. Well, at the bottom of the ravine is the Bow River and a little downstream, Bow Falls. After a great morning walking through Johnston Canyon, we went to see what Bow Falls was all about. Unfortunately it was a bit of a disappointment in comparison, but I thought it was worth the comment.

Golf Canada Style.

Back in Australia, playing golf with Kangaroos is "par for the course" as it were. In Canada they basically substitute elk for roos.
We were doing a "ticky tour", as Kerri likes to call it, around the Banff Golf course when we came across this family of Elk. They didn't seem too worried about anything other than eating the lush green grass on the 3rd fairway. It was about the last place I had expected to see wildlife (around stacks of people), but in hind sight, probably not that surprising. The same theory applies back home. Why eat the tough vegetation when you can eat the manicured grass of the golf course?

Introducing mum. There were actually three elk cows in the family, one was only half gown.

These two little ones were a little more skittish than the older animals, but they still weren't exactly worried about us.

This guy was the one I was most weary of. That armoury on his head was very impressive, but I wasn't going to be on the wrong end of those antlers. Many people have been nailed thinking these animals are like placid domestic cattle. These are wild animals and, just like kangaroos, will dish out a hiding if you piss them off.

Moraine Lake

Last weekend was another of my 3 day weekend thanks to Jacobs' 9 day fortnight policy.
Kerri and I booked into our usual hotel, grabbed a car for the weekend. The car was a Buick and a complete pile of crap. It is typical of most of the North American built garbage cars you can buy here. They're even worse than the Aussie Falcons and Commodores! The Buick had poor steering, poor visibility, dreadful fuel economy and the turning circle of a bus. The brakes were the worst of all. When you even stand on the brake pedal a little the whole front end shuddered! Needless to say, I was giving other vehicles plenty of space during the weekend, particularly with wet conditions at times. End Rant.

Moraine Lake is the pick of the sights we've seen in Canada to date. The weather wasn't at all helpful over the weekend. The overcast and sometimes rainy conditions weren't at all conducive to great photos. Having said that, the lake makes it very difficult to take a bad photo. This particular shot (above) is on 1000s of postcards around here. You can see why. No reflections this time, but there has be some significant snow falls in the last week or so, taking the dirty grey look away from the high peaks.

We are all familiar with the Road Runner cartoons and have always felt sorry for the skinny, desert living coyote.
Well, we spotted a pair of them on the Bow Valley Parkway. They look nothing like the cartoon. These ones looked quite healthy and well fed (probably from the numerous rodents on offer in this part of the world). They weren't hanging around to see what we were up to and I only managed this rubbish shot as one of them was running away. They're about the size of a midsized dog. I hope I can get a better photo of one at some point. They're one of the 3 elusive true carnivores I have been so eager to see. The other two are Wolves and Cougars. Bear's are also on the list, but aren't exclusive carnivores. In fact they are more partial to berries than meat.

The mountains are spectacular at this time of year. The deciduous trees are all turning in preparation for the harsh winter and the green colours that greeted us four months ago, are now giving way to yellows and reds.

Vermillion Lakes

Nature is going all out to flower & seed before winter sets in properly in about a month.
This marsh is less than 5km from the centre of Banff and skirts Vermillion Lakes.

The Bow River

I just can't emphasise enough, how much the minerals enhance the waterways in Banff national park. The Bow river (below) is a classic example of how those minerals act to change the water to the distinctive blue colour that is so typical of the area.
Also notice the mountain peak behind still has the dirty grey appearance that all of them have had during summer. This shot was taken before two days of snow fall.

Here comes winter!

Today it snowed for the first time since we arrived.

The weather has been getting progressively colder over the last 3 weeks and today the rain showers we have become accustomed to lately, fell as snow instead. Nothing spectacular and it turned to water as soon as it hit the ground (or me). The photo doesn't really show it, but if you zoom it up and look hard enough you can see the snow flakes.
I thought I would be excited like I was last year in New Zealand, but it was just as annoying and wet as rain except it took longer to hit the ground. I'm thinking the 3rd week of Autumn is far too early for snow.
It's going to be a long cold winter!

Crowded House in Calgary

Kerri & I went to see Crowded House at the Jubilee Theatre in Calgary. We bumped into Kirsty on the train on the way there. (I know Kirsty & her husband Dale from Hatch in Perth. Dale, was at the CFL game with us.)
Crowded house called it quits over 10 years ago and recently reformed with a new drummer in tow.
The guys may be a bit older, but they haven't lost any of their entertaining skills. Well, maybe a little. The absence of the late and brilliant Paul Hester can't be replaced. The new guy, Matt Sherrod, is good, but he's not Paul.

To add to the band on the night (and I think for the tour) Neil Finn's son, Liam, performed with the band. He sounds just like his dad! It was very reminiscent of the short period when Tim Finn was with the band.
The new album didn't grab me to start with, but like all projects involving one or more of the Finn brothers, it grew on me the more I listened to it.
I'm so glad they are back, albeit without Paul.

Banff

The times we have stayed in Banff for the weekend, we've chosen to stay at The Inns Of Banff Hotel. No big deal. The freaky thing is that my cousin Lauren spent 6 months in Banff on a working holiday a couple of years back. Of the many hotels in Banff (and there are stacks of them) she used to work at the very hotel we've been staying at.
Like I said. It's a small world.

We had a nice view from the balcony of the (upgraded) room this time around.

The hotel above is one that I've seen in plenty of travel books and advertisements, the Fairmount Banff Springs. The funny thing is, of all the times I've been to Banff, I've never seen it. On our way home to Calgary we took a slightly different road to normal and stumbled on this famous hotel. The photo below is taken across Bow Falls at Surprise Bend.

You may remember a photo of Piss Weak World (The Hoodoos) near Drumhellar. The Hoodoos near Banff (left of picture) are bigger and much better preserved. I'm still not that impressed by the whole concept.
The photo was taken more for the island in the middle of the bow river than the hoodoos.

Emerald Lake

On Sunday we headed off early to try to beat the tourist crowds. It worked! When we arrived at Emerald lake, there were less than ten cars in the car park. Awesome! Last time we were there, the place was packed.

Being quite early, it was still quite cold and the morning sun reflecting of the lake with the mist rising, was an unexpected bonus.

This shot is the one on all the postcards of Emerald lake. Mine didn't quite turn out quite as well. I think the commercial shots are taken in the colder months when there's snow on the peaks and in the afternoon when the sun doesn't wash out the peaks. Also, the beautiful green colour of the lake is masked in this shot by the perfect reflection of the mountains.

You'll also notice that the reflection is actually clearer than the true landscape. Odd yes? I clearly have much to learn about photography. I guess that's why you pay the big bucks for the flash camera with the ability to deal with difficult lighting conditions.

The 5.8 km circuit of Emerald lake is fairly flat making the walk quite enjoyable and relaxing. We walked the circuit in the opposite direction to the guide books to avoid being caught behind other hikers. The first half took us through a forest that was very different to the stands of fir trees that cover most of the national parks we have been to so far. It was more jungle like, and a bit like the rain-forests back home.

Pictured behind me is a fallen tree. I am guessing the ground under it became too soft and the wind got the better of it. Many of the trees in the Rockies are hundreds of years old, and this one would be one of them. It's a bit sad when you think about it, but that's nature for you.

As we were walking through the forest we kept seeing and hearing animals and birds around us. The squirrels we the noisiest, but the chipmunks were the boldest. This little guy wasn't at all worried by our presence and actually ran up to us for a sticky beak. He bolted after he worked out that we weren't going to give him a snack and went about his business again.
This chipmunk is the same species that we saw near Drumhellar a few weeks ago. We found out why they're listed as common. They were everywhere!

The wander around the lake has many spots to stop, enjoy the scenery and ponder.

This is another shot from Emerald Lake. I was trying to capture the green colour of the lake, but it was very hard that early in the morning with the lack of light.

Emerald Lake has some very nice accommodation in the form of a series of 2 level villas right on the lake (below). I imagine it would be quite a sight to wake up to. The only snag is the price. They start at $379 per night. Ouch!!

Pictured below is a gap in the forest where frequent avalanches roll down the hill and knock down anything that even looks like a tree. The result is a meadow where animals such as moose and deer can graze on the grasses.

Emerald lake is one of those places in the mountains that you just want to keep coming back to. Unfortunately the tourist operators know it so getting there early is a must if you want to enjoy it at its beautiful best.

Sundance Canyon

We stayed at The Inns of Banff Hotel in Banff. It was the same place we stayed last time we visited. This time they gave us a better room with great views (below).

Last time we stayed there, we were out driving so late that we didn't get a chance to appreciate the place. This time around we decided to relax a bit and not try to cram so much into every day. We basically did a hike in the mornings and kicked back in the afternoons. The hotel has two pools and a spa. The outdoor pool is hot and is going to be great in winter after a hard day's snowboarding. It turned out to be pretty handy on sore hiker's legs as well.

Saturday's morning hike was Sundance Canyon, only a couple of kms from the centre of Banff. It is an asphalt bike path for most of the way and relatively flat compared to the previous day's adventure. Along the way the path runs alongside the Bow River and a marsh area. I couldn't help but take yet another reflection shot.

The weather forecast was for rain. I guess they got it wrong again! It turned out to be the best weather for the trip.

At the end of the 3.5 km walk along the bike path from Banff, we reached the Sundance Canyon circuit. The first kilometre of the circuit is the pick of the scenery climbing sharply through the main canyon, then along beside the creek. Eventually it turns on itself and leads to a lookout point (and I use "lookout" very loosely). It's a fairly average view of the Bow Valley.

Below is a bridge above the main canyon/falls. It was made more interesting with the morning sun coming through the trees reflecting off the mist.