Banff, mey. Waterton, gorgeous!

We left Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies and drove the entire length of the Columbia Icefields Parkway to Banff, and then on to Waterton Lakes National Park (which is designated as an international Peace Park as it is contiguous with Glacier National Park in Montana).

It was a rainy drive unfortunately.

For us, Banff was a bit of a disappointment. It was wall to wall people everywhere you went (especially just north at Lake Louise), reservations for the shuttle are required to travel almost anywhere (luckily I had made them previously as it was sold out for the day), parking was a nightmare, and we also were dealing with smoke. That being said, we got to meet a very old internet friend and her husband for the first time in person, a highlight of our trip (but were too busy talking and eating, forgot to get a picture)!

We rode the Banff gondola up to the top of Sulphur Mountain (7486 ft/2281 m) for a really nice lunch (had to make the reservation a month ahead of time).

The views were beautiful.

This view of Lake Louise (which is north of Banff) was difficult to capture with the crush of people. The Fairmont Chateau Hotel there attracts a lot of the folks. It is the subject of what probably are the most recognized photos of the lake, but I didn’t have the patience to try to capture it. This photo is from the hotel website. The shot that follows it was what I was able to get.

credit – Fairmont Hotels

We also took the shuttle to Lake Moraine, which thankfully was a bit less crowded.

One very cool thing is that Parks Canada built these wildlife overpasses over the highway between Banff and Lake Louise so animals could resume their normal migration and home range patterns. Studies have shown that they work, and because of the high fences along the edge of the highway funneling to the overpasses, accidents between cars and wildlife have decreased substantially.

Less than 100 miles to the south of Banff lies Waterton Lakes National Park. The drive there was really interesting as the road went out into the plains, then back in to the Rockies. The smoke from the wildfires was still present.

The vibe there is about as different from Banff as it can get, it’s really relaxed with lots of wildlife to be seen, including right at the campsite.

There is some beautiful scenery in the park, and an incredible diversity of habitats given that it is at the junction of two very different ecosystems. We had pulled over at a turnout so that I could get out to take this picture.

Then, this black bear decided he wanted to be in the shot. Don’t worry, I have a zoom lens and we’ve been carrying bear spray 🙂

There was a huge fire in the park in 2017, like most of the parks now that managers realize that wildfires are critical to the ecosystem health and let them burn except when they threaten infrastructure. When we got to this part of the park, the winds were such that we didn’t have the all pervasive smoke from the ongoing fires which was a treat.

Next, back in the US!