It drizzled a bit but a leisurely stroll around Johnson Lake provided some lovely views.
Even on a gray day..nice vistas
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Category Archives: Canada
Pretty smelly around here
Sulfur hot springs well up all over the place at Cave and Basin National Historic Site. Through the years bathers have been lowered into a cave to be dipped in a subterranean pool, 
splashed around in a natural rock basin, or soaked in an Olympic sized pool fed by the spring. I like the idea of a natural mineral spring soak but when the steam from this sulfur stream swirls around me the smell about takes my breath away. A soak here wouldn’t be very relaxing to me.
They have returned much of the spring to its original flow paths so it trickles down the side of Sulfur Mountain across a perpetually green hillside, even in the Alberta winter.
Buildings have been generally restored to the 1880s period but the water is strictly off limits to protect an endangered snail that lives in the spring. For a soak, one has only to go into town to the still operating spa. It is fed by the upper hot springs…apparently not a home to the endangered snail!
Snow covered lakes and frozen waterfalls
It is a different kind of beautiful around Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. 
It a bit of an in-your-face reminder; where did you think glaciers and ice fields come from?
Elk and Bear and Wolf, oh my
They all made a showing this morning on our trek across the Bow Valley Parkway. The road is actually a section of old highway 1that reverted to wildlife viewing only when they built the TransCanada Highway through here. Not only is commercial truck traffic prohibited, the road is actually closed to all vehicle traffic from 8PM to 8AM to give wildlife the full run of at least this little strip of the narrow valley the Bow River has so artfully cut through the mountains.
The wolf trotted down the middle of the road like he owned it. 
A big ole grizzly bear hung out on the railroad tracks just snarffling around. Bull elk with velvet covered antlers munched away on all that is green, where ever they pleased. I think, they think this is really their space. We just get to pass through now and again. Good for them.
A magnificent morning.
Brilliant sunlight. Gleaming white snow capped peaks. Crisp pine scented air. 
Why would we waste a minute of it?
Ah, the Canadian Rockies
We are in Banff. It’s beautiful. I got my “in-town” fix this afternoon. I window shopped the many boutiques, checked out souvenir shops, and sampled PEI blueberry ice cream from The Canadian Cow Ice Cream Parlor. Kent had Wowie-Cowie. Cool name, huh? Tomorrow we plan to hit some trails and take in more mountain views.
Dinosaur Country
Meet an Albertosaurus, a T-Rex ancestor. He is pretty fierce looking both in his bare skeleton form and in the fleshed out recreation and he’s the star at the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta. This is a Smithsonian caliber museum of paleontology. 
Ancient seas and glacial ages have left this area of Alberta just packed with dinosaur bones. Large bonebeds and deposits over an extended period of time have provided lots of data to refine behavior models and theories about the evolution of dinosaur species. The end result, a museum full of jaw dropping exhibits that tell wonderfully engaging stories.
Besides the museum: Drumheller is riddled with dinosaur stuff. Brightly painted dinosaurs dot street corners, there is a dinosaur spray park, a bright purple Dino sits in the school yard, and the visitor center has an 85 ft tall steel T-Rex that you can even climb up in…I didn’t.
We rounded out our day with a piece of Saskatoon pie (fair but not stellar), a river crossing on a cable ferry, a walk across the Red Deer River on a bouncy suspension bridge, and bit of a hike in the Alberta badlands. It was a hundred miles sort of out of the way and I did end up with boots full of mud (cursed bentonite) but it made for a great stop.
Vintage with an update
The Chinook Mall in Calgary has a carousel. It’s a classic with a twist. Riders can choose from one of twenty hand carved steeds. The twist, 10 of the vintage horses have been replaced with newer versions each of which sports the flower, flag and a representative scene from one of Canada’s provinces. Interestingly, the one for Quebec is a bucking wild mustang. Hmm. Some artistic editorial comment? They are all beautifully done. I had to ride of course.
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump
The name certainly invokes an accurate image. For more than 5500 years, Plains Indians took advantage of this cliff area in the plains near Macleod, AB to hunt. Braves on foot worked together to gather, lead, and ultimately stampede herds of the great beasts over the cliff to their death. It is all a bit gruesome but also an amazing feat accomplished by using the terrain and a fantastic understanding of the herd behavior. We have seen a few examples of buffalo jumps in the US but this one is probably the most intact of any we have seen. The interpretation center has been constructed to blend well into the landscape and the exhibits are both informative and fun.
The view of the Rockies across the open plains is pretty spectacular too.
I stand corrected
The noisy squeaking critters in camp are actually Richardson’s Squirrels not Prairie Dogs. A display at the Buffalo Jump set me straight. I am relieved and can return to the found memories of the barking Prairie Dog colonies we have seen all across the west.