Eight or ten were busily licking salt or other minerals from the roadside and the rock cut along the road. They are amazing climbers and just seem to fly straight up a cliff if startled.
Big horned sheep…they act like they own the road.
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Category Archives: Canada
What were we thinking?
We went on a ranger guided hike up Mt Sulfur to about 7500 feet. There were magnificent views and bright clear sky.
A town within the park boundary.
Capped at 10,000 residents, limited commercial land development and residents must show a “need to reside”. That is the world of the town of Banff. It is still quite the tourist trap though with shop after shop with T-shirts, postcards, and trinkets. I couldn’t pass it all up. We tried some of the local ice cream and some locally made chocolates …pretty tasty. I bought a bottle of BC, Okanagan Valley Chardonnay. I didn’t know they even made wine here… I will let you know how that is.
The Gallery of dead animals.
That is what the locals call the historical wildlife museum here at Banff. They have restored to circa 1914 the original museum with old style exhibits and 100s of mounted wildlife specimens. It is a great old building and is fascinating the see how the philosophy of the time comes through in the specimens. They were in the period of predator eradication. I have never seen such vicious looking bears wolves and wolverines.
Pretty highbrow for wilderness folks.
We strolled the beautiful manicured gardens at the Banff national Park Admin building. They are a carryover from the early 1900s when ornate was the goal not entirely native but they are beautifully done.
Ewww, I hate sharing trails with horses!
We saw elk though.
Tell me, how do you combine the need for near silent approach of birding with the need to make lots of noise to not surprise bears? We are still trying to figure all that out.
We saw elk.
A group of young and cows were just noshing away oblivious
or at least uncaring of the people around them.
More pics of course.
Water: carving gorges, building limestone curtains, and bizarre swirling pools
The Johnson Canyon trail starts out on a series of catwalks suspended off the gorge wall. It makes for a unique perspective on the stone carving of the creek below. There
was even a walkway through a tunnel cut by the creek long ago. We stood in the spray. Upstream we came upon these pools they call inkpots. The spring water comes up in the bottom of shallow pools and creates all sorts of odd currents that move the fine glacier flour around in amazing patterns.
Cool.
We had our tea and crumpets.
Crumpets are sort of like tough pancakes. Eatable but not something I will go out of my
way for.
Critters…ones we are satisfied just to know are out there.
On that same hike we did quite a bit of singing to the bears and even decided to turn around when we found big areas of dug up meadow land (grizzly bears dig for roots and bulbs and make a big mess) and a big pile of bear poop in the middle of the trail and we were heading right into a berry thicket. We didn’t see him but he is out
there.