During the drive to Takakkaw & Twin Falls (both gorgeous) we ran across a new traffic pattern. All vehicles over 7 m(21 ft) were required to back up or down the middle portion of a set of switchbacks since they could not make the turn at the corners. Appropriate yield signs were placed at both ends of the middle section and everyone waited while a 20 passenger tour bus in front of us backed through that section. I love the Miata! The road was posted “No Trailers”. Good Idea!

We drive 20 minutes one way or more than half an hour the other just to get one bar of cell reception!
Remember the tracks and highway we share the valley with? Well, the sound of them is a constant companion here in camp. Kindof a bummer but the price we pay for shoehorning it all into the same space, I guess. It is beautiful and we are typically tired enough that the noise doesn’t keep us up.

Wapka Falls and Natural Bridge on the Kicking Horse River. The river carries a lot of glacial silt or flour and the heavy seasonal runoff is still carving this valley floor. The water thundered across the falls and sent spray everywhere. Beautiful. Natural Bridge was a great example of the power of the water as it wore through at a rocky waterfall and hollowed out its own bridge. Still other glaciers feed Emerald Lake with this opaque green color since sunlight can not penetrate the silty water

We checked out the Canadian Pacific Railroad’s Spiral tunnels. The valley is too narrow to snake the tracks enough to maintain a usable grade so they actually carved two huge loop tunnels deep in the mountains just to get more travel length of tracks to decrease the slope to something manageable. They to into one loop, come out and go under the road then go into the other one and come out heading the same direction as when they started. Pretty amazing.

We have moved to Yoho National Park just west of Glacier. It is much drier and the mountains even more rugged as we nudge up to the Rockies. We are traveling up Kicking Horse Valley. It is narrow and nearly filled by the Trans Canadian highway and the railroad tracks. A primary mission of the Parks here is to try to maintain a wildlife migration route through this pass when people have crowded it so badly. Quite the task.

There is such a thing as a lichenologist? We met someone who is studying to be

The mountain caribou actually goes up higher into the mountains in the winter after the snow is meters deep? It likes the witch’s hair lichen that is high in the branches of the sub-alpine fir trees. It can only reach it when the snow gets 10s of feet deep. It can splay its hooves out kinda like snowshoes and walk on top of the snow. Pretty cool adaptation I’d say