Day 33 Fri-Lakes, Lakes & Mountain High

A great nights sleep…this bed is very comfortable…the weather is crappy so far today….heavenly heavy clouds and rain….So up later today yeah…got the washing done… Blog finished then Downloaded the pics…..discovered at lot of days haven’t been uploading to Google…which is a pain…
Tim and Jess headed off to do their own exploring…Funny enough we ending up meeting on our first Lake Visit…we didn’t know they would be there at all and they didn’t know we would be there…

We ended up after much we will we won’t had Brekky at the George Inn…very tasty and as usual great staff to chat to….a lovely young girl as our waitress asked what we are doing for the day and her gave tip of an app, all trails app also a young mum sitting listening to us chat priced in with her opinion say it was a brilliant app she uses all the time…so 2 recommendations in one hit must be good…I said to John we must let Jess know , which he replied I bet she has it and yep she does when I was telling her the story she told me that’s what she had been using this whole trip…guess we don’t chat much 😢!

We set off to see the River in Canmore ####…ended up in tributary instead of the River which we did find…my glory the water was pumping through there…Unreal massive fancy Hotels in back streets Main Street and side streets…so much accommodation here it’s unreal….we set off again John wanted a coffee so as w turned onto the Main Street of town..He took a wrong turn and we ended up driving up the street in the wrong side with a car coming straight at us…he freaked and headed a bit side ways and John headed towards the gutter…Thank the Lord no one was hurt except for my poor old heart went into over drive with adrenaline pumping a 1,000 mph…scary which could have been much worse at peak hour…. Anyway we are alive…but was a scary moment in time…He has done this before and it’s very easy to do when your driving on the different side of the road..mind you in his defence the turn was not an easy on to see…it had 3 lanes on one side and on the other side of the traffic lights was the suede we were to go on…but it looked like a service road…so I’ll forgive him this time 😆😆😆…

As we drive out of Canmore the clouds like magic were lifting so quickly unreal…still looked miserable but hoping it will get better as the day goes on…

Off we set to start a run to what we thought would only be 3 lakes but it actually turned out to 5 in total..

No 1 Lake: Johnson Lake this was the least impressive of the alarms we visited today..it was ok as far as lakes go but certainly not as stunning as the others…it was here we ended up running into Tim and Jess…It was funny I was chatting to John, Jess heard a voice and thought that sounds like a Rell and yep it was a Rell 😁. The had done the lakes the opposite way to us..

All Jess research indicated we would have a difficult time going to Lake Louise due to the sheer volume of people flocking there…but they decided to give it a go and texted us as we were doing the other lakes to see they had lucked a park spot…we had already planned to head there after lunch…as I had done my research and they said the best times was 1-3 pm we worked out once there it was because people went away to eat lunch hence more spots…wise people …I’ll explain later…

No 2 Lake: ….2 Jake Lake now this is getting better…bigger nicer mint green colour. Just overall a prettier outlook across this Lake…

No 3 Lake: Minniewanka Lake yep odd name but ohh is this stunning…such a different look again. Massive snow capped mountain views. You could do Lake cruises on this one.. even has a little coffee shop. So very popular with the tourist…getting busier now…even have parking attendant to make sure you go the right way…managed to stand on a Rocky outcrop to get some pics from here…. Definitely worth the visit…we bought some coffee it was bearable. By now it was 12 md so we thought like time we would take a risk to go to Lake Louise…

No 4 Lake: Lake Louise….We noted on the Hwy there massive signs saying you had to park at the overflow parking are as the main one at the lake was full…..taking note of them we pressed on anyway just in the hope there might be a spot like Tim managed…and after passing heaps more big flashing signs we got to Lake Louise with parking attendants everywhere waving us on to the parking area…we had noticed a huge out pouring of cars and busses heading away from Lake Louise so we upped what I had read was right…and yep we jagged it..yes still pretty full but some spots here and there…If you had taken the overflow choice you would have to pay for your parking and most likely the shuttle…not sure of the actual deal is, but I think it worked out dearer than us parking here at $12.95 for the day…
Anyway all paid for off we set to discover what delights await us… and it did not disappoint… and yes people everywhere but we have seen much worse in our travels…the view over the lake with the Massive Hotel at over $1,200 a night guessing that’s the cheap… We took the obligatory selfie, then wander further along…A wedding was being set up at the front of the Hotel….We decided by now to find somewhere to eat…mistake no 1…finding somewhere that didn’t cost a fortune or was fine dining was very difficult…but we managed to see through the hotels upper and lower shopping areas and major eating areas… all very tasteful and yes UPPER CRUST….we kept wandering and eventually found the Pantry Box…which had food we could get as takeaway…but no where to really sit except in window areas just outside of it…to be honest with the sheer volume of people pouring through this place you would truly think they would have more on offer and better set up…
I choose a chicken and salad wrap to share…asked for it to be heated…I chose a can of Rose’ which I was sure was $9 and John got a soft drink…he laid for it while I nicked to the loo and my can of Rose’ was ……..$20 WHAT…I told him he should have to,d them no I don’t want it…I was so ashamed of its price I still haven’t opened the darn can yet and I am writing this a day later…😩😩🥂… How crazy…anyway the wrap was the weirdest thing..,I am sure they placed Restaurant left overs in it, rice, veggies, coleslaw which I hate and just an odd assortment of items in it…anyway I was hungry so ate it…but my drink well I’ll give a verdict on it when I finally open it 😂😂😂😂!

Once finished we headed back along the Lake first thing we see if a gorgeous young Asian girl dressed in her Wedding Gown having her photos professionally done… have it seen this done in many Asian countries I knew what the deal was… they get dressed in a gorgeous gown and the to be husband in his refinery all before the wedding,.,and pick an amazing place to have your professional wedding photos done… this is all pre wedding and if you have lots of money then you can go anywhere in the world to have them taken…the dress you wear for these pics is not the dress you wear for your wedding…and once the wedding is coming to an end you have another amazing outfit to wear… when we got married that was a thing you changed into your going away outfit at the wedding and left the celebrations dressed for your departure to where ever… it was always a special outfit but it as expensive as some of the gorgeous Asian ladies wear…Anyway forgot to mention while wandering around the inner part of the Hotel, we noticed another bridal couple… getting pics done in the nicer parts of the building… then we saw them down at the lakeside as well further on having pics…Plus the wedding that was at the front of the hotel it was wedding pic central…The wedding getting organised at the hotel,would have had to be at least $100,000 to pay for this…Guessing a wedding at home is just as great because at the end if the day it’s not about the big flash wedding but the life you forge together…
We headed down along the lake so I could try to get a pic with the massive Hotel in the back ground… I finally found a spot I could do that without walking around the whole massive lake…

As I was walking back I remembered I had done the cardinal sin Tim told me not to and that was to not take food in my bag when bears are around.. I forgot and had taken some of my wrap for Ron with me…but with bear signs up everywhere it soon dawned on me what I had done… silly me…and we forgot our expensive can of bear spray… funny enough just after I had that thought about Tim getting cross with me being so careless who should we cross oaths with right at the point of coming down off the mountain track to another Lake was Tim and Jess ha ha…that was again not known and timed perfectly….We said farewell then headed back along the path along the lake just I time for the very expensive wedding to be kicked off plus a young yet again gorgeous young Asian girl dressed in the most stunning Emerald green gown..,only issue was her boobs were barley covered, I mean barely I felt quite upset watching her as I could see quite clearly she was about upstaging the bride…in a dress like she had in it sent about the look of the gown, it was about the look of me…look at me and that’s unfair to a bride when it should be here day…anyway that’s my whinge but felt very sad she had to be noticed in such a way that it made her look cheap and exposed..,which in all,truth she was..there was very little if anything to the imagination….…anyway…as we walked through the area of her wedding…2 young guys were stopping the tourist going by we made it through just as the groom was being walked up the isle by his parents…we didn’t see the bride who everyone thought was the lovely young Asian bride having her pics done… but they were still taking pics of her as she had to move so not to be around the other wedding….talk about wedding overload….. We were finished our time here so then headed off to do another couple of lakes before we headed to our Gondola ride up the mountain at Banff….

No 4 Lake: Vermillion Lake no 2
No 5 Lake: Vermillion Lake no 1
Both lakes very similar obviously running into each other…Quite a pretty spot with both lakes having jetty’s going out into them making it seem like you were nearly in the middle even if you weren’t by a long shot..
Then once I dashed out the car to bite Lakes while John waited patiently…we then headed to the
Banff Gondola 🚠 fir our buffet dinner…we were sure what was up there but thought the 4 of us could do with this as a treat… on the way up the mountain we spotted bear poo, making us very aware they are around,..pooping on the road …my goodness their manners…As we were usher uo by park attendants the young guy telling us where to go 😁 was an Aussie…and when we got in and off the gondola was another Aussie..plus the guy serving Tim and Jess this arvo at a brewery was Aussie as well…the town is crawling with us….😂😂😂😂 while waiting for Tim and Jess to join us James and Alex gave us a call so lovely to see them plus James talked this time bonus…

Tim and Jess arrived, so we all headed up in the gondola 🚠 to The top of Mt Sulphur which is an 8 minute ride up to the elevation of and once there you have 360% of views over the whole valley below and the massive mountain ranges surrounding Banff and Canadian Rockies…we were warned it would be 10c and it was definitely colder that’s for sure, even got out my knitted headband… once there it’s 2,281 m above sea level…you can walk up which once on the gondola we realised it was no mean feat…we had all considered this…but Tim and Jess were definitely going to until the weather turned nasty yesterday. Once there it had a fantastic upper terminal,with 4 floors 2 have restaurants….we were booked for a Buffet dinner at 6pm..we had 45 mins to do the boardwalk up to the Cosmic Ray Station on Sanson’s Peak…my glory were we going to get up and back in time for dinner…and after Tim and Jess had dine a massive climb above Lake Louise they were had it but did it…on the sprint well it felt like it was we say mangy goats losing their winter coast with lots of kids…plus I spotted very quickly mind you little fluffy squirrels darting here and there…
The views up here no matter where you look at truly breathtaking and the longer we were there all the clouds were going and so as the sun started comping out like glittering jewels first of all then started to fill, the valley below and the tips of the snow capped leaks..wow what views we are experiencing…
Dinner wasn’t anything amazing but enjoyable and filling…the views made it more than enough to say wow oh wow.,…After dinner we checked out Level 4 which again was set up so beautifully with fire pits and comfy chairs…and the peace Dec resistance is the magnificent views were ever you looked…

So our time was up so down we went.,. As good going down as coming up…
Jane Parker contacted me to see Banff Springs Hotel…she told me she would explain once home… from the gondola we could see it so once down John and I set off to find it..,John goggled it and it turns out it’s owned by the same group as Lake Louise and as expensive to stay there looks bigger and more majestic…wow…any took heaps of pics.,,

Last sight on the list was Bow Falls and Bow River…wow the water flying through there was unbelievable…mint milky green…worth a look… then back to the run home… what a day..too tired to even do my Blog today…so dine over the trip today the next day on…
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the little tiny squirrels the mangy goats

Banff Springs Hotel

Bow Falls on Bow River…Read more