Family Visit
The last two weeks have been spent in the company of my brother (Reg) and his family. It is their first ever visit to Canada and the wonder of the Canadian Rockies, they were stunned by the beauty of the place. This is a snapshot of the two weeks whirlwind tour of the area.
We made the short hike to Elbow lake to enjoy a picnic and try and capture a few fish, the hike in was a rude awakening to the altitude around here.
We made the short hike to Elbow lake to enjoy a picnic and try and capture a few fish, the hike in was a rude awakening to the altitude around here.
at the lake the eating started pretty damn quickly and there were fish topping all around. We could even see the fish close to the edge of the lake, things were looking good.
even though a few fish followed the spinner in, and we changed through every type of spinner available using a variety of colours and sizes we actually landed .....zero fish!!
Though to be absolutely honest, in a place like this.....it was never really about catching fish as much as just being here.
We went over to Banff for a day too and included a trip to Lake Minnewanka, a stunning lake close to the town with boat tours, picnic areas and scenic trails.
Some people were a bit too chicken to go out along the floating jetty for a photo, so I took this one of Becky and Sarah...that's three of us, so I guess you can identify the chickens by their absence ;)
We enjoyed a short wander along the lakeside trail where a few critters were spotted, we also dared Reg to walk around to the point and paddle across to the first of the islands from there. When he got there his hand signals in attempt to show us it was too deep to paddle across were lost in the laughter of us 4 sitting on a picnic table awaiting the excuse not to do it.
We made the trip to Lake Louise and walked the 4 km lakeside trail to the end of the lake where 2 teenage girls suddenly stripped down to bikinis and jumped in the icey cold water, they screamed and jumped out again pretty damn fast.....before turning around and doing it again, several times.
Whilst in the area we added Moraine Lake to our list of visited lakes, and made another lakeside trail wander (after I had a little fun scrambling up a boulder slope at the head of the lake)
we hiked down to the glacier that sits alongside but high above the lake before turning back to go to the cafe and gift shop...only to find it had closed for the season about 2 hours before we got there!!
another day another lake, we managed a rare family group shot at Barrier Lake where we stopped to break the journey to Kananaskis Lakes, we walked out along the dam to get Mt Baldy in the background
on the same trip we came across a herd of Rocky Mountain sheep on the road at a junction well known for their presence, they didn't let me down as my prediction came to fruition with a bunch ewes with their lambs blocking the road as always.
Just a short time later we spotted a good size moose at the side of the road and got out to see him closer.....
as he moved into a clearing we could see a cow and calf nearby and his intentions to mate with her were made pretty obvious.
all three were in great condition and we were really enjoying being so close to such incredible creatures when a car full of chinese people turned up, as they got out of the car shouting and jabbering at each other like they were having the argument from hell the moose family quickly headed back into the forest and out of sight. The chinese squawkers never did get a good look at them.
After the moose we carried on to what must be one of the most stunningly beautiful lakes in the Canadian Rockies, much less famous than Louise, Moraine, Peyto, etc but much more scenic by a long way, with fresh snow on the tops opposite it looked even better.
The view from the isthmus is spectacular with Mt Indefatigable standing guard over both lakes, Sarah and I have been here many times and I'm absolutely sure we will be here many more.
we hiked the trail around the south side of the lake to the waterfall that feeds it, the trail had enough snowfall to make it more interesting and the waterfall had plenty of large icicles on display.
Down by the lake the shade kept a coating of fresh snow alive to make a stunning foreground to the mountains beyond.
The snow was soon under attack from the Autumn sunshine and the trail was clear of all snow by the time we returned to the car park
We did plenty of other stuff besides lakes, including local parks, circular walks around the Bow river, the zoo, the city, golf at Valley Ridge, and of course the Tower....no photos of our visitors on the glass floor though......well, if you can't get 'em to stand on a jetty on a calm lake a glass floor at 1000ft was never going to happen ;)
We did have a great evening in the Tower restaurant, getting there in time to see the city in both daylight and darkness.
We did have a great evening in the Tower restaurant, getting there in time to see the city in both daylight and darkness.
We topped the evening off with champagne all round and a fancy little sweet for Sarah to celebrate her birthday, it was the perfect end to the perfect day.
The two weeks flew by but Reg, Margaret and Rebecca had a great time even if they didn't manage to see a bear in the wild!!