Saturday 8/14/99
Day 17: Jasper, Banff & Calgary
We
left the hotel about 6:00 and would get to the park entrance at 6:30 as we had
to pay $10 for the family. We drove for eleven miles before turning left to
go to Miette Hotsprings. We passed the Pocohantes campground which was full
and continued down the road to where the hotel and cabins were. It seemed reather
quiet but then it was 7:00 in the morning. The hotsprings were not open yet
but did seem like a nice outdoor springs if you would like to stay at the cabins.
It cost $16 for a family of four to use the hotsprings. We drove back to the
main road and went towards Jasper. There were many elk near the lake at this
time including one that just sit near the lake and let everybody take pictures.
The mountains seem so close as you drive thru this vally that has been formed
by galciers.
We
turned right to take the road to Maligne Lake. You drive along side the Colin
Range on one side and the Maligne River in the other side. The Maligne Lake
is next and is a 9 miles long narrow lake. The water actually drains itself
dry in the fall into what they belive is a underground cave and what is left
is a large mudhole. The water runoff from the mountains will fill it back up
during spring and summer. It was still foggy and did not get a good picture
of the lake. Our next stop would be a Maligne Canyon where we took a nice hike
overlooking a narrow deep canyon wit hwater running thru. The canyon is 125
feet deep and a waterfall if you take a short wallk to the bridge overlooking
the canyon.
We
went to Maligne Lake which is surrounded by mountains in a nice quiet area.
There is also a nice hotel here which we used to just sit inseid and relax for
a while. Outside there is a trail that will run along the lake. I don't know
how long it is but we took a little stoll with the kids before deciden that
we should get going. The lake is thirty mile from the beginning of the main
highway as we drove back and went next into the town of Jasper. We stopped off
first at the Jasper Lodge and also walked the town business area.. Cindy and
I like the laid-back atmosphere that the town has. There is some tourism shops
with quite a few restaurents. We were getting hungry and finally found a place
called 'Tasty Meats' that somebody said served good food. They were right as
they first offered free chicken wings from their rotisserie to taste when we
walked in. It was good as we decided to eat lunch now with smoked ham, chicken
and some cheeses. We took the food out to the park and sat in the grass and
ate lunch. We were in Jasper for two hours as we also walked the streets window
shopping. It started to rain for the first time when we left Jasper and it didn't
look like it was going to stop. We skipped Patricia and Pyramid Lake as we felt
like we had to get going in order to see Banff today. As we drove along the
valley with the Sunwapte River next to us it was raining quite abit and not
much to see. At one point . there were mountain goats that were standing next
to the road. People were out taking pictures but it didn't seem to bother the
mountain goats.
We
passed up the Stanly Falls which had trails leading to six waterfalls. It was
a four mile hike that we would of liked to have done if it wasn't raining and
we had more time. We stopped next at the Sumwapta Falls Lodge so that we could
take the trail to the falls. There was alot of water running over although it
was a rather small drop. We took a short hike here but decided to turn back
because it was raining. We next saw a runooff of water from the rock along the
side of the road that went into Tangle Creek. I was trying to imagine what this
would look like in the springtime with all of the snow melting. Just a little
ways down the road we saw one glacier on Mt Kitchener and then stopped at the
icefield Center. It was pouring down rain now but I still went out to take a
couple pictures. It was a gray day and it wasn't that impressive as you could
not get up close and enjoy it. We did go inside the center and it reminded us
of a airport. Everybody was inside because of the rain as there was no charge.
They had videos going, book store, snack bar and other activities.
We
were going next into Banff and we drove until reaching Rocky Mountain House
Historical park where there was a gas and store. I was having problems with
the canopy again as the back of the left side of the canopy was coming loose
and I couldn't tighten it by myself. After I filled up with their gas they got
a mechanic to help me as he went inside the canopy to add some rubber between
the two to keep the canopy from slipping. After that I pushed in the canopy
from the outside as he tightened it down from the inside. They wer really good
aobut helping and didn't charge anything. He just said to keep going and enjoy
our vacation. It finally sotpped raining and we would stop next at Lake Moraine.
This has mountains surrounding it as it is sort or remote and has a nice lodge
that is smaller than most of them. We went into the gift shot and walked around
the trail taking pictures from different angles. We stopped next at Lake Louise
where they had a much larger lodge than Moraine but we didn't like it as much.
Lake Louise is a much moire colorfull lake than Lake Moraine. It has the green
grass in front of it with the snow from the mountains in the background.. This
seemed to be a small community that lived here rather than just a tourist sight.
I had talked to someone here about the thunder last night in Jasper and they
said that they did not get any here in Banff. They said that Jasper gets much
more rain the Banff does. It was also starting clear up down here as it was
raining where we came from.
We next drove past Banff and went to Lower Bankhead which was a former Coal
Mining area that was just a few miles away form Banff. This place was abandoned
in 1922 and some of the remains are still here as some of the track, foundations
and alot of coal can still be seen. It is a nice trail to take and there was
nobody here during dusk time. For the first twenty year of the century this
town was bigger than Banff as there were 1200 people living here. The kids had
fun playin in the foundations and walking along the trail. We went back into
Banff around 7:30. It was busy and hard to find parking. We walked around tow
nand decided to eat at Hard Rock. The kids like to eat there and we can even
get a decent meal there as they had also had good service tonight. We asked
the waiter what it was like in the winter and he said even busier. He also mentioned
that the roads are kept clear and that it shouldn't be a problem driving from
Banff to Jasper in December. Cindy and I had talked about coming here during
Christmas break.
Banff
Spring Hotel would be our next destination as we left the best for last. It
was 10:00 when we got there and we called my mom first to let the kids talk
tot her. She had just recieved our mail from Chicken, Alaska which was a week
ago. It was a pretty busy night as there were several lounges that had quiet
music being played. We looked down onto a wedding reception where they wer dancing
to DJ music. It was fun touring the hotel as there were old pictures and antique
furniture to sit in and just enjoy the atmosphere. This hotel was original built
in 1887 and rebuilt again in 1913. It burned in 1926 and was rebuilt again in
1928. It's one of the nicest hotels we have visited. Up there with the the Empress
in Victoria and Hotel del Coronado in San Diego. The town of Banff is also very
lively on weekend nights as there are so many places to eat and enjoy nightlife.
Without a hotel with a vacancy for the night we would have to move on. We left around 11:00 and drove to Canmore hoping to find a hotel here but were out of luck. They had just as many hotels as Banff and was also filled up. We finally decided to drive another eighty miles to Calgary and got there around 12:00. We then took another hour to find a room. We stayed at the La Pointe Hotel which was noisy and not the best part of town. There was a drunk passed out on ths econd floor outside the hallway as we went in. The worst part was that the kids woke up and wanted to know what was wrong with tht eperson.
We drove 500 miles today and 6950 total