This is some of the equipment at the base, the gears, engines & pulley's that keep the tramcar airborne and moving.
Once at the top we immediately began the trek to the peak of The Whistlers. This was apparently about a 1.5 km hike, but it felt a lot longer than that, as we did quite a bit of climbing. Well worth the effort, despite the clouds. The view would be perfectly spectacular on a sunny day, but even so, we thoroughly enjoyed it - this day was one of the highlights of our trip.
For the most part, the climb was on gravel paths that made for easy walking. At least as easy as possible considering the grade. But there was a section that was still snow covered, with rather deep snow. Rob and I sunk in to our thighs more than once, on our way up, and our way down.
Rob thought it rather cold! It was really quite fun, because you could never know when you were going to sink. We could see lots of deep holes, so we would try to stay away from them, in hopes the snow elsewhere would be a bit firmer. But there was no guarantees!
A hairy marmot, one of the critters living in the mountains.
The tram car - it could fit 30 people, but then it was very crowded. On our ride up there were only about 10 people in the car, and that was far more enjoyable than the ride down where it was packed full.
There was a cafeteria at the terminal at the top of the mountain, so we ate lunch there. The cafeteria itself wasn't busy at all, although the terminal was, as there was at least one tour-bus full of people there.
Once we'd had our fill of the mountain peak, we headed down, and drove to Banff. The weather deteriorated as the we drove, with the clouds coming lower into the valleys and some heavy rain.
Since the road is in the middle of a National Park, and there are a lot of different animals, the Ministry has done what it can to protect animals and cars from each other. There are fences along the road, and then quite a few overpasses and underpasses for the animals to use to get from one side of the road to the other.
Once in Banff, the weather did start to clear. We registered for a campsite, and this was another parking lot, but different. The RV's were lined up end-to-end on each side of a road, instead of side by side.
After supper we went to the Banff Hot Springs for a warm soak. This is the warm water flowing down the mountain - it was warm to touch.
When we returned to our campsite after our swim, there were elk laying on the lawn across the road - it is not every day you have elk in your front yard!
On Wednesday morning, it was raining quite hard when the alarm went off, so we just went back to sleep for awhile. We then had a leisurely morning, pancakes for breakfast, and left the park just at check-out time (11:00am) in search of a garage which could and would change the oil in our RV. This was easier said than done, but eventually we were directed to a place who could do this, and did so in a timely manner.
We then headed north again to Lake Lousie, stopping at Johnstone Canyon along the way. This was the remains of a prescribed burn back in 1993.
Johnstone Canyon
We did go to Lake Lousie Wednesday evening - it was still quite frozen. On Thursday morning we went to Moraine Lake, and then back to Lake Louise (they are only 14 km apart).
This is Moraine Lake - it is surrounded by 10 peaks.
Lake Louise.
We (well, especially Karen) had been hoping to be able to go for a horseback ride while out in Alberta. We delayed this by a few days in hopes of better weather, but on Thursday afternoon it was not raining, so we decided to go. We actually both really enjoyed it. It was about a 1 hour ride, so we didn't get far enough for any really spectactular scenery but it was a lot of fun.
The corral full of horses. It was not busy on that day, so the horses spent most of the day waiting around.
A little critter we saw while waiting for the horse ride to begin - not sure of the name of this animal.
Karen, with her horse, Splash.
Rob rode a horse named Elwood. All the horses were males (geldings), since they are apparently less moody than female horses. The horses were well trained, we hardly had to tell them what to do since they did 'follow-the-leader' really well. We had to get the horses started, and make sure they didn't pass each other. We also had to make sure our horses didn't help themselves to snacks of grass along the way - Splash didn't listen to that too well!
It was a guided tour, Kelsey & Kara were our guides, and one other couple was with us, so it was a party of 6.
Part of the ride was crossing the Bow River - twice. This was a little nerve-wracking the first time, but fun too. The horses just walked across - it wasn't deep, but moving quite fast, with all the melting snow filling the river.
All in all, the ride was a lot of fun, but Rob and I were surprised how sore we were getting off the horses. We had only been up there for an hour, but our knees were sore - it felt like we had steel braces around our knees preventing us from straightening our legs. However, since we had a 10 minute walk back to the RV, that was mostly better by the time we got there.
After our ride, we left Banff National Park, and drove to the other side (eastern side) of Calgary, where we spent the night in Strathmore. The campground was quite a dump, but cheap, and as it had been raining in Calgary for at least a day, it was rather muddy. But the worst mud was yet to come! More about that next time.
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