Land O' Lakes...

We arrived in Lake Louise, got ourselves situated and headed out to see what's what. With camping opportunities limited, we elected to use this as our base for seeing Lake Louise and Banff.

First we decided to go out to The Lake Louise. Of course it's the holiday weekend, and it was packed. Cars, buses and people everywhere. Undaunted, we find that it is yet another glacier fed, turquoise lake. Those things are everywhere up here. 

Victoria Glacier in the background.

On the shore of this beautiful lake sits the amazing Fairmont Chateau at Lake Louise. The chateau faces the lake and the Victoria Glacier. Since it was hot and sunny, we decided to have a drink and a snack on the patio overlooking the lake. Twist my arm! It was the perfect vantage point for people watching. Okay, that is one of my favorite pastimes.









After our refreshment, we headed out to see more lakes. Moraine Lake is yet another of those amazing turquoise lakes. This was the most vibrant yet. Maybe it had something to do with the angle of the sun, since it was late in the day. Sadly, the canoe rental kiosk was closing for the day.

But Craig had to get out on the water, in a manner of speaking. The water was so clear I'm sure you could see the bottom from the canoes. Moraine Lake sits in the Valley of the Ten Peaks. You can see several of the peaks behind Craig. The beauty is other worldly. No wonder the area has been used by outdoor enthusiasts for 100 years.



The next day, we drove the The Bow River Parkway, a lovely scenic drive that connects Lake Louise with Banff. It's a chance to get away from the traffic of the highway, and enjoy the mountain air. And it is the same Bow River that was near one of our first RV parks on this great adventure.



No animals spotted, but we are sure there are elk in the area, as the marks on these aspens will attest. It was interesting to find a memorial marking the site of an internment camp from World War I which housed immigrant prisoners of European descent. You never know what you will see on these drives.

We arrived in Banff and it was busy, as you would expect. They have a plethora of free parking so we counted ourselves lucky and headed out the see the town. It's a lovely place, flowers abound and the atmosphere was friendly. Since it was a beautiful day, we walked out to The Fairmont Banff Springs. Oh, yeah, another grand castle, this one complete with kilted concierge and Royal Canadian Mounted Police in their famous red uniforms. I elected not to let the tourist out, and we just headed to the patio for another afternoon of snacks and drinks. These Fairmont Hotels know atmosphere. (Ignore the bored folks behind us.)

More lakes to come.