July 3, 2017 Day 16 Monday Canmore, Alberta

We slept in, not wanting to get out of our cozy bed with the feather comforter.  A nice night’s sleep.  Today would be, in part, trying to find a way to enjoy this fabulous Banff National park, while literally thousands of other people also wanted to do the same. Rather daunting!

For the morning, we drove a road that parallels Trans Canada Highway 1: Bow Valley Parkway.   This got us off of the highway into some lovely slower driving area.    It was a quiet drive for a while until we hit the parking for Johnson Canyon, which has waterfalls, and thousands of people and cars parked along the side of the road for a mile each side.  This did not appeal to us (the crowds, not the waterfalls). 

So we drove less than a mile beyond the congestion to a small parking lot and set of trails with just five cars in it.  Yes!  No matter what was there, it looked good to us.  What we found was a deep forest trail leading us through (surprise!) more wildflowers.  Yes, we have seen more flowers on this trip than perhaps any other we have been on.  

So there were more stops to take photos, and some nice chats with others who shared our joy in avoiding the big crowds.  We walked for about an hour all together.  This was much better than being “shoulder to shoulder” as someone at our AirBnb described his hike up through Johnson’s Canyon.  We were trying to keep away from the swarms.

On our drive, there were so many lovely vistas, coming around the corner and seeing new mountain peaks up over the trees. This is such great country.  

One of the great innovations they have in Banff is surrounding the 4-lane expressway that runs right through the National Park.   There is parkland and animals on both sides of the highway.  A recipe for road kill, if you ever saw one.  However, they have used a great combination of underpasses and overpasses for the animals, as well as fences along the actual highway.  This allows for movement of the animals while keeping them (and the tourists) safe. 

Too soon we were off of this quieter parkway and into the heart of the park: Lake Louise.  This stunningly turquoise lake is the crown jewel for the park, and everyone was trying to go there.  All of the parking lots were full, and the people directing traffic were sending people miles and miles away to a remote lot with shuttle buses.  We struggled with the traffic for a while.  We couldn’t even get into the Visitor’s Center due to traffic.  Finally, we decided to scrap it for today.  Maybe in the morning we could get an early start and get there.

We drove back to our AirBnB and laid down for an afternoon nap. After which, we decided to take the rest of the day off and relax.  We fixed a gourmet dinner of salad and mac and cheese, and worked on photos and Patti read a murder mystery.  Sometimes, you just need some down time.  That worked for both of us.