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. 

July 2, 2017 Day 15 Sunday Coeur d'Alene ID To Canmore Alberta

With the vagaries of time zones, the most northern part of Idaho is on Pacific time, while the rest of the state is on Mountain time.  We decided to stay with the time our bodies were used to, and so went to bed early and (by the clock) were up and eating breakfast by 5:45.  So we were able to get out and on the road early.  Today we cross over into Canada.  We did a couple of errands and then started the drive to a very small border crossing.  This took about an hour and a half.  Then, we were in.  Welcome to Canada!  We were ready for this next lovely part of our drive and our travels.

The Canadian Rockies are connected with those in the States, but also look very different.  The entire day was filled with wonderful mountains and great scenery.  

We stopped at a visitor’s center with some great volunteers who got us all set with maps of British Columbia, Alberta, and the very cool National Parks that we would be visiting.  Although today was July 2nd, one day after Canada Day, we saw lots of evidence of as big celebration the day before.  We heard of some rumblings of the First Nation People (the native people of Canada) being unhappy with the celebration since there was insufficient recognition that they were in Canada first and had their own independent nations).  That voice was drowned out by the overwhelming joy of everyone else celebrating 150 years of nationhood.

We decided to take a side trip to a little town called Kimberly in order to see the world’s largest freestanding Cuckoo Clock  (of course.) This town is known as the Bavarian of Canada, and they did their best to create a fake German look.  We watched the Cuckoo Clock.

We then ate a genuine German meal of roast pig, Wienerschnitzel and apple strudel.  Delicious!

Then on the road heading for the parks.  Patti dug out our requisite John Denver sings Rocky Mountain High cd, and we listened to this music that is so full of the glories of the mountains. 

We finally reached the first of our National Parks:  Kootenay.  This is a lightening bolt shaped park with a lot of wilderness and a big highway running over and along three mountain ranges.  Lovely views at all side.  We mostly had to be content with driving through and seeing these out the windows of the car.

However, we were able to make a couple of stops.  One in an area that has been a sacred Indian site for gathering ochre (rusty orangish) color clay that was used in ceremonies.  This ochre was of very fine quality and the First Nation People of the area traded their ochre with other tribes and it was passed on for thousands of miles. 

We followed a path through the woods.  Again, the wildflowers were amazing.  Finally, we started seeing the clay.  It was striking.  At some later date, commercial interested had a short-lived mining busy trying to get this out, but it was too difficult and too remote.  It was an interesting hike.

Then, just a mile up the road, we took another hike to Marble Canyon.  This natural canyon with a loud waterfall had seven bridges that went over it.  We were able to discover the power of water and erosion and could see how the waterfall had shifted or migrated over the past 9000 years.  It was so powerful to see it and to feel the freezing air rushing through the canyon.  This was, in part, due to the melting ice that made up the river.

Near the waterfall, we found one of our favorite features in the Canadian Parks: The Red Chairs.  Many parks have these chairs sometimes hidden, sometimes easier to find in their park.  The idea is to “share the chair”.  You are invited to sit in the chair and then take a photo which can be uploaded to a website.  We love these and feel like it gives another fun thing to do in the parks.  We will look for more during the next several days. 

We continued to be enchanted by the wonderful wildflowers.  There were so many shapes and colors. Stunning!

Coming through this park, we then moved into our next area: Banff National Park.  We drove through the park, knowing that there would be time the next day for more sightseeing.  For now we waned to get to our AirBnB place for the night in nearby Canmore.  We checked in, meeting our host, Andres, a man originally from Switzerland.  In the other bedrooms at this home are guests form China, and Germany.  As well as his son, daughter-in-law and three grand children.  We were tired, but pleased. Ready for a nice sleep. 

July 1, 2017 Day 14 Saturday Driggs ID to Coeur d'Alene ID

Today was the day we said goodbye to the Tetons, for now.  As we began the long drive west and then to the North, Dick was amazed at how long we could still see the Teton Mountains from this side.  For much longer than from the East side.  We finally saw the last glimpse maybe 100 miles down the road.  Really big mountains and flat and rolling land.

Much of the land north of Driggs was devoted to raising cattle. We saw many herds of cattle grazing on the lush grass that was the result of the pastures being irrigated with big pivot or rolling sprinkler systems.

We drove along the wide, nearly flat valley formed by the Teton River.  We were looking for the site of the disaster of the failure of the Teton Dam in 1976.  Dick remembered the news of the more than 250 feet high dam suddenly collapsing sending a wall of water to the town only a few miles away.  The town was flooded and the wave continued on through several other communities and into the larger Snake River before being contained by a major dam on that river.  The warning system worked and only 14 people lost their lives but over 13,000 cattle were lost.  It was big national news at the time.  We knew the dam had not been rebuilt but it was hard to see where the dam site would be on these rolling plains.  We followed the signs and found that the Teton River had cut a deep gorge through the plains. Standing on the look-out for the site, we looked out over the canyon and the remnants of the dam.  A portion of the earthen structure was still there at full height but the river had cut right through a major portion of it all the way to the valley bottom.  The original spillway was left 250 feet above the river.  We pictured the dam’s failure and the terror that wall of water had created for those downstream.

We were very much off the beaten path and we attracted the attention of a sheriff’s deputy was checking the area as part of his normal rounds.  He provided information about the dam’s demise and the resulting flood.  We pointed out some beautiful flowers that were growing along the paved walkway.  He had never noticed them before but liked them. Stopping here was another great find from Patti’s cell phone app of American Roadside Attractions.

Dick grew up with potatoes coming from either Maine or Idaho, primarily Idaho.  A fascinating sight for us as we drove north in Idaho was seeing the extensive fields of potatoes.  The plants were looking very healthy and we imagined the potatoes growing underground.  We wondered if we would end up eating potatoes from the plants we were seeing.

As then we drove and drove.  Another 500-mile day.  In order to get to northern Idaho, the best route took us through Montana.  The scenery was interesting and changed throughout the day.  There were, of course, more mountains.  This was, after all, the Backbone of the Rockies Trip.  But there were also many other interesting landscape scenes.

We finally arrived in Coeur d'Alene at dinner time tired and ready to eat and go to bed.  We decided to walk across the street to a shopping mall.  There were had a nice dinner of pizza and then frozen yogurt for desert. We passed on the chance to go to a Brazilian place called The Grill From Ipanema…  If you are too young to understand this joke, look it up online.

We covered some good ground today.  We were also very aware that today was Canada Day, actually the 150^th anniversary of the founding of Canada as a country.  We knew that throughout Canada there were huge celebrations happening, and we weren’t there YET.  Tomorrow would be the day we would cross the border, and then would be in Canada for the 4^th of July….Didn’t hit the fireworks right for either celebration this year, but sometimes, that it how it works out.

June 30, 2017 Day 13 Friday Driggs ID

The morning started even before it was time to get up.  Dick looked out the window at first light and found that not only was the Grand Teton silhouetted against the early light of the sky but that Venus was brightly shining in the nearby sky.  What a wonderful surprise. 

A Sunny day AT LAST.  We woke up ready to get up into the mountains from the West side and see some lovely sites.

Thankfully,  a nice volunteer from the Teton Geotourism Center had given us a couple of tips of great hikes, and so we headed off just down the road to Teton Canyon.  First, we went on a really nice path called The Sheep’s Bridge Trail.  We crossed the bridge within a few hundred yards.  Teton Creek was really high from the snow melt, passing just a foot under the bridge.

The path on the other side of the stream passed from deep woods to open meadows.  We could feel the springy feeling under our feet as we walked on the pine needles covering the trail.

The chatter from the trees alerted us to the presence of a pair of red squirrels.  They were alerting others to our presence.  They stayed in trees on opposite sides of the path and seemed to be talking with each other while watching us.  What a treat!

Along both sides of the path was a virtual garden filled with so many different wildflowers. It took us a while to walk it (even though it was just a couple of miles) because we had to stop to take pictures so often.  Flowers, flowers, flowers!

Then we drove another couple of miles down that same gravel road and found an area that was marked by signs as “congested”.   Well, these folks had apparently not seen what it is like over on the Eastern busier side of the Tetons because it still was so quiet.  At the end of the road was the trailhead for the Teton Canyon Trail. We met some nice people in the parking lot, including a really nice family with 20+ people of all ages hiking.  They were having a family reunion this weekend and wanted a hike with just their immediate family to start off the weekend.  We also met a few others on the trail…but mostly it was just us and the wildflowers and the scenery.  This was a much more maintained trail than we had been on earlier.

Oh, and the waterfalls.  Yes, there were several waterfalls just coming down off the cliffs.  Stunning and lovely, again!  The air was warming but smelled so fresh, filled with the scents of the trees and flowers.

Oh, did we say we saw more flowers?  There were so many beautiful flowers.  We took so many photos, here are a sample from this hike.

When we reached the area where we planned on turning around we found a large ice field that was melting in the sun, allowing alpine flowers to bloom in the freshly uncovered earth.  We were surrounded by snow-covered peaks.  Wow!! 

We walked may about 6 miles round trip there, and were sad to have to come back to our car.  There were some areas where there still was snow, but mostly GREEN and filled with flowers.  What a great hike!

But we needed to come back because we also needed to get up on the top of one of the mountain to the ski resort. We had been up there a couple days earlier, as the storms were moving in.  Dark and dreary then.  Today, SUNSHINE!

But first, we had to stop for a better look at a large patch of scarlet paintbrush that we had seen as we drove to the trailhead.  When Dick went around the little lake to get a better view and closer photos, he discovered a hummingbird was feasting on the nectar in the many flowers.  What an unexpected blessing.

We had a lunch out on the patio of the ski resort, and then hopped on the chairlift to go up to the top. A little scarier than the enclosed gondola that we rode on the other side of the mountains in Teton Village, but a very nice, safe ride.

At the top, it was chilly!  We went from 55 degrees F down below to 44 at the top.  We both wished we had brought another layer of clothes.

But still, it was a great view.  The closest that we had been able to see the Grand Tetons, especially the Grand Teton, Middle Teton, and South Teton,-the three tallest and most famous of the mountains.  From the observation platform, we could look at them and stare and soak in the majesty.  

We had a great talk with a local family where the father had climbed the Grand Teton, as well as hiking, at least 12 times up a lower mountain called the Table Mountain that we could much closer to the peaks.   It turns out that that hike (maybe taking about 10 hours) was something that the local Boy Scouts and High School Wrestling and Football Teams, would all do each year to prove their toughness.  We were impressed.  We talked with them for quite some time.  Always neat to understand the local customs.

Dick was delighted to see his first Golden Mantel Ground Squirrel of the trip.  This one was quite willing to pose for a photo.

Then we spent some time in the nature hut talking with the naturalists and trying to identify flowers that we had photographed.  Very fun.  Then chairlift back down, and back to our Airbnb house.  A quick detour to pick up some groceries and carry out Chinese food completed the day.    

As the day ended we could see the color of the sunset casting a purple hue to the Grand Teton.  Dick went outside to capture a photo of the final stages of the sunset.  Glorious! We adore this side of the Tetons and will be back. 

June 29, 2017 Day 12 Thursday Driggs, ID

Another stormy day which gave us the chance to rest.  We were in the perfect place to do that.  Outside, the weather was constantly changing.  The lighting was often quite dramatic.  We appreciated the pastoral setting after the high pace on the eastern side of the Tetons.

On one walk outside, Patti found the painting of an owl that gave the name of our AirBnB; The Owl Barn.

In the afternoon, we went into town to see a fine little museum called The Teton Geotourism Center. The exhibits were great-focusing on both winter and summer activities here.  They had some wonderful videos and photos (there is a connection between this center and National Geographic Society).  This museum focused on the history and current culture of The Teton Valley.  That is the county on the west side of the Teton Mountains.  It has around 10,000 residents who are very proud of their community.  Dick got into quite a conversation with the staff, including the County Director of Development, who was passing through.  Dick wanted to know what was driving the economy since we had observed a number of upscale homes and stores.  He learned that tourism (summer and winter) provided the core income to the community, in addition to agriculture.  But, they wanted to develop more Internet-based businesses since they had a highly educated workforce.  Dick will explore with colleagues at National University about collaborating with them on an economic study.

Before we left the museum, Patti discovered that early in the county’s history, they had used sleds pulled by teams of dogs to get around in the deep winter snow.  Of course, Patti had to jump onto the runners of a sled behind a team of dogs on a video screen.

After that stimulating time, we decided that we needed ice cream.  The nearby drugstore had an old-fashioned soda fountain.  We ordered Huckleberry ice cream and watched as the young woman hand-prepared Dick’s shake and Patti’s cone.

We packed up and then headed off to one of the community events that everyone raved about: Music on Main.  This is a series of 8 free public concerts held in the town of Victor, about 8 miles down the road from Driggs. 

During the course of the evening, there must have been 2000 people from babies to elders who gathered for this happy time.  We were struck by how many smiling people there were around us all evening.  

There as dancing, and children running around chasing each other. It was great to see a small town community just relaxing together.  Kids could play without parents worrying about their safety. It was a very friendly gathering and we both had nice talks with several people. 

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We also got to hear an excellent bluegrass group from California, Hot Buttered Rum. There was also a number of food trucks and stands to serve a quite sophisticated array of artisan pizzas, Thai food, Mexican, designer popcorn, and even some food from Nepal.  We ate well and enjoyed the concert.