Bamff National Park

Gondola Base

I feel like I am way behind in posting. It has been a couple of very busy days. Backing up a few days On Sunday the 21rst we traveled from Fairmont Hot Springs total of  112 miles and arrived in the early afternoon.
After setting up the rig in the National Park we decided to go downtown and explore.


We stopped by the visitor center and they suggested the Bamff Gondola ride. There was a free shuttle up the mountain to catch the gondola so off we went. It was a beautiful day the views from the gondola and the top of the mountain were spectacular. When we arrived at the top there was a nice visitors center with several observation decks, a museum explaining the history of the area, two restaurants and of course a gift shop.

View of City of Bamff 

One of the things that has been a bit surprising but maybe shouldn't, is the number of people that are here and everywhere we go. There are tour buss after tour bus filled with people from all over the world. People watching can be a full time job and very interesting. The park service does a very good job of controlling the crowds.

After spending a couple hours at the summit we returned to the base to discover that we had missed the last free shuttle. No worries, the local public transit took us back to the city for $2.00 a piece. Returning to downtown we found a nice  restaurant and finished the evening with good pizza and beer then back to the coach to rest up and prepare for our epic bus tour the next day.

We woke up Monday morning it was cool and cloudy. When we walked down the hill at 8:15 for our schedule departure at 8:30 the bus was already there and people were starting to board. This bus tour was an all day affair, we were scheduled to visit seven different venues and not return until the mission had been accomplished.

Entrance to one of the tunnels

The first on the list was the Spiral Tunnels, railroad tunnels cut through the mountain in a spiral fashion to facilitate changing it altitude for train in and out of the Bamff Valley. Frankly I was a bit disappointed there wasn't much to see as there were no trains while we were watching.

Upward and onward to Emerald Lake.  it was a beautiful spot we had a chance to walk around an do a little exploring.

The pictures are a bit decieving there are people everywhere.Tour busses have preferential parking close to the venues.


If your driving your own car or RV there are off sight parking with free shuttle buses or a nice long walk

Next stop, The Natural Bridge at Yoho
National Park. This was an interesting rock formation. The river came down and water would drop into rock hole and come out the bottom

On to Lake Louise which is a glacial fed lake and very popular.

This is representative of the crowds we experienced everywhere we went.

Hotel at Lake Louise was beautiful
but unless you were staying there
you were not supposed to be on the
grounds

 

Finally the picture that you cannot leave Lake Louise without.

 We had lunch at the Lake Louise ski resort a few miles away.

 Moraine Lake was our next stop. This pile of rocks were part of the moraine that was left at the glacier receded. There was a trail on the back side that allowed us to climb to the top and get a great view of the lake.

 We were told that the color of the lake is created by the reflection of the sune off what they called rock flower.
Rock flower is very fine rock ground up by the glacier and suspended in the water. The lake changes color depending on the angle of the sun.

You just have to have a smiling picture in front of the beautiful lake.











The final stop of the day was         

Johnson Canyon  and the lower falls. The walk to the lower falls was supposed to be a 1/2 mile walk. After walking for 20 minutes along a narrow trail mostly uphill  I am not sure the Canadians know how long a 1/2 mile really is.

The trail as we approached the falls. Another very busy place!

 The lower falls, if you look to the right side of the picture you will notice a cave opening. The cave allows you to go through to the backside of the waterfall. People were waiting 15 to 20 minute to go into the cave.

     

The entrance to the cave.

So we got in line.

The backside of the falls were a little underwhelming, but we were glad we waited.

 
So our bus tour was done returned to the campground @ 6:30 PM. It had been a long day we enjoyed the experience and the people we shared it with.