Thursday, June 9, 2022 - We drove for a little over an hour from Tunnel Mountain Trailer Park in Banff to the Kicking Horse Campground near Field, British Columbia. It is all along Highway 1, the Trans-Canada Highway. Access was easy and we were parking in an open field at the site. We had the camper all set up by about 10:00 and were ready to go do things. We thought the sites at this campground were all first-come first-serve, but we were wrong. We had parked in a site that was reserved by another person, so we had to move the camper to another site about 30 feet away. It still involves pulling in the slides, un-leveling the rig, hooking back up to the truck and moving to the new site before setting everything up again. We had it all done by about noon, but it was a nuisance, although self-induced.

We then drove to Emerald Lake and on the way, stopped at what is known as Natural Bridge on the Kicking Horse River. This is a natural location where the river has cut a path under ground for a short distance and leaves and arch-like piece of rock that you can use to walk across the river. It is pretty cool and the milky-blue water rushing down the hill and through the tunnel is pretty cool to see. See the photo gallery.

We then continued on to Emerald Lake. As advertised, there was no parking available near the lake, so we parked way down the road and walked up to the lake. It is a beautiful lake and there is a very nice lodge there. There are rental canoes ($75 per hour) available, but we plan to kayak the lake tomorrow if it does not rain. We decided to take the hike around the lake. It is stated that the trail is 3.5 kilometers around the lake, but it sure seemed longer. Maybe it was because the conditions on the trail were not great with a lot of flowing water and mud. We had to move slowly and watch closely where we placed or footing. Along the way we met four ladies who were about our age. We took pictures of them and they took pictures of us. We also entered into a great conversation. These ladies were friends from high school and lived in Edmonton, Vancouver, Calgary, and the other in Jasper. They all got together to have some fun in the Banff area. After walking a little farther, we met two young people from Montreal and they had just gotten married. I am so bad with names, but her name meant "butterfly" in her families language. He had a degree in climate change and she had a PHd in materials engineering. They were super nice and clearly well on track to success in life. I will post a photo of these people in the photo gallery. At the end of the hike, we talked to another couple who had witnessed a black bear that enter a resort lodge and attacked on of two small dogs owned by the person who owned the lodge. The bear literally ripped the small dog apart right there in the lodge. It was quite a scene. Later, the park rangers found the bear and put it down. That must have been something to witness. After the hike, we decided to drive to Golden which we thought was just 35 miles up the road. On the way, we saw a rather large black bear eating dandelions along the road. We were pretty tired and we decided that the trip to Golden was too far, so we turned around and returned to the RV. We can save Golden for tomorrow if it rains.

Note: Sunset here is 10:00pm and sunrise is 5:29am. It sure makes for a long day of sunlight and we are not even at the higher latitudes yet. You hit the hay at 10:00 and it is still twilight. We have to use the light blocking shades to get to sleep.

Note: Through out the national parks, there are high fences along both sides of the Trans-Canada Highway. This is to keep the animals off the roads and getting hit. Every so often, we come across a large tunnel that is simply there to allow animals to cross the highway safely. This is such a great idea. The fences must have been a real job to install since they are about eight feet tall, but they are extremely effect in keep critters off the roads. On our bike ride on the Bow River Parkway, we had to open and close gates crossing the bike path so that the animals could be kept on the safe side of the fence. I will add some photos to the gallery of these animal crossings.

Note; We came across several cattle guards on roads in the area. There were signs letting us know that they were coming up and the signs called them "Texas Gates." Interesting terminology.

Friday, June 10, 2022 - We decided to travel to Wapta Falls to take a hike to the waterfall. On the way to the trailhead, we stopped for a black bear that was grazing along the road. It was a pretty big one and I was able to get some good photos with the telephoto lens. The bears like to eat dandelion flowers and the areas along the road are generally free of trees that would block the shade needed by dandelions to flourish. For this reason, there are tons of dandelion blossoms along the road and the bears come down out of the mountains to dine on them. We continued on the the trailhead for the hike to Wapta Falls. It had rained the night before, so there was some pretty wet and muddy spots on the trail. The hike is not that long. Only 3.5 kilometers round trip, and it was well worth the hike. Wapta Falls has a water drop of only 60 feet, but it is over 300 feet wide, so there is a lot of flow over the falls. It is pretty impressive. We hiked to the top of the falls and then down to the bottom of the falls. Lots of mist in the air. The were quite a few hikers on this trail and the were all friendly and happy to be out. We hiked back to the truck and decided to head for the town of Golden for lunch and WiFi.

We drove to Golden to have lunch at a combination book store and cafe' called Bachaus Cafe' and Books. We each had some good sandwiches, but the WiFi was terrible. That's when we decided to hike on over to the local library. Lisa bought some books and the sandwiches were very good, so the trip was worth it. At the library, I managed to upload a ton of photos to the photo gallery in the blog. It was sure fun having a fast internet connection. On the way to Golden, the Canadian highway department is working hard to straighten out some of the short turns in the Kicking Horse Pass portion of the Trans-Canada Highway. It is a super-major undertaking with the highway being built out over the edge of the cliff. Pretty amazing to see what can be done.

Note; I am in the library in Jasper, Alberta, Canada. We have found that libraries have the best WiFi and it is free. Golden was exceptional and the Jasper Library is on a par with Golden. I can finally get something done.

Saturday , June 11, 2022 - Depart for the Icefield Center halfway to Jasper on the Icefield Parkway where we will stay overnight before continuing on to Jasper.