Days 3, 4 & 5 in Banff

On Saturday morning, we left Great Falls, crossed the border and arrived in the late afternoon in Banff National Park. The Canadian Rockies are amazing! We set up camp and then visited the town of Banff. (It is a bit different here and I haven't totally figured it out, but within the National Park there is a town that claims a population of 8000+ and shops and restaurants like The Gap, Chilis, McDonalds, lots of local stuff, etc.) We drove past the Vermillion Lakes, looked at some cool birds (loons) and watched Abby play around a bit.

Abby at Vermillion Lakes

On Sunday, we attended the Banff Branch. We got there during the Sacrament song so we didn't hear the announcements so it wasn't until R.S. that I realized that about 75% of the 80 or so people in Sacrament Meeting were visitors. It was also interesting because when everyone in R.S. introduced themselves, there were just about as many Utahns as there were Canadians! It was a great little branch though and I really enjoyed it. After church we drove around town a bit (and saw the great big fancy Banff Springs Hotel built in the 1880s), the Bow River falls (beautiful, beautiful setting) and then walked around Johnson Lake, a few kilometers from Banff. We also visited Two Jack (hello, muffin - the one true Jack) Lake and Minnewanka Lake where we followed 4 or 5 bighorn sheep down the road and then watched 3 or 4 more jump over the guardrail on the dam to join them.

Mike and Abby from different views around Johnson Lake

On Monday, we took down camp in Banff and drove to a lookout that we had driven past several times but never stopped at. It was a lookout for the HooDoos (funky name for some rock pillars sticking out of some trees). Mike's comment was that the HooDoos are pretty anti-climatic when you compare them to the rest of the view from the lookout. The mountains and the river were spectacular!!

Abby and I at the HooDoo overlook