On Thursday (after spending the night in a welcomed hotel in Calgary) we traveled to Waterton Lakes National Park (via Cardston to see the temple). We took a very nice boat tour on the Upper Waterton Lake. This is an interesting lake because it crosses the international border so we started and ended the tour in Canada but visited the States along the way!
On Friday morning we woke up early and drove up the Red Rock Canyon in Waterton to go bear watching. Mike has a good eye and spotted what looked like a young grizzly right off the road. We were only able to watch him for a minute or so before he went behind the trees. He was
probably 30 yards away. As we drove between Waterton and Glacier later that morning, we spotted a black bear off the side (maybe 15 feet). All the park rangers in all the parks have been warning everyone that the buffalo berries have just come on so all the bears are coming down lower to eat the thousands and thousands of berries they'll need before winter. Anyway, after we got to Glacier NP, we drove to visit the Many Glacier area and had a sow and 2 cubs cross the road in front of us and in the Many Glacier parking lot, we watched a sow and 1 cub through the scope for a half hour or so! The count was 4 grizzlies off the road, 1 black bear off the road and 2 grizzlies through the scope - all in the same day!
Saturday was spent in Glacier. It is a gorgeous place! Our favorites were a hike to St.Mary's and Virginia Falls and Logan pass - a very high elevation pass similar to Albion Basin (um...but better) with amazing views and lots of wildflowers. We both would've like to have spent a bit more time here! (I'll add a couple pictures when I get them downloaded.)
Happy birthday to you, dad! We hope you had a great day!
On Monday, we left Banff (the town - still in the Park) and drove North to the Lake Louise area. We set up camp and then drove to the Lake. It is hard to describe the colors of these glacial lakes. They are such a gorgeous turquoise color. We drove to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, both fed by huge glaciers that you can see from the lakes. They were both great, but Mike and I both thought that Moraine Lake was our favorite. (I think it is our favorite of anything we've seen thus far on the trip!) Moraine Lake seemed a bit quieter and more secluded. It was beautiful!
These are all at Moraine Lake - Yep, it's real...
Here we are standing on the glacier and then Abby and I
Overlook to Peyto Lake
Abby at Vermillion Lakes
Mike and Abby from different views around Johnson Lake
Our vacation has begun! Yesterday we got off to a bit of a later start than we had hoped. We stopped at the cemetery for a few minutes and then hit the library for the upcoming book club books and then hit the road. We got into IF at about 8:30 where dinner and Dave and Kaye were waiting for us. We enjoyed visiting with them and with Lara when she got home from work.
This morning we left IF at 8:30 and headed north. Neither Mike nor I have traveled much north of IF unless we are heading in the Yellowstone direction so this was new territory. We stopped in Helena for lunch and gas and arrived in Great Falls shortly after 3. After settling into the hotel, we went and visited the Lewis and Clark Center. (Mom, we are already putting the park's pass to use...) It was really interesting and pretty impressive to re-learn the importance of the Lewis and Clark expedition and exploration. The Missouri River is pretty and the forests we drove through were great.
We went swimming in the hotel pool (a bit colder than the Park Center and Poole's pools that we are used to), ate Chinese takeout and will figure out a way to get the Harry Potter book on CD sometime before we leave Great Falls in the morning. Can't wait to get into Banff tomorrow!
