Ice fields and more

Next stop after Kootenay National Forest was Banff, quite the tourist town, but since it is early in the season it was not too crazy yet.  Stayed in Tunnel Mountain II National Park campground park where we could walk - we were all happy, especially Minnie!  Lovely views of surrounding snow-capped mountains.

Visited the town of Canmore to the south & found some nice animal prints in a big quilt shop, one with puffins which we again hope to see in Alaska.  Canmore is near Calgary & folks were talking about possible flooding again this year; they think the dam admins should release more water before the snow runoff increases.   There was also a shop for dog sled tours & Minnie checked out the mascot.

Then on to Jasper, AB, where we saw Lake Louise (frozen),

the train spirals near Field, AB, where we got to see a train going in & coming out of the mountain,

 The model of the train spirals - we saw train go in lower left & come out upper right tunnel.  The other side of the figure 8 was out of our sight.

Train coming out on upper left of tunnel, going in on lower right.

Then the lovely drive on the Icefields Parkway where we saw lots of waterfalls and glaciers.  Glacial melt from this area goes into the Arctic, Atlantic & Pacific oceans.

Lake Louise is a bear corridor, so hikers are advised to go in groups of not less than four.  On the way to Field, we saw a mama bear with cub, then 2 more black bears.

One of the black bears was on the roadside & a truck stopped on the other side of the road, woman hops out with her camera, walks across the road, keeps getting closer to the bear until she invaded it's space, so it chased her back across the road.  Hope she wised up!  Beautiful coat on this guy.

Stayed in Whistler campground outside Jasper, AB, then on to Grande Prairie, AB.  Even though we drove through a wildlife preserve, we saw nada...

Stayed at the Grande Prairie, AB, Walmart last night.  Met 2 couples from Gridley, CA, (near Sacramento) on their way back from Alaska (they started up in April) - they had no bugs & thought the weather was fine, even that early.  We've had some rain every day, but it comes & goes.  No mosquitoes yet...