Banff

I'm behind on this blogging! We've been busy but don't have many mobile photos to show for it due to being in ultra scenic places that were crying out for a million arty photos on the giganto-lense-tourist-camera.

So after Jasper we headed back down the Icefields Parkway which is definitely more beautiful driven North to South. We stopped at 2 incredible waterfalls called Abathasca and Sunwapta Falls, and Edith Cavell Glacier which was pretty much a valley decimated by avalanches and a lovely icy mountain.

Banff is a nice little place to stop surrounded on all sides by snow capped mountains; although it is pretty much just a very well kept tourist town with loads of restaurants, sweet shops and fudgeries, gift shops selling loads of really cool things that we didn't have room for in our suitcases and lots of Canada paraphernalia. We did however purchase ourselves some hotdogs and unusual pastries from a famous place called Beavertails; cinnamon sugar coated beaver tail shaped deep fried pastries topped with chocolate or maple syrup and various other things, which were yummy.

On the way to Calgary we visited Minniwanka lake, which was a really lovely place to relax and pictured below. We left ourselves a few hours in Calgary, which if I'm honest was nothing to write home about! Had a good steak though.

Today we took our first long hike in Glacier National Park. We got some bear spray and I sang out loud the whole way for fear of taking a grizzly bear by surprise.  We marched through the forest with Luke napping in the backpack carrier. Although we didn't come face to face with a bear, we did hear a big growl! However we did find a cute little marmot hiding in a logpile. We then scrambled over some snowy patches to reveal a hidden lake called Grinnell Lake. On the way back we discovered the secret of getting Luke to walk at a reasonable pace, in a straight line, without whinging - give him a stick. 

Glacier National Park is a bit of a surprise to me; it's stunning even though the most scenic roads and trails are still blocked with snow. I'll write more about it tomorrow.