This morning we drove the very scenic highway 93 through Kootenay National Park. There were some nice sights along the roadside and the wildlife spotting was pretty spectacular (the bear count for the week more than doubled!).
When we finally crossed into Banff National Park, we left British Columbia behind and we are once again in the province of Alberta. Just north of Banff is Johnston Canyon. The canyon is only about 100 feet deep but the cool part is that they have built a catwalk right into the canyon wall about halfway up, so you really get to experience it from a different perspective than just walking along the edge or down along the creek.
Kevin’s favorite part was this tunnel that allowed you to get right up to the lower falls. After my two attempts to get the “perfect shot”, his back was soaked with spray.
We finally arrived in the town of Banff in the late afternoon. The park originally started out as the Rocky Mountains Park, established in 1885. It was Canada’s first national park, and its name was changed to Banff in the 1930’s (the name comes from Banffshire, Scotland which was the birthplace of a major financier of the Canadian Pacific Railway). The town is home to about 8,000 residents and has a great walkable downtown area, which doesn’t have too much of a touristy feel. There is currently some kind of bike race/event going on all weekend, so unfortunately most of the main street will be closed to traffic tomorrow, but we should be able to find parking and check it out on foot. We are currently staying in the Mountain Tunnel campground, a few miles outside of town. It’s not very scenic and the sites are set up kind of like a parking lot, and no grills for some reason – we think Canada has something against cooking with charcoal. But the sun is out and the weather should be great for most of the day tomorrow, so I have no complaints.
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