Day 19 - Hinton, AB

Monday, July 18 was a rest day.   We're all on scenery overload.  If you've followed us along thus far you've seen only a small sampling of the incredible scenery of the Canadian Rockies.   You may not want to travel to Alaska but you should make it a point at sometime in your life to see the CRs.

The day started out with a community breakfast

All hands pitched in

Then off to re-provision.  Where else but......

then they spotted the libation station

Jerry was in the mood, but I thought he was going to need another stent

Case of Coors Light $47.19

Groceries are about 70 to 100% more then the US

Then it was back to work on those pesky steps

With the steps finally fixed, we grilled steaks and enjoyed a beautiful sunset

Tomorrow.........

Day 18 LakeLouise to Hinton, AB

We were up early this morning to get to Lake Louise before the crowds. And we done good. There were very few people here when we arrived. But, we met one that we talked into taking our picture.

(click on photos to enlarge)

Heidi thought the lake was really beautiful . But the water was cold and the fishing sucked.                            

She did meet some new friends. She wanted to play with them, but they were rude Canucks.

There is a nice hotel here. The Fairmont. Basic rooms are $450-$520 a night. Our RV site was $34.00. That will help on our fuel bill.

We went on a path around the lake and saw more wild life.

Heidi posed while several Japanese tourist took pictures. And Gail picked some flowers.

Then back to camp to pack-up, unplug and hit the road to the next national park.

Jasper National Park and the Icefields.

Jasper National Park is the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies, spanning 10,878 km² (4200 mi²). It is located in the province of Alberta, north of Banff National Park and west of the City of Edmonton. The park includes the glaciers of the Columbia Icefield, hot springs, lakes, waterfalls and mountains. Wildlife in the park includes elk, caribou, moose, mule deer, white-tailed deer, mountain goat, bighorn sheep, grizzly bear, black bear, beaver, Rocky Mountain pika, hoary marmot, grey wolf, mountain lion, and wolverine.

We stopped at the "Weaping Wall".

Then Crowfoot Glacier.

Now Lon is picking flowers!

Beautiful wild flowers are in abundance in Canada.

Then we stopped for repairs. Our step would not retract so Lon nig................jury rigged it. And we were back on the road.

On to Jasper, AB where there was no place to park. So they didn't get any of our money.

So off to the RV park in Hinton, AB.

"Quick Pic Pam" got this shot at 50mph.

Finally home-sweet-home.

Tomorrow is a day off. R&R......&R  (rest, restock, and repair).

For those of you just joining our blog (or going back to earlier pages), we have noticed that previous pictures are showing up blank with a red X. We think we know what happened....MAYBE and unfortunately it is not a quick fix. If we get a rainy day and a good fast internet connection, we may try to fix it. Until then, please enjoy the rest of our journey with us.

Day 16B - The Calgary Stampede

We stole the Cockerell's password to report on the Stampede, or "stamped" as Jerry would say.

Pam had the Calgary Stampede on her bucket list.  Timing happened to be perfect as we rolled into Calgary 3 days before the end of Stampede.  So Friday the 15th, Pam and Lon headed to the Stampede for the 1:30 rodeo. 

Calgary is a very cosmopolitan city of glass and steel built on the energy and natural resource industry of Canada.  However, they have not forgotten their western roots and have built a very large rodeo exhibition area next to their Saddledome stadium.

Bronc riding

The Calgary Stampede is an annual rodeo, exhibition and festival held every July in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The ten-day event, which bills itself as "The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth",^[2] attracts over one million visitors per year and features the world's largest rodeo, a parade, midway, stage shows,concerts, agricultural competitions, chuckwagon racing and First Nations exhibitions.

Barrel racing

We got lucky and while standing in line for tickets Pam found a lady who was had two tickets for sale at 60% of face.  The tickets were great, 2nd row center,  and we had a great time.  Pam made the observation that there was much "social networking" going on in the crowd and it was clear that the corporate world was using the event to entertain their clients. Deja Vu all over again.

Looking forward to having a cold Molson or Labatt was disappointed that Budwiser was the sponsor but we put our disappointment aside and imbibed.  

One thing we noticed here in Alberta, GMC rules as far as cars/trucks we see on the road, Chrysler 2nd, Ford 3rd, then imports ( I know technically they're imports also).  They put Michigan to shame.  Well maybe not this lady:

"OH CANADA...."

Day 17 Cochrane, AB to Lake Louise, AB

We left Cochrane this morning, bright and early, bout 10:30... Right after removing the bug remains from the windshield. If we don't, they blur the pictures.

After a stop at a tire store to adjust our tire pressures to 115 psi, we found that their compressor only went to 100 psi. So we headed to the Canadian Rockies with only 110 psi. Figure it will go up with heat and alttitude.

On the way to the mountains, at interstate speeds, a car with 2 bicycles on the roof passed us just in time to lose one of the bikes. It was ugly, but we escaped.

Rest stop to take in the scenery.

Came across what I thought were leftover hippies. Actually they flew in from Irland and bought the van for their vacation.

Back on the road.

 

We finally landed at the Lake Louise campground.

We got settled in and headed for Lake Louise. We discovered it was "National Park Day" here in Canada. There were 164,836 people at Lake Louise. We passed on that and changed our plan. Off to Bow Valley Parkway.

Stopped along the way .

Kids will be Kids!

Castle Mountian.

We were all there.

 

THEN our first bear encounter!

There's Yogi

And Boo Boo too.

Then we headed on to Banff

A big hotel

Down town Banff

Leaving Banff we saw a very healthy looking coyote, but everyone was drinking beer and couldn't find the camera. Tomorrow we go to Lake Louise.