Fantasy Day 8, Motorcoach tour Banff, Lake Louise, Takkakaw Falls, and others

On Saturday, Fantasy had arranged a motorcoach tour of the area around Banff so we could get to see the sites without the hassle of driving and finding parking.

Bus driver John was taking the old Trans Canada 1 (now 1A), when we came upon stopped traffic -- just as in other national parks, that usually means that there is something to see, and we got to see our first bear!

A little further along, John pointed out this slope to us. This area is very dry - there are no large bodies of water - the average humidity is 40% year round. It is wet only when it rains. On this slope, there was a lightning caused fire in the 1980s. It burned so hot that it burned the trees completely to the ground, and they have not re-grown.

We stopped for a hike at Johnston Falls. We had time to hike to the Lower Falls.

Along the path, there were many wild rose bushes - wild rose is the provincial flower of Alberta.

We were hiking along the river which is slightly white in color due to "rock flour", the material that is buffed off of rocks upstream by the glaciers that feed the rivers.

Johnston Canyon, Lower Falls

Carl went in the cave on the other side of the river -- it was muddy, so I decided to just enjoy the pictures he took!

He got quite a bit closer to the falls to get picture and also got a bit damp from the spray!

A video of the falls from inside the cave:

Both of us at the Lower Falls, Johnston Canyon

Back on the bus, we drove by Castle Mountain -- for a while after World War II, this was renamed as Mount Eisenhower to honor President Dwight D Eisenhower and his contributions to the Allies during the war. There is still one peak that is known as Eisenhower Peak, but the mountain name reverted to its earlier name (Castle Mountain) in the 1990s. An interesting story that John related to us: President Eisenhower and entourage came to Banff for the ceremony that would unveil the plaque commemorating the renaming. The president was staying in the Canadian Pacific Railway Hotel in Banff (now Fairmont) on the top floor (9th) in the Presidential Suite (where else?). From there, he could see a beautiful golf course. He was evidently quite a golf player, so headed out to play a round. When it came time to unveil the plaque, the US Secretary of the Interior whispered to the Canadian dignitaries, "The President is missing." He was out on the golf course. Undeterred, they unveiled the plaque and renamed the mountain in his honor. I wonder if he had shown up for the renaming ceremony if the name would have "stuck" for longer!?!?!

Back on Trans Canada 1, John pointed these odd overpasses out to us -- they are designed for wildlife to be able to cross the highway without endangering themselves or the vehicles on the road. The government  used to build underpasses, and those still exist, but predators learned that the underpasses were a good place to wait for food, causing prey animals to avoid using them, and animals with larger racks of antlers (elk, caribou) would not readily use the underpasses.

When we got to Lake Louise, we came to realize how nice it was to be traveling by motorcoach. John drove us to the parking lot right near the lake where there was bus parking. The cars in this picture had driven up, but no parking was available to them. They would need to drive back down to the Ski area and catch a shuttle bus to be able to visit Lake Louise. I think the shuttle had to be booked, and the bookings were all full, so they probably would not be able to get to see Lake Louise on this day.

Walking on the path on the way to Lake Louise

So lovely!

The turquoise color of the water is due to rock flour from the glaciers that are the source of water to the lake.

Obligatory selfie

We offered to take a picture for another tourist who was there (from Brazil) and she, in turn, offered to take our picture.

There was a beautiful Fairmont Hotel located there.

There were folks in canoes and kayaks on the lake. No motorized boats allowed (except rescue boats if a rental canoe capsizes).

A full view of Lake Louise via video:

Panoramic shot of the lake

We had lunch provided by Fantasy at the Lake Louise Ski Area's Whisky Jack Lodge.

Nice buffet lunch

After lunch, we continued west on Trans Canada 1, crossing the Continental Divide and entering British Columbia. Along the way, on the BC side,

We stopped at the Spiral Tunnels,

... built to help with rail travel in this area.

The arrow points to the upper exit to the tunnel -- we could barely see the train traveling down below us where it entered the tunnel, but the trees were too dense for us to see the lower entry. The train was coming out of the upper exit while still entering at the lower entry.

Schematic of the spiral tunnels

The motorcoach that was taking us around for the day

We then headed to Emerald Lake...

Another beautiful lake

Some gorgeous flowers at the lodge at Emerald Lake

Carl taking one of the many many pictures he took on our trip!

Patti enjoying one of the Canadian National Parc's Red Chairs

We were to finish our day by visiting Takkakaw Falls -- the second tallest falls in Canada (1224 feet). To get there, we needed to go up a set of switchbacks...

... which were too tight for vehicles over 7m (~23') to be able to make the turns. Therefore, our motorcoach would need to back up the middle section.

John pulled into the far part of the curve at the switchback. Two of the fellows on our bus (Paul and Tail Gunner Jeff) got off -- one stopped the traffic coming up the hill, and the other hiked up to the next switchback corner and stopped the traffic coming down. When traffic was stopped, John started backing up the hill...

... another tour bus was behind us on the road, so he waited until we were backing up the middle section...

... and then he backed up the hill behind us (I know it looks like we're just following another bus down the hill, but his backup lights are on, and, trust me, we were backing up).

The other bus took advantage of our two guys stopping traffic.

When we got to the upper switchback, we then had to "thread the needle" between the stopped traffic (that was crowding the center line so as to avoid the sheer rock face going up right next to them), and the guard rails on the downhill side. Jeff is walking further up to get to a place where the bus could stop to pick him up.

It was a bit nerve-wracking! When we got to the falls, as in other parking areas throughout the day, there were many more cars parked than spaces available, in many cases leaving barely enough room for a large bus to get past them. John got us through without taking the paint off of any vehicles!

Takkakaw Falls with the rock flour laden river that flows from it

We continued to hike closer...

Obligatory selfie

One of our fellow guests offered to take our picture. We were getting wet from the spray from the falls, and it was chilly!

It is hard to comprehend from the pictures how big these falls are -- the red arrow points to a couple of folks who had gone much further in...

... even zoomed in, it is hard to see them, they are so tiny compared to the size of the falls!

A video of the falls:

A picture on the information board showing the glacier that feeds Takkakaw Falls

As we were leaving Takkakaw Falls (on our way to the switchbacks that John would again back down the middle section), John pointed out this area -- you may note that there are no large trees. This is an avalanche area, so nothing tall can be sustained here.

As we got back onto Trans Canada Highway 1, we saw this tunnel and thought it might be part of the Spiral Tunnels. However, this is an Avalanche protection tunnel -- so the tracks are not impacted by avalanches.

Map of our visits on Saturday (Google map link)

What a great day! This was one of the reasons we decided to take a caravan rather than do the trip ourselves -- and we really saw the benefit of being able to see multiple very popular sites in a single day because we didn't have to deal with parking and shuttles. And... John could take us places we would probably never try on our own!!!