The Nomads

Left Chancellor Park, Yoho Nat. Park, BC

Temps: 20C

Sunny and Clear

We were up late after a cold night and had to wait for the condensation to dry off the inside of the tent fly before packing it up. Unfortunately the water was not working anywhere in the campground this morning and we couldn’t even have a coffee while we waited.

Once we were packed and on the road we headed into Field, a whistle-stop one horse town about fifteen minutes from the campground on the highway towards Banff. After a leisurely coffee and a re-charge for Susie’s camera battery we were off to see Takakkaw Falls, one of the highest falls in Canada. The falls, at the top, is a raging river of ice and snow melt from the Daly Glacier, but by the time it reaches the bottom, it is nothing but a heavy mist. Amazing!

I had visited this falls in 1968 and exactly forty years later it still takes my breath away!

While we were there we saw three rock climbers climbing the left side of the cliff face next to the falls….has to be at least a ten pitch climb and definitely not a cakewalk!

The next stops were also a rerun for me but another first for Susie…Lake Louise and Moraine Lake in the “Valley of the Ten Peaks”. This valley is the one that was printed on the back of twenty dollar bills through the seventies and eighties. It is a spot of breathtaking grandeur and beauty, and the colour of the lake water is the definitively the embodiment of “aquamarine”! It is a place where two glaciers met, pushing their lateral moraines together to form a medial moraine as they moved on. Once the ice melted, a high spine of slag and large rock was left piled up and surrounded by water. There are ten majestic high peaks surrounding the lake, hence the valley name.

We headed out of Lake Louise towards Banff on the Bow Valley Parkway to the provincial campground at Protector Mountain with a day-old loaf of honey-corn bread, a FIVE DOLLAR can of Campbell’s chunky soup and two packs of Ramen Noodles for supper. Lake Louise was outrageously pricey!

Off to Banff tomorrow!

Kilometres - Daytrip: 151 km total: 25,592

Gas: $0 Park Pass: $0

Lodging: Protector Mtn. Prov. Campground $17.60

# posted by Richard and Susie @ 8:30 AM