I was still crabby when I woke up. And felt dirty. But I did my best to clean myself, and we packed up the tent. I made sure the keys were not packed in it… and we got on the road again. Well sort of. We had a few stops to make before we left “civilization”. First order of business, an oil change for our loyal stead. The ladies at Wal-Mart (God Bless Wal-Mart) looked at us like we were crazy when we tried to give her our phone number and address. Wisconsin? Where’s that? Is that a province? So like Wisconsin, Wisconsin? Once we explained her our situation, she figured it out and discussed a little of our trip with her. Kindness goes a long way. We had an hour to wait for our car, so we did a little shopping. Just the necessities…more lunch meat, chocolate milk, and more hot dog buns. We had a little McD’s breakfast…. One of the nicer Wal-Mart SUPERCENTRE’s I’ve been to and I’ve seen my share of Wal-Marts. With fresh oil and groceries, we headed to get gas, ice, and hopefully a car wash. The dirt roads had made the Vue look more bad ass, but also made us dirty everytime we brushed up against it. After a few attempts, we finally got some Canadian Money. Luckily there was a spray car wash attached to the gas station so Lindsay gave the Vue a rinse and we were off. Headed to Banff.
Banff National Park is lAlberta’s gem. Banff is to Alberta like Yellowstone is to Wyoming. Never had heard of it before planning this trip, I had googled it…and found breathtaking photos. So I was really excited about this adventure. Plus it was on our way. Double points for Banff. We decided to take more scenic route after a brief stop in the village of Banff… a charming mountain tourist town. I am pretty sure I know the most beautiful places to go now, and there are surely some nice resorts in all these towns…. When you’re not a student (former student) or unemployed. We headed through Banff on Scenic 1A… but didn’t really see all that much wildlife except for some elk. Lindsay was disappointed…Yellowstone, the park of abundant critters, had spoiled her. To Lake Louise. Lindsay’s stomach was bothering her, so she waited in the car while I explored for a few minutes. Ahhh, Lake Louise. A glacier mountain feeds this lake…so the water is a crystal blue, contrasted next to forest green pine trees. Yep, straight up beautiful. I had some really nice ladies take my picture… all these scenes we’ve seen seem fake, so I like to prove I was there, not just a google image. Near Lake Louise is Lake Moraine, an 8 mile drive up the mountain, but I thought it was worth the detour. I got out, leaving Linds in the car again, and found another beautiful landscape. I stood on the lakeshore looking at the glacier mountain and I heard it move. That like creaking noise… that you see on the Discovery Channel..yep in real life. There was a rock hill that people were climbing and when I saw some kids doing it, I thought why not. Climbed to the top. Lindsay must have seen me climbing, so she emerged from the car, and decided to join me. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen. And the thing about this trip is that we are almost desensitized to natural wonders now. Like we’ve seen so many waterfalls and mountains..its like oh, just another waterfall..or another glacier mountain. I try to remember what the flatlands of my hometown look like and I can’t… spoiled by natural beauty for a week. We headed out of the park…towards Jasper and we found some people pulled off the road. And then we saw what they saw… a big black bear. We got out of the car and made friends with the roadside audience. One of the guys told us that there was a grizzly in there too… so we stood on the side of the road watching the black bear and the grizzly bear. We sat and watched them for a while… as they ate dandelions and trotted through the shrubs. A few miles down we saw a mountain goat on the side of the mountain……. Funny looking things those mountain goats. Banff National Park and Jasper National Park are connected…and as we entered Jasper we saw more and more glaciers and more glacier lakes. The water is such an aqua blue…it’s the water of the Caribbean next to a snowcapped mountain. Canada is beautiful.
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