Yuppy Town & Rainy Day

Monday, May 16

The first picture is driving into Banff. The next is an elk we saw by the road driving up 1A to Lake Louise. The last is our campground at Lake Louise.

Driving to Banff was one spectacular view after another. The timber line was bright green with pines and the mountains were rugged with stripes of snow. Pictures and words just can't capture it.

Banff reminded me of Jackson Hole or any high end resort town. It's quaint, tucked into the mountains and using every tiny space for housing, expensive shops and interesting restaurants. People seem to be hikers, bikers, old hippies, and yuppies. Yes, Brad, Volvos would fit, but Jeeps were big too. We explored, stopped at a hardware, and had lunch and left after lots if walking.

We drove up 1A from Banff to Lake Louise and saw lots of deer and an elk. It was the wrong time of day to see much, but the scenery was well worth it.

Meanwhile, it started raining hard. We stopped in the Lake Louise Campground which had electricity, but no water, internet or sewer. We had snow all around our site and the shower was a bone chilling quarter of a mile walk. We plugged in the heater, had our own happy hour, and fixed soup and toast for dinner.

After dinner, it was too early for bed, so we went for a ride and saw Lake Louise. It was so beautiful tucked between mountains, but was still frozen. We were surprised to see the huge fancy hotel on the shores of the lake with people dressed for dinner sipping wine at tables with white tableclothes. It seemed so civilized after our rustic setting right down the road.

We drove back to snuggle in for the night and, as you might guess, we weren't there long before in disbelief, after all, this is a National Park, we heard the train whistle. We saw the tracks through the pines across the road from us. It was so close that in the night, we felt like we were on the train, tucked into our own little berth. Oh well, we were warm and cozy and I'm starting to love trains.