August 1 – 8: Banff…beautiful Banff, bigger mountains, bigger waterfalls, bigger views and bigger crowds! Despite fires in nearby Kootney National Park and BC in general, we were able to experience some amazing scenery, but every outing required getting up early to beat crazy crowds over their long Civic Holiday weekend or skipping popular areas such as the Banff Upper Hot Springs and Moraine Lake.

August 2 (Thursday):

• Johnson Canyon

Boardwalk area down Johnston Canyon

Lower Johnston Waterfalls

Upper Johnston Waterfalls

• Icefields Parkway to Saskatchewan Crossing

August 3 (Friday): Weather was pretty cloudy, threatening rain all day, but thankfully kept at bay. I didn’t catch some of the mountain tops at Lake Louise and it was pretty gray in Yoho National Park, but the weather provides it’s own moods.

• Lake Louise: Despite the low hanging clouds, Lake Louise beauty is still obvious. The green hue of the lake is due to the glacial rock flour suspended in the lake water.

• Yoho National Park: Just a drive across the Banff NP border on Hwy 1 lead us to Yoho, which had very crowded highways due to the rerouting of traffic from Kootney NP due to the fires closing down Kootney NP and Highway 93 S through the park. We did manage to get up to Takakkaw Falls up the Yoho Valley, which looked like a spill way overflow from a major dam. But it was just the water coming off the glaciers above the valley.

• Lake Minnewanka: Probably our least favorite outing, but did provide a few great photos!

August 4 (Saturday) & Aug 5 (Sunday) : Wandered around Banff to see Bow Falls, Bow River area, Cave & Basin National Historical Site and Banff.

Bow Falls

Watch out for those falls!

Banff Fairmont

Caves & Basin National Historical Site–the area that started the Canadian National Park movement

The cave and the basin…

August 6 (Monday): Banff from the Banff Gondola–probably one of our favorite things we did in Banff. We were on the first gondola out in the morning missing most of the crowds and the weather finally cleared from a rainy, smoky weekend.

August 7 (Tuesday): Attempted to go up to Lake Moraine, near Lake Louise–parking lot already full at 9:00 AM and shuttle was $15/person–seriously?? Kootney National Park and Highway 93S was finally open with a break in forest fires, so we took a drive down that valley. About half way into the park, we thought we’d better turn around before the fires picked back up and they closed the road with us on the other side of getting back to Banff. We watched the helicopters pick up water and dump just off the highway as well was saw many hot spots with fires still burning.