Canadian National Parks (Part 1)

Our first stop in Canada was Banff National Park.   From Many Glacier, the Canadian border is only about 20 miles away.  From the Canadian border to Banff National Park is about 150 miles.

Banff National Park, at 2,564 square miles, is 1,000 square miles larger than Glacier National Park.  Like Glacier National Park, most of Banff is accessible via one road: at the beginning, the Trans Canadian Highway (about 1/3)(it than heads west and ends in Vancouver) and the remaining 2/3's on Canadian Highway 93 (which continues on to Jasper National Park).   

This is our first 'real' excursion into Canada.  In 2005, we did a day trip to the Canadian side of Niagara  Falls.

If it hadn't been for Dairy Queen, we would have not even known what Canadian money looked like.  We charged everything, except Dairy Queen; they would not allow you to charge $3.15, so we had to get $20 from an ATM.

The next post will be from the main roads out of  Banff and Jasper National Park.

Welcome to Canada !!

Wide open fields along the way

This part of Canada is flat and seems to go on forever

Lunch at a provincial park

Out of nowhere for about a mile, 'baseball' cap were nailed to the top of each fence post.

Welcome to Banff !!  It is actually inside Banff National Park.

Downtown looking west

Downtown looking east

Looking downtown from the west

Lunch in downtown

Banff from a mountain road

One of the many trails within the town limits (and next 3 photos)

This small lake did not have a name

Looks can be deceiving; this is a marsh

At least this river had a name - Bow River

Downtown park

Interesting trellis (see next photo)

From a distance

On one of the paths this little squirrel came up to greet us.  We almost didn't get him off Caroline's shoe.

After we left him behind, we kind of felt bad, so we went back to check on him.  He climbed on my foot and almost fell asleep.  After a couple of minutes, I reluctantly shook him off.

Boat dock at Lake Minnewanka.  It is a few miles NW of Banff.

A small tributary along a path to the lake.

It's a pleasant little lake - just over a mile wide and about 6 miles long

Another view

Just outside of Banff was this overlook.  Tunnel Mountain (5,551') is in the background, the Bow River is in the middle and just about in the middle of the photo are light colored sandstone sculptures called Hoodoos.