Last Day for the Canadian Rockies, Jasper, Banff and Canmore Alberta

Good by to our nice cabin and onward.................................  

Friday was expected to be a easy ride to thru Jasper then Lake Louise and Banff finishing up in Canmore Alberta for the nite.. If we did not make it clear earlier we drove all the way thru the Yukon Territory, all thru British Columbia and now spending some driving in Alberta without a moment to catch up on organizing pictures or this blog. It seems a day goes by and John and I have to jog each others memories to keep the perspective of our details.      
  Jasper is a pretty cute town almost centered around the train station which runs parallel to the main road in town. Shops, flowers and well maintained buildings with some history are throughout. We only had time for gas and a quick stop at the visitors centre for maps and things.



Our first stop was Athabasca Falls


It just so happened John meet Loraine and Lyle at the bottom of the falls and wanted to know if we were going to require another ride back, of course with a smile on his face.

We then continued on toward the Columbia Ice Field. This is a huge area that we were hoping to fly over except the we were clouded in and the wind shear was too uncomfortable and dangerous to continue, according to Marty our pilot the day before. This ice fields does some thing pretty special. It drains into three different oceans. Melt ice from the Athabasca Glacier runs north thru the Mackenzie River and on to the Arctic Ocean. It also divides waters  into the Columbia River Basin on to the Pacific Ocean. The third divide takes melt water thru Hudson Bay on to the Atlantic Ocean.

We stopped to walk on to the Athabasca Glacier which feeds the Athabasca River that flows over the Athabasca Falls then north to the Arctic Ocean.                  

Visible markers were along the path dating back to 1890 or earlier and of course to the glaciers present position.


We meet a number of people that were friendly and wanted to talk a bit. Amy & Stacy on vacation with  their little dog made for a nice picture.            

Our next stop was for Lunch at the "The Fairmont Chateau" on Lake Louise. Yep the real one. But first the visitor centre.                                                                 
John and I have learned that some time at the  visitor centre or with a friendly local person can provide some insight on which roads to take and special places that may not be popularized for tourist. This is another case of that because with her advice we took a scenic  route without any traffic from Lake Louise to Banff.

After a bit with the attendant we proceeded to the parking garage.
Quickly the grandness came into view This is the garage roof view, and for lunch.


Beautiful Lake Louise and grounds.                                
It appeared they were setting up for a big event outdoors, we heard it was a wedding.

On to Moraine Lake, just up a spectacular drive, a close bit away from Lake Louise.

Just breath taking, every curve in the road and every direction something pretty special.

From our deck looking up the street is a nice south west view 

Across the street viewing west

All we had time for was a drive thru since our short day turned into 8pm arrival, without dinner as usual.  Blog pictures and writing to do. We are under the gun now, its our last day! Crap!
The reward was the Blackstone Condo Lodge that John secured for our last nite stay.