Travels of Nannie & Bubba

August 9, 2015 Bow Valley Parkway

For today's adventures, we drove back up into the heart of the Canadian Rockies, where we planned another visit to Lake Louise. Alas, it being Sunday, there were a million people up there trying to do the same thing, so after seeing the parking situation, we turned tail and ran. Instead, we decided to drive the Bow Valley Parkway from Lake Louise down towards Banff. It's a little two-lane road that had almost NO traffic on it, with scenic overlooks. It follows the same path as the Bow River, which ends up flowing down into Calgary. The main mountain peak it passes is Castle Mountain, which actually does look a bit like a castle!

Castle Mountain.

Storm Mountain in the background.

Castle Mountain.

August 8, 2015 Mt. Revelstoke National Park; Meadows in the Sky Parkway

And finally, to end a grand day of adventures, we drove up the Meadows in the Sky Parkway to the top of Mt. Revelstoke. Driving a switchbacky road up a mountain is always interesting! From the upper parking lot, we hiked the final kilometer up to the top, and then we climbed up the Firehouse Trail to the very tip-top. Sad to say that the meadows were no longer in full bloom, but there were still plenty of lovely alpine flowers. A great end to a great day!

The town of Revelstoke. Two bridges for cars, one for trains.

Massive lumber operation.

Columbia River.

Pearly Everlasting and Paintbrush.

Panaroma Point. Taken on our way back down

August 8, 2015 Mt. Revelstoke National Park, Canada; Skunk Cabbage Trail

Next up in Mt. Revelstoke National Park, was the Skunk Cabbage Boardwalk - how weird is this? Neither of us has ever seen skunk cabbage before, so this was a real first for us. Bubba says it didn't stink. But it was a fascinating nature trail! One of the signs says that the spring blooms are quite yummy to bears and some get killed each spring, crossing the big highway to get to these plants.

He says there was no stink.

Seed pod that is left after the blossoming is over.

Huge section of horse-tail plants.

They got dem frogs here, ya. But no gators.

Look at the SIZE of this thing!

Wish we could have been here when they were blooming.

Heard a lot of birdsong, but I forgot my binoculars (as usual) so I don't know who I was hearing.

August 8, 2015 Mt. Revelstoke National Park, Canada; Giant Cedars Boardwalk

Next we were in Mt. Revelstoke National Park: the Giant Cedars Nature Trail, a beautiful boardwalk trail through a grove of old-growth red cedars. Such majesty! We love visiting with grandfather trees....