Canmore and the Rocky Mountains

We have, of late, neglected the blog and have a bit of catching up to do. We spent a long weekend in Canmore, in the foothills of the Albertan Rockies, over 11-14 Sept. We boooked a day's fly-fishing on the Bow River on the saturday, and spent the day floating downstream in amazing scenery. Unfortunately, it was too windy for fly-fishing so we fished with lures instead, and hauled out 13 brown trout of various sizes over the day. On the sunday, Kevin was running the Canmore 10k race in the morning and in the afternoon we headed up to Banff where we took the gondola to the top of Sulphur Mountain for some fantastic views of the Bow Valley.

On the 22nd Sept, Tara and Rob arrived in Calgary. We met up with them on the following friday and all headed up into the mountains in the RV. Although late september, the weather was unseasonably warm and sunny. We spent the first night in Canmore then off to Banff the following morning, where Tara and Rob took the gondola trip that we had done a few weeks before. On sunday, we had a late start, had a look around Banff town, then toook a drive out to Lake Minnewanka (pronounced MinneWONKA, apparently). This huge lake was thought by the native people to harbour a malevolent water spirit that dragged people to their deaths from their canoes. The likely explaination is a little more prosaic - the lake is fed by glaciers and the water temperature remains below 5 degrees C all year round, anyone who falls in soon succumbs to hypothermia and sinks. We didn't canoe; instead took a trip around the lake in a 65 berth cruiser, sheltered from the elements.

After another night in Banff, we set off up Highway 93 towards Lake Louise, stopping for a walk at Jackson Canyon along the way. By late afternoon we were at Lake Louise; a stunning emerald green lake lying at the foot of Mt Victoria. At the eastern end of the lake there is an opulent hotel called the Fairmont Chateau, which started life as a tea house for well heeled Victorian sightseers, and took off as a hotel following a visit in 1912 by the Prince of Wales, who was in the area on a hiking holiday. As a special treat, as we had all been slumming it in the RV, we dined there that evening.

The following day we had to start heading back the way we came and drove to Canmore for another overnight stop before heading back across the prairie to Ralston. Tara and Rob spent a couple of nights with us, taking in the delights of Medicine Hat (!), and Sam drove them back to Calgary on friday for their flight back to the UK.