We had a lazy morning, then headed downtown to book a helicopter ride. We were about to head to Camrose for the ride, but I called ahead as instructed, and found out it had to cancel because of higher wind than allowed for the tour. So, we re-booked for tomorrow. This left us with some time to drive around and see some more of the beautifull country.
We started with a drive down Tunnel Mountain Drive and Tunnel Mountain Road. Some great views of the Bow River, as well as theBanff Springs Hotel, and Mount Rundle. We also saw a bunch of elk back on Banff Avenue, near the Trans Canada.
Next, we went for a little drive up to Two Jack Lake and Lake Minnewanka. That is a really pretty place - well worth the short drive out of Banff.
Last, we drove over to the Cave & Basin Historic Site for a look at the old bath house, and a walk by the hot spring.
Somewhere in the middle of that, we stopped in town and had a great lunch at the Elk & Oarsman Pub. Another good meal! Gee, I am starting to think that there is a lot of good food in this town! I recalled it as mostly "pub grub" - OK but nothing special.
Kate Says:
It's a shame the heli flight was cancelled, and I really hope we have good weather tomorrow morning for it. We sort of explored around Banff today. We haven't really seen much wild life, except for a large herd of elf that like to hang out in a field beside the highwas just outside of Banff.
We wandered into a few more stores today, including a neat old trading post that had a lot of the trappers original taxidermy still displayed. I think every animal in the Rockies was there! There was a grizzly bear posed standing, and my first thoughts were "biiiig" and "coooool". My second thoughts, quickly following, were "I hope to hell I never meet one while I'm working... because I might pee myself and that would probably be the least unpleasant part of the meeting." We also stopped at a fur shop, and I tried on some really beautiful hats. The leather and grey fox fur one that I liked best was obscenely priced.... so no fox hat for me. Of course, the one in the pictures from a few days ago is my favorite still!
Nerd Alert- Continue reading at own risk!
I got to see some of the rock formations close up, and liked that. I observed some quartizites and limestones whose deposition setting ranged from shallow beach flow to deep ocean, illustrating sea level changes way back when. I also saw some fossil shells in the deep sediments, some fossil tree roots (I think) in the shallow sediments, and several bands where iron is causing the rock to rust. In the valleys there are these yellow colored till sediments left by glaciations, which are really thick! I haven't been able to see this stuff up close though. The glacial landforms are really neat, because we can see where the ice carved out the rock on a huge scale.
Cheers!
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