Let's continue on our journey down the rainbow highway!
After taking a few photos of the elk and doing a victory dance ( for seeing some new wildlife) we continued into Jasper to get some coffee and some breakfast. After fueling up my belly and Joy's we were on our way to our first POI (point of interest) Angel Glacier.
The road to the glacier is only accessible by car, large trucks or buses are not allowed on the beautiful windy, freshly paved road. After only a few winding km deep into the mountains the sun emerged and so did the frost. We had entered the Rocky Mountains, beautiful, rugged and cold. As we arrived at the base of Angel Glacier, I could not get out of the car fast enough to take in the most breathtaking view I had seen in a long time. Here is my view.
From Angel Glacier we drove through large expansive meadows painted in the most beautiful fall colors. We passed a few glacier lakes some rough patches in the road and many POI's before we arrived at our next stop, Athabasca Falls. The falls were very nice, but the canyon that the falls carved out of the sedimentary rock was purely amazing. Next we were of to Goat Lick POI. I have wanted to see a mountain goat or a big horn sheep for such a long time we did not take any detours on the way to this POI. The lighting was perfect, the time of day was right and my trusty navigator advised me that it was only a few hundred meters to the view point. I could barley keep my eyes on the road as we got closer. I would finally get to see a mountain goat at Goat Lick view point. I jumped out of the car grabbed my camera and my big zoom lens and started scouring the hillside. Wow what a beautiful place. If I was a goat, I would live here too I thought to myself. There was only one slight problem. I could not see any goats. Aleks was pointing her eagle eyes through her binos at the hillside as well and could not find any mammals either. I was almost disappointed that I did not see any goats at Goat Lick, but here is the view that I did see. Absolutely spectacular even without goats.
The stunning mountains and winding river views continued on for many more km on our way to Columbia Icefield Glacier. Here is a picture of what I call a river bend.
Wow! Yes, that was the word of the day. Maybe even the word of the trip, besides mammals anyway. Driving through the Icefieds Parkway turned out to be more stunning than I could have ever imagined. Checking our time, I realized that this short little trip (Jasper to Banff) is taking us a long time. There is too much to see and not enough time. It was 1 pm and we still had many POI's ahead of us. Our next stop at Columbia Icefield Glacier was breath taking and humbling. Standing at the base of such a huge icefield surrounded by mountains of gravel that the glacier once deposited, I felt small and insignificant. After climbing up to the glacier, past bedrock that has deep scratches from the glacier grinding over it, we were treated to a wonderful view. Here is our view.
The view of the glacier left Aleks and me speechless and breathless for a few km as we continued on our journey down the Rainbow Highway. Why the Rainbow Highway you ask? Here why.
The rich fall colors along highway guided us to our next POI. Peyto Lake. Aleks told me that it was a short little hike to a viewpoint just past the parking lot. Considering the state of my slipped disk in my back, the snow on the ground and the straight up goat trail ahead of me, I wondered if this would really be worth it. I had seen so many beautiful mountains, lakes and vistas all day. If we skipped one POI we would not miss too much I thought. After a slow crawl up the trail and many cheers from my wife (you can do it honey), I arrived at the viewpoint to Peyto Lake. I am glad I did not skip this POI. Check out this killer view.
What goes up, must come down. Yes I made it down the goat trail (I did not see any goats, only a squirrel throwing many cones to the ground) and back to Joy, to continue to our next stop. Time was of the essence and we had to make good time to get to Lake Louise to see the sun going down. We did not stop at any more viewpoints along the way. As we arrived in Lake Louise, I was slightly disappointed. The sun was behind the mountains and the sky was not changing into beautiful sunset colors. The lake looked cold and dark. It was beautiful in it's own way. I took a few pictures and realized that although the sky was not turning pink and orange like I had expected, the reflection of the clouds in the lake looked like flames under water. My patience and determination paid off. Check out this cool shot.
Ready for the hot springs, we drove straight from Lake Louise to Banff. Daylight was almost gone and we were stuck in a construction zone driving at very slow speeds. It was almost too dark for mammal sightings as we spotted a female moose on the side of the road. WOW. We finally found the ever elusive Canadian moose. This was turning out to be a great day for all kinds of sightings. We saw mountains, lakes, rivers, glaciers, elk, squirrel, moose and a herd of large elk standing in the middle of the road as we drove past the welcome sign into Banff. Because the hot springs were closing soon, we skipped dinner to have a warm soothing natural bath in the hot outdoor pools. I loved sitting in the hot water as the outside temperatures dropped below zero and icicles were forming on my hair. It was a long eventful day and we fell asleep quickly after setting up our sleeping quarters at the Banff campground. After a good sleep and a chilly wake up we set out on our mission of the day. Find some Hoodoos. What is a hoodoo you ask. Here is a picture of a hoodoo in Banff.
Hoodoos are rock formations carved out by rivers. Drumheller is the hoodoo capital of Canada. On our way to Calgary, Joy started to vibrate a little more than usual and then bang, blew out a tire. To our luck, we were only 12 km away from a tire shop and swiftly purchased 2 new tires so we could be back on our way to Drumheller. Not only does Drummheller have hoodoos, it also has the Royal Tyrell Museum and a large collection of dinosaur bones. Wow. Real dinosaur bones. I have never been a big fan of dinosaurs, or even thought much about them. They lived millions of years ago and if they existed or not, they did not impact my life in any way shape or form. I thought it would be interesting to see some bones and to learn something new. It's was raining when we arrived in Hoodoo Land, but we checked out some of the local hoodoos and I found a moose as well. Here is a hoodoo and my favorite moose.
The next day it the rain fell out of our rainbow all day. The dry Drumheller desert was turned to mush. We spent hours at the Tyrell Museum looking at dinosaur skeletons and learning about life on earth millions of years ago. I was totally blown away. Standing beside the remains of a gigantic Abertasaurus and a Tyrannosaurus Rex was the most humbling experience of my life. They were bigger than life, beautiful and real. I could not get enough of them. My favorite of course was a large flying dinosaur the Pterosaurs. Here is a picture of 2 dinosaur skeletons.
I have a new respect for life and our planet after learning about the evolution of our animals and our planet. We had arrived at the end of the rainbow and found our pot of gold. It was another wonderful trip, proving yet once again that Life is Beautiful.
