If you recall from previous blog posts, on our way West, Nicole and I fell in love with the Okanagan - so we decided to put that love to good use and camp out in the foothills one night as we strolled through. We ended up staying in a provincial park about 15 minutes outside of Vernon which happened to be right on Lake Okanagan. We spent some time at the beach, hung out with some ducks, and took in the warm warm sun. I think it got up to around 30 degrees that day.
On Wednesday, we headed towards Banff National Park in Alberta. But first, we had to make one stop which - in the end - proved to be the most disappointing adventure of the whole trip so far.
The plan was to head to Radium, a little town on the very tip of Kootenay National Park, to see their famous hot springs. To be honest, we were expecting something like this:
Instead, we found this:
Needless to say, we weren't to enthused about a public pool regardless of the fact that the water was pooled from the mountain's hot water runoffs. Total bust.
Now, I'm sure there were some natural hot springs somewhere in Radium, but after driving about six hours only to find a pool, we didn't plan on sticking around. Sorry Radium.
We drove through the rest of Kootenay, which is a weird place. Though it's a National Park, I had never heard of it - and for good reason. Though its right next to Banff, Kootenay feels like Banff & Jasper's neglected sibling. I think there were lots of fires there over the past year because half of the forests were burnt, giving the park a very eerie feeling. It felt strange just driving through, almost haunted or something.
We arrived in Lake Louise around 5pm that night, set up the tent at the campground and took a drive to see the famous lake before the sun set.
We've seen a lot of things on our trip, from animals, to tourist attractions to the wonders of nature, but I think Lake Louise was the most beautiful place we've seen to date. The pictures don't do it justice:
It felt - in the words of our friend Krystle - so pure. And rightly so, the water that feeds the lake comes from six glaciers. I have never seen water so clear and blue in my entire life.
The next day, we made the trek to another lake called Moraine Lake which is about 12km from Lake Louise. This is another lake that is fed by glaciers, but not enough water had melted yet so the lake wasn't at its peak height. Again, the colour of the water was indescribable, but these pictures might help you understand a bit:
We hiked a trail that took us all around the lake, then made our way to Banff.
If Tofino is for the surfers and the hippies, I think Banff is for all the people who think they are completely and unequivocally awesome - those people who think they are too cool for school or something like that. Nicole and I both agreed that we got a weird vibe from the town, and the people in it. Don't get me wrong - it's a nice place. It's like the town of Jasper times ten in that it has the same sort of buildings and shops, but on a much larger scale. I prefer the smallness of Jasper. And you know what? The sights weren't even that great in the town of Banff. I could have spent an extra day in Lake Louise and seen better stuff I think.
Nevertheless, we spent the night at a (not so great) campground in Banff - cooked another sweet supper in our skillet, and went to bed.
Yesterday, we drove to Calgary. We are staying with our friend Kate again, but we got into town a little early, so while we waited for her to get off work, we went to see a movie. We saw UP! in 3D. It was pretty good. Pixar movies are always good though.
It was cold in Calgary - so cold in fact that last night during dinner (Indian food and a couple bottles of wine) it started snowing. SNOWING! In JUNE!
Today we are starting our biggest trek East, making a break for the US border with the goal of ending up in Windsor, ON on Tuesday evening. We expect to be in southern Saskatchewan tonight, and then heading in through North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin & Michigan over the next couple days. Hopefully we don't have any border troubles this time. Blerg.
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