Kootenay National Park

Since we were in the area, we thought we'd take a drive through Kootenay National Park, and visit the hot springs at Radium Hot Springs.

We headed out on the morning of Sept. 19, 2018.  Here is that mountain across from our hotel:

Here it is from another angle as we head off up the highway towards the turnoff for Kootenay National Park:

Highway 1 between Banff and Lake Louise has many of these landscaped wildlife bridges.  The highway itself is fenced off, but these bridges provide a corridor for wildlife to cross, and supposedly they work well.  There are also tunnels, as some animals prefer the openness of a bridge, and others prefer the shelter of tunnels.

This is Castle Mountain:

I forget what lake this is, it's around the continental divide:

Here is Ed at the continental divide, with one foot in Banff National Park in Alberta, and the other in Kootenay National Park in British Columbia.  It's his first time visiting BC:

Heading down the road towards the Marble Canyon hiking trail:

These next photos are of the Marble Canyon trail.  This area marks the eastern edge of a massive fire that burned out the Kootenay valley in 2003.

An upstream portion of the Kootenay river just below Marble Canyon:

You can see the burned trees from the 2003 fire still standing upright, with the new trees growing up below them:

The Kootenay River going through the narrow Marble Canyon below, with a natural bridge over it.  The hiking trail crosses back and forth over the river several times:

Our shadows on one of the hiking bridges:

Waterfall at the top of the hiking trail:

I found the juxtaposition of the old dead trees still standing, and the new green trees growing up among them, to be really cool:

The Kootenay River again, about halfway to Radium Hot Springs:

More burned landscape as we drove by:

Just a couple more mountains, the scenery is fantastic:

Kootenay Valley Viewpoint:

Sinclair Canyon is right near the Hot Springs:

We went for a swim at the pools at Radium Hot Springs, and then did another short hike on the drive back to Banff, near the Crooks Meadow Group Campground.  Here is Ed on a suspension bridge over the Kootenay River:

River pictures from the bridge:

Here he is again:

We saw a black bear on the drive back, just before we got back to highway 1, but I wasn't quick enough on the draw with the camera to get a photo of it.

Lake Louise, Banff National Park

On the evening of Sept. 18, 2018, it was getting dark, it was overcast, and it was starting to drizzle.  And we finally got parking! 

Here it is, Lake Louise, Banff National Park.  It's way more impressive in real life.  I'm glad the cloud ceiling was high enough that we could see the mountains and glacier.

The Fairmont Lake Louise hotel:

Athabaska Glacier, Jasper National Park

Sept 18, 2018.  We've arrived at the Athabaska Glacier, which I think is technically part of Jasper National Park.  The photos of course don't do it justice, it is very large and impressive.  I have a photo without the parking lot, but here is one with it as I find it more authentic:

The mountains to the south of it, and the road that the ice buggies take tourists up to drive and walk on it.  We arrived fairly late in the day, so we decided to just hike the trail and see what we could from there.

We started hiking up the trail:

Ed with a marker showing where the glacier edge was in 1982:

The 1992 glacier edge marker:

II had two more photos in here to show you but the server rejected them, twice!  Weird, as they are the same format and batch as the rest.  Moving along, here is the glacier at the closest viewing point:

Heading back towards the parking lot, we pass by this pretty little lake:

Just another view of the beautiful mountains surrounding the glacier:

Next few photos are of the drive back down the Icefields parkway:

Since it's not quite dark yet as we get to Lake Louise, we decide to try our luck and see if we can get parked.  Will we succeed?  Stay tuned!