To Banff, Alberta

I have wanted to see the Canadian Rockies for a long, long time.  This year we finally decided to go to Banff National Park.  We flew to Calgary on Sept. 15, and then on Sept 16 we drove to Banff.

The weather had been dismal for some time, we were told.  They had already had snow twice in Calgary before we arrived.  The day we hit the road was pretty gloomy:

We weren't too far out of town before we saw it with our own eyes ... snow!

We should probably be seeing mountains in the distance by now, but the cloud ceiling is too low:

The skies opened up a little bit as we rounded this lake that has a cement plant on it's shores:

Just a few glimpses of the mountains before they disappeared again:

This is the view outside our hotel, which was expensive and a little run down.

To get outside for a while after the drive, we went for a walk along the Bow River within the town:

Here are the Bow falls:

A look at the river rounding the corner from the falls:

We then went up the hill to the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel, and walked around the public rooms inside:

You can see all the tourists outside the window.  Even in the off, or off-ish season, Banff is packed with other tourists, as we found out.

The front of the hotel as we headed back towards downtown Banff:

Tomorrow we hope to see some more mountains pop out of the clouds.  Will they?  Stay tuned ...