Johnston Canyon and some unpopular lakes

So, when I booked our Banff trip for late September, I was hoping that it would be the off-season, or at least the off-ish season compared to the summer tourist season which I had heard was insane and must be avoided.

So with that in mind, on Sept. 17 we ignored the advice to go see Lake Louise by 6 am at the latest or that parking would be impossible.  Off we went up highway 1 at around 10 am, to seek our parking fortune.

The weather was still pretty cloudy.  As we headed out, we saw a little more of the mountain across from the hotel though:

Weather was dismal up near Lake Louise, which we used to console ourselves that it was just fine that we couldn't get parked anywhere close to there, or at the other lake we wanted to see, Morraine Lake (the road there was even closed, as there were already too many people up there!)  The cloud ceiling was so low there though that it probably was just as well that we couldn't get in.

I always have a plan B, so we headed back towards lower elevations, but took the scenic 1a highway this time.  We stopped at a viewing point on the Bow River:

The back-up hike was Johnston Canyon, where we did (just barely) manage to get parked in the more distant overflow lot.  Here is Ed as we head up the trail to the first waterfall.  Traffic was heavy on the path, this is a rare moment when the hordes were mostly out of the frame:

The first waterfall:

The canyon walkway upstream from the first waterfall.  Most tourists don't go past the first one, so the trail was a lot less crowded:

The second waterfall:

A bonus waterfall above the second one:

We then headed further south on highway 1a.  Here is another viewing point over the Bow River:

We then visited a couple of second-tier scenic lakes, which are still really stunning to our eastern-North-American eyeballs.  This one is Johnson Lake:

The next two are Lake Minnewanka.  The weather became quite nice, with interesting clouds:

Back at the hotel, we finally got a full view of the local mountain:

Tomorrow we plan to drive up the Icefields Parkway, so don't go far ...

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 ...

Mt. Arab

August 23 we drove home, the trip was just a quick summer get-away.  We took a different route and stopped for a hike at Mt. Arab, which is a little ways east of the high peaks.

Here is Ed in front of our Air B&B just before we left.

Mt. Arab was another hike through trees, so no interesting photos until we reached the top.

It's a fire tower hike, and you can climb it.  We did.

That's the old fire ranger cabin below the tower.

We then headed north, back to Canada.  We stopped at the Ogdensburg Walmart again, and got a kick out of the horse-and-buggy dedicated parking there.

Olympic Ski Jump, Lake Placid

On Aug. 22 it was drizzling,and we didn't feel like hiking in the rain.  We decided to go visit the Olympic Ski Jump just outside of Lake Placid.

Almost all these pictures are Ed's.  I get partial credit for the first one though (which we actually took after the visit), I pointed out the light hitting the trees as we looked back at the jump from in town:

The rest are not in any particular order.  It started raining cats and dogs at the moment that we got to the top of the jump, so we lost a lot of visibility, but had some nice views from the base of the big jump.

Everybody gets a medal!

We also went to the Olympic Museum in Lake Placid.  Here's me checking out a bobsled:

We also visited the homestead of a slavery abolitionist, the John Brown Farm historical site, but I don't seem to have any photos from that.

Cascade Mountain

Hiking the Cascade mountain trail was the main attraction, so to speak, of our trip to the Adirondacks.  This peak is considered the easiest of the high peaks, the 46 mountains in the area that are over 4000 feet in elevation.

We climbed it August 21 of last year, 2018.  Weather was a little overcast, and with it being August, kind of hazy, too, but luckily not too hot that day.

Here I am at a little look out around 20 minutes or so from the summit.  This trail too is completely forested until you get to the top, and it was a long hike, took us 4 hour round-trip.

A couple of views from the same spot:

We made it!  Here we are coming upon the summit:

We are definitely not alone!  This is a popular hike.

Ed at the summit, with the north view behind him:

Me, with the southeast view behind me:

Same view with no bodies (which is not easy up there, all the hikers and their children and dogs are constantly zipping in and out of the frame like electrons):

I remembered on the way down to take a photo of the trail.  One of the things that made this trail challenging for us, is that the footing is uneven almost the entire way.  You have to watch your step with every step.

View back up at the mountain, once we were back down on the road.

We were glad to have climbed it, but we are in no rush to climb the other 45!  I can't say never, but this hike was very strenuous and mostly without views, or even anything interesting to see, until the end.  We've been spoiled by all the long hikes we have done in the American southwest, we like there to be some payoff along the way.

A Cornucopia of M&Ms

On our way to the Adirondacks on August 20, 2018, we stopped at the Walmart in Ogdensburg as soon as we crossed the border, to stock up on some food items.  As usual we checked for new flavours of M&Ms, and we were not disappointed!

All of these are good.  Ed didn't like the Strawberry nut ones as much as I did, but that's his loss, I loved them.

Dark Chocolate Mint M&Ms:

Pecan Pie M&Ms:

Pumpkin Pie M&Ms:

Strawberry Nut M&Ms:

No, we didn't eat them all at once ... but we did stop again in Ogdensburg on the way home to stock up, before heading back to Canada where we only have the boring, mainstream flavours.