Highway to Happiness

Since returning from way up there in Alaska we caught up with Judy, Mike and Em in Vancouver who were still on a high from the Eagles win to make it to the big grandfinal. Paul and I were now en route to Calgary home of the big white hats. One night stay before venturing out on the highway to Banff via Brewsters a company established back in 1892. With a luxurious coach ride through the prairie towards the mountains I had a feeling of deja-vue as we got closer to the Rocky Mountains.....I then remembered it was like a scene out of West World......too perfect and the beauty surrounding us seemed to good to be true!

We found our little cabin and Paul's description of it being a gnomes house we settled in and walked around Banff and the outskirts of the town. We rested at the Banff Springs Fairmont Hotel a heritage building open to the public as well as it's paying guests.

Everyone talks about Lake Louise as being beautiful and there is no doubt that it is and it's more than a picnic stop....however, I think it is being ruined by its reputation. I would find it hard to be one of the visitors in peak season time. Its mind boggling thinking of how many people this place keeps in employment which is a great thing of course.....bus drivers by the hundreds who take charge of the shuttle busses when the carparks are full and they move onto the overflow car parks. The tour operators, the traffic wardens, the National Park staff who are there on ground level and also those on the trails keeping track of us and the wildlife. We were told not to expect to see any wildlife and so we were very excited to see a duck.....doing what ducks do. As we progressed further along the trail we were informed that there was a grizzly bear with her two cubs up in the undergrowth but we didn't see them. We did see a family of mountain goats on our way back down the trail so that was a bonus. Not wildlife but the number of pooches out walking was a surprise and people riding horses. Paul did ask if there were spare horses for us at one stage......the dejavu feeling started to come back.

The trail to the top was quite extreme and I should have got hike fit along with the bike fit but with lots of rests in between photos and indescribable views I made it to the top.......egged on by the fact there was a Teahouse where we could grab a bite of lunch and a cuppa. Not wanting to descend on the same trail we chose a longer one and a little more harder on my netball knees. We arrived back in time for the return trip into Banff with our heads full of how beautiful it is up here in the Rockies.