Along the road back to Banff from Radium Hot Springs just before we hit the Continental Divide... again.  We must have crossed it 20 times. One of the mountains on the western side of the Divide.  Headwaters of the Columbia River. Just another beautiful stream in paradise.  The gorge leading out of Radium Hot Springs to the city of Radium Hot Springs.  A river runs through it too.  :-) Lots of deer along the road.  This one decided to pose for us.  We tried to pay him/her, but it ran off.  :-(  

                                    OUR LAST POST FROM CANADA -----  SEE YOU SOON!

Kootenay National Forest

More Hoodoos along the highway... Didn't have to hike to these ones.  Between Cameron and Banff.  

Just had to take a picture of this cloud formation.  Never seen one like it.  Beautiful. Along the road to Radium Hot Springs.  A picture around every corner. Vermillion Gorge along the Simpson River.   Radium Hot Springs were wonderful. We turned into prunes after an hour and a half.  We were mighty clean.  The water was crystal clear, had no smell, and just felt good.  

One of the gazebos at Cascade gardens across the river bridge from the main street in Banff. Carl holding up one of the interesting posts on one of the beautiful and interesting pergolas on the grounds at the gardens. Janice says she wants a gazebo like this one built in the back yard at home.  Any chance?  Hope so.

Bow Valley scenery

Mountains near Banff The Bow River as it travels down the valley.  Waters in this area head to the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic Oceans.  The Continental Divide runs right through the province and divides the watershed into the three drainage basins. The hill in the foreground is Sulphur Mountain and lies behind Banff.  The Banff Gondola runs along the east side of the mountain (the back side as you look at it).  The Bow River is in front. This picture is the Bow River in the foreground and a Banff City park behind.  The picture is taken from the bridge that connects the two sides of the river and the two parts of the city.

Grizzly Bears

This Grizzly was running along the rails.  Many have been killed by trains. This Grizzly was on the other side of the fence... thank goodness!  There have been fences put up all along the major highways to protect the animals from being hit. 

Bighorn Sheep

These Bighorn Sheep were near the road we were traveling on and posed for us.  They are shedding their thick fleece getting ready for the warm summer that is coming on.

Takakkaw Falls

Lower falls in Johnston Canyon

Lower falls of Johnston Canyon on 25 June 2009.

Have fun with this one!  :-)

Spectacular Waterfalls we visited today

Jan and Carl at Takakkaw (pronounced /ˈtækəkɔː/) Waterfall in Yoho National Forest. It falls 833 feet and is fed by and ice field and Daly  Glacier at the top of the mountain range.  "Takakkaw Falls is the second highest waterfall in Canada. Takakkaw means "magnificent" in Cree. And it is. We love how the top of it "blasts" off a ledge and down over a thousand feet to finally hit the bottom. Very powerful. Obviously, this is popular with the tourists, so you won't be alone. But it didn't seem really "too" busy when we were there, and you can essentially walk right up the embankment to the base of the falls (getting a bit wet in the process)." Natural Bridge Waterfall on the Kicking Horse River in the Yoho National Forest used to flow over the rocks, but over time it ate its way through and flows under the top of the rock formation. Another picture of the Tawkakkaw Falls taken from about 100 yards away.

June 25,2009 Animals we saw today

Weeping Wall continued

Weeping Wall Glacier Natl Park Montana

Check this one out.  What a great example of melting snow and what it can do.

Athabasca Falls

These horizontal marks in this rock are scrape marks that were made by the glacier (ice fields).  It has been 20 years since the glacier passed this point, but the marks still remain. One of the ice fields along the way with an interesting cloud formation above. The Athabasca River that flows out of the Athabasca Ice Fields. Carl and Janice standing in front of the Athabasca Falls on the Athabasca river, who's headwaters flow from the Athabasca Ice Fields.   One of these days we will learn how to spell Athabasca.   Janice and Carl standing in front of the Athabasca Ice Fields on June 24, 2009.  Buuuuurrrrr, mighty cold up there.  

These mountain goats were right along the road.  When you are driving and people are taking pictures, it is always good to stop and see what is there.  We stopped and these two adults and two kids were foraging something among the rocks by the road.    Cute! This Brown Bear had just crossed the road in front of us.  We stopped and took several pictures as it sauntered into the woods.  This was close to Jasper.

On our trip from Banff to Jasper we came across so many beautiful places it was tough to choose which ones to put on the blog.  The one above has the Athabasca River in the forefront.  It comes from the Athabasca Icefields.  Water from this area goes to the Pacific, Atlantic, and into the Arctic Oceans.  Hard to believe, but true.We liked this one so much we put it in twice.  Truth is we don't yet know how to delete it.  :-)

This is a rock pile and remnants of a glacier.  When they put the road in, they went right though it.  The rocks near the road are cleaner and pink in color.  We figured it must be from the salt put on the road that has cleaned the rocks.

This is taken from Bow Lake in the Bow Valley north of Banff.  What a beautiful place.

One of the beautiful peaks on the mountains surrounding Bow Valley.  Jan took this photo with the zoom lens.  The clouds and sun cause interesting colors and textures on the mountain.

A robin we happened upon watching us from a tree.

A tired hiker returning from the top of Sulphur Mountain.

A Hoary Marmot along the trail back from the Tea House above Lake Louise.

One of the many Clark's Nutcracker birds on the top of the Scion when we returned from a hike.

The Hoodoos with the Bow River in the background.

Animals we came across today

Some in the most unexpected places

A deer in downtown (well almost) Banff.

A crossing to help animals migrate across Highway One. They build them every few miles and fence the roads on both sides with deer fence about nine feet high.

A crow at the top of one of the Hoodoos, formations made by wind and water erosion. Finally, an animal where it should be. Carl was the one out of place taking this picture. At the end of the designated trail there were steps leading to nowhere. So he took it and found a less traveled trail leading down to the Hoodoos.

Three of the five Bighorn Sheep we saw going well under the posted 40 km on the road we were traveling. What were they doing on a road? We thought they lived on the cliffs and scaled the mountain tops. Go figure!

An elk (or Caribou ) about 20 yards off the highway.

These were taken at Bow River Falls below Downtown Banff and between Tunnel and Sulphur Mountains. Tunnel Mountain has its name because they were going to tunnel through it to put a road in. They were all ready to start and realized it would be easier and cheaper to go around the mountain. It is the mountain in the pictures of the river valley to the left of the river.

This is of Cascade Falls. There are signs there warning visitors to stay clear in early spring due to avalanches. At the base where the water falls into the rocks it disappears and resurfaces a few hundred yards below only to go underground again. There is are lakes a half mile below called Cascade Lakes. Any connection?

Recognize the two folks in the pictures? They look happy. relaxed, and ready to explore. That was at the beginning of the day. Having fun is hard work!