16 July - Saturday - Banff to Lake Louise

G'day All,
The day started off wet, wet, wet but undeterred we headed for Lake Louise and the iconic Fairmont Hotel.

Lake Louise from a very wet camera.

Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise through the rain.

We did walk the trail around the lake and back but were all dripping wet by the end of the morning so it was a safe bet to call it a day and check into the Lake Louise Inn. Nice digs and self contained. Did a quick walk around and found a mini city of ground squirrels and a red squirrel posing for some happy snaps.

Ground Squirrel on guard duty.

Red Squirrel snacking.

After the small hike around Lake Louise I realised my shoes were soaked and went to look for my hiking boots for the next few days of hiking and realised I had left them in the mud cupboard at Samantha and Oliver's house. Road trip time for me and Oliver to head back to Calgary (3 hr round trip) to pick up my boots as I really needed them for the hikes to come and also to get for some other odds and ends that Samantha and Oliver thought would also come in handy. All went well and with the sun setting well after 9 pm it was daylight travel all the way.

One of the four nature path bridges between Calgary and Lake Louise

Still a lot of low cloud and ran about.

The weather looks like its due to clear up so a few hikes in order for the next couple of days.

Cheers
Gary and Penny

15 July - Friday - Calgary to Banff

G'day All,
Today the two car were packed up ready for the road trip to Banff. Samantha and Oliver with the two dogs (Maverick and Arya) in their SUV and Gary and Penny in the Malibu sedan. The day was very dreary and unseasonably wet. Calgary has experienced flash flooding and had their total monthly rainfall in the first half of the month, breaking a 30 year record. Expectations were that perhaps by heading north the weather would improve . . . nope still a wet day to be had in Banff. The trip from Calgary to Banff was about an hour and a half and we made good time.

Banff Park Administration Building

Downtown Banff looking back at the clouds.

Banff - Since 1885

We had a pre-booked Gondola ride to the top of the mountain at Banff but even the operators said not to go up as it was completely covered in cloud and all we would see would be grey nothingness :-( but they would honour the voucher if we came back in a day or two. With the gondola ride on hold we decided to go to the Banff Cascade Gardens and look around the township before checking into the Juniper Hotel.

Accommodation for the night in Banff

Cascade Gardens, Banff

Bunked down for the night and made plans for tomorrow and saw our fist chipmunk run across the window sill so of course I hunted him down for a photo.

Chipmunk

Cheers
Gary and Penny

14 July - Thursday - Calgary (Yamnuska Wolfdogs & Grassi Lakes)

G'day All,

Today I picked up our hire car in preparation for tomorrow's wilderness adventures for 6 days with Samantha and Oliver to Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper.I had pre-booked a standard small Hyundai Sonata through Avis Calgary before we left Australia and everything was in order when we picked the car up at lunch time. The only surprise was that we had an upgrade to a full size car, a brand new (35km on the clock) Chevy Malibu. This is the US version of the Australian Holden Mailbu and I have to say this version looks and feels a hell of a lot more exciting than the Aussie version.

Our hire car for the next 6 days - Chevy Malibu

Oddly enough driving on the opposite side of the car and road has been easy, perhaps it is my ambidextrous nature kicking in :-). I guess the big test will be the next 6 days but there is a lot of highway driving which is simple enough. The town streets might prove a bit more of a challenge.

Took the car home and then we all piled into Oliver's car along with the dogs for a run up to the Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary and Grassi Lakes for a hike. This was an introduction into the grandeur of the Canadian Rockies, from the highway on the floor below these mountains suddenly leap straight up in front of you. Initially it was looking like a cloudy and wet day but it cleared up quite nicely by the end of the day.

Road Trip

At the Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary we did the guided tour which allowed us to enter the large pen with the high and mid content wolfdogs and sit and hand feed the mid content dogs, the high content wolfdogs while are very timid. The wolfdogs themselves are tame but not domesticated, which means they will be curious and may approach guests who are relaxed and quiet. This was quite an experience and very informative. The higher the wolf content the less interactive the dogs are with humans. In the enclosure only one came over to be hand fed (Kuna), Nova only came within 1 meter and Zeus didn't come any closer than 10 meters. More info here:
http://www.yamnuskawolfdogsanctuary.com/

Zeus - The Alpha Male and highest wolf content

Nova - Another male high content

Alyx (one of the sanctuary staff) and Rue a female with mid content

After the visit to the wolfdogs we headed toward Banff to do the Grassi Lakes walk. The Upper and Lower Grassi Lakes lie at an elevation of about 1,525m in the southern Canadian Rockies overlooking the town of Canmore.

On the way we passed a stereotypical hippie bus complete with dread-lock driver

Grassi Lakes Waterfall

View from near the top

Even higher up

Mountain Reflection in Grassi Lake

More Reflections on the Grassi Lake

Samantha and Arya with Oliver and Maverick

View from the top

A nice easy to medium 4-5 km walk although there were a couple of small steep sections which Penny managed to overcome her vertigo to get up, but the view and lakes were well worth it. The day was a bit rainy on and off and the forecast isn't looking too good for the next couple of days. We headed home to Calgary which was a bit damp and packed up ready to head to Banff proper in the morning. The next five days we will be seeing the sights of Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper.

Cheers
Gary and Penny

13 July - Wednesday - Calgary (Shopping and Shooting)

G'day All,

Today was all about a girls day out and  boys day out. Penny and Samantha spent the day shopping and doing some catch up mother / daughter while Gary and Oliver went to the range for some action.

The Girls Day Out.
We dropped the girls off at where Samantha works and they headed off on a shopping spree and lunch at the nearby mall. Not quite sure what they got up to but there seemed to be a hot feeling coming from the credit card in my pocket as the day progressed :-) A good day for a long awaited girlie catch up with a nice lunch.

The Boys Day Out.

After we dropped the girls off Oliver and I headed to the Milo about an hour and a half south-east from Samantha and Oliver's place and home of the Calgary District Target Shooters Association range. A nice range with 6 multi-purpose bays consisting of 5 with a depth of 25 meters and 1 with a depth of 50 meters all varying widths. Rifles ranges at Milo are 50, 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 meters and we only had one other party at the range for the first hour or so and then the entire range to ourselves. Weapons used for the day included;

Left to right - 12 Gauge Shotgun, 5.56 Rifle and 9mm Luger Pistol

308 Calibre precision rifle

Lots of fun had with targets on the short range and then some times runs with shotgun, rifle and pistol at various targets.

Me with pistol

Me with shotgun

Me with the rifle

Oliver with the pistol, complete with smoke and ejected shell

Oliver and the shotgun

Oliver with the rifle and a chance capture of the muzzle flash.

After the short range we hit the long range targets 300m, 400m and 500m with the precision rifle with both of us consistently hitting the 8" targets after sighting and allowing for wind. I was particularly chuffed with my grouping on the 500m range with 4 within a 10cm circle and one almost dead centre.

All said and done we had about 4 and a half hours on the range and went through 700 rounds of ammo. It's a good thing Oliver makes his own or it would have been a very expensive day ;-)

On the trip home we stopped at a few locations so I could grab a couple of landscape photos.

Silos surrounded by canola

Oil pumping jacks in the canola fields

Wide screen scene

After such a big day, on the way home we indulged in a burger and the thickest milkshake we've ever had from Peter's, a Calgary favourite.

Thickest milkshakes ever . . .

That's all for today but we are heading North tomorrow for a visit to the Yamnuska Wolf Sanctuary and a hike at Grassi Lakes about 45km south of Banff.

Cheers
Gary and Penny

12 July - Tuesday - Calgary (City Tour)

G'day All,

Today was a relaxing day seeing some of the sights in down town Calgary. Everybody is still in boots and hats in support of the stampede which runs for 10 days so about another 5 days to go before they are shelved ready for next year's stampede. It's not the norm to be in boots and hats :-)

Samantha and Oliver were our tour guides for the day but it was a bit concerning when the phones came out with google maps loaded :-). We jumped off at 3rd Street station in the city and made our way down Stephen Avenue, more cowboys and cowgirls than the eye could see due to the stampede. Stephen Avenue is a mall akin to Brisbane's Queens Street mall.

Stephens Avenue

Are our tour guides lost?

We caught a bite to eat, huge falafel wraps that were big enough for two to enjoy, which is what we did. From there we were looking for the Devonian Gardens a large indoor park and botanical garden located in the down town core of Calgary on the Stephen Avenue pedestrian mall. It is completely enclosed with glass and covers 2.5 acres (10,000 m2) or one full city block on the top floor of The Core Shopping Centre (formerly TD Square).

Devonian Gardens

From there we walked through some of the Plus 15 or +15 Skyway network in Calgary. It is the world's most extensive pedestrian skywalk system, with a total length of 18 km and 62 bridges. The system is so named because the skywalks are approximately 15 feet (approximately 4.5 metres) above street level.

Part of the +15 Skyway network.

Our next destination was the McDougall School building, an early twentieth-century, three-storey sandstone building with an attic storey. The designation covers an entire block in downtown Calgary. Constructed in the Beaux-Arts style, McDougall School features a symmetrical sandstone facade with columns, ornate window trim, carved decorative finishings, and an entablature bearing the building's name.

McDougall School Building

From here we headed for the Prince's Island Park, an urban park in the city of Calgary, developed on an island on the Bow River, immediately north of downtown Calgary. It was named after Peter Anthony Prince, the founder of the Eau Claire Lumber Mill. The park was built on land donated in 1947 to the city by the Prince family.

While in the park we could also see the Peace bridge. The Peace Bridge is a pedestrian bridge, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, that accommodates both pedestrians and cyclists crossing the Bow River in Calgary and opened for use on March 24, 2012 at a cost of around $25 million. The bridge was built by The City of Calgary to connect the southern Bow River pathway and Downtown Calgary with the northern Bow River pathway and the community of Sunnyside. This connection was designed to accommodate the increasing number of people commuting to and from work and those utilizing Calgary's pathways. The bridge is reportedly used by 6000 people a day and due to its design has been called the chinese finger trap bridge by some.

Chinese Finger Trap or Peace Bridge?

Along the way we saw a few other buildings and sites.

Suncor Towers

Jaume Plense is responsible for the giant head that stands 12 meters tall in front of The Bow building

The Calgary Tower is a 191-metre free standing observation tower.

Clever Horse cut-outs promoting the Stampede.

After the tour of the city it was another chance to catch up on some washing, downloading photos and a nap before heading over to Oliver's dad, Donald, for another dinner and a chance to meet up with Roger (Oliver's brother). Another great meal, this time a traditional Chinese menu, absolutely first class. From there back home to relax and finish this blog before bed.

Cheers
Gary and Penny