I had to get up at 6:30am to finish packing, check out, and drive an hour to Banff. I made it to the pickup point and I thought I was 15 minutes early, so I went looking for a washroom (that's what they call bathrooms) and found one at the Information building a block and a half down. When I walked back, I saw a blue "Discover Banff Tours" van pulling away from the curb and thought I missed it, but there were still people standing there. Then, to my relief, another blue van pulled up and I hopped on with the rest of the people. Then we went to the Banff Springs Hotel where we picked up more people and the driver counted passengers and asked if any of us were going to the "Discover Banff" tour. I raised my hand; I was the only one. Apparently, that bus was going to Glacier Trail. I asked if I was on the wrong bus and the bus driver said, "No, you're on the right bus. I pick up some of Terry's passengers and he picks up some of mine." Well, it turned out that Terry just pulled up right next to us and so the bus driver told me to follow him and he handed me over to Terry who knew my name.And I became his pet passenger that day. It turned out that I was the only one signed up for both the morning and the afternoon, and he was the driver for both tours I'm signed up for. Or, more accurately, I became his point of reference; i.e.: he said that the place where they picked me up was Banff Springs Hotel. In the afternoon, when he repeated something he said in the morning, he mentioned me again. It's kinda nice when the tour bus driver remembers you, because you know you'll never get left behind. And he's very nice.
In the morning tour, there was me, Bill from Connecticut, three ladies from Switzerland, and a Canadian couple. We briefly stopped by Bow Falls, where people usually do some rafting. Then we went to the Cave and Basin, where you're not allowed to touch the water because it is the only home of an endangered species of escargot. Then we went to an area that used to be a mine (I think it's called the Bow Valley), but it just looks like a regular valley now. Then we stopped at Hoodoos Viewpoint where a group of about 30 or so vacationers are gathered around a real live Mountie with his red tunic, red boots, britches, and all! Terry snapped my picture as I snuggled up with the Mountie. Of course, I asked for permission first; he is, after all, a police officer. And an active one! Terry said that they are paid to show up at tourist spots on their days off to interact with the tourists. Finally, we went to Lake Minnewanka where we saw a group of divers getting ready to dive into the town that sits at the bottom of the lake (about 40 feet from the surface). It used to be a regular valley until it got flooded -- twice!Bill from Connecticut started chatting with me after the Mountie. When I asked Terry if my car would be okay behind the Mount Royal Hotel lot (which said 3-hour parking), Bill gave me directions to where he parked, where they had free 12-hour parking. Terry gave me directions to the Old Spaghetti Factory (where I would get my free lunch because I purchased both tours).
The restaurant was only a couple of blocks from the garage, and I got a nice seat by the window. And it's an open-air window! The window panes folded up accordion-style to one side and they had flower boxes by the windows sill. The food was so-so, however. But then, I've never really been a fan of Old Spaghetti Factory. I only paid for the clam chowder which deviated from their standard free fare. And the tip, of course.
It was only 12:30pm when I got done, so I looked around at the shops a little bit until 1:15pm. There were already three passengers in the van when Terry pulled up. I said, "Hi again!" and I saw one of the women smile. There were eight of us and we picked up a couple near Lake Louise. The three who were picked up first were from Scotland -- a daughter (who's probably about my age) and her parents. The daughter said that she now lives in Vancouver and we started chatting about that. (Everybody in both tours learned that I'm in transit from Minneapolis to Seattle because Terry asks everybody where they're from.) There was a father and son from Australia. The couple we picked up near Lake Louise are from Central California. I don't remember where the other couple was from.
The afternoon tour really only went to two major places -- Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. And both are incredible. Even before we got to Lake Louise, we could already see rivers that run by the freeway that are a strange aquamarine color, that's almost like a fake color. Think 1960s or 1970s aqua; that's how funky the color was. You have to see it to believe that it naturally occurs in nature. Terry said that it's caused by "glacier rock flour". I guess it's very fine rock particles that the glacier scrapes from the rocks and when the glacier melts into the lake, the particles remain suspended in the water.
There were too many tourists at Lake Louise, so we only stayed for a half hour. Then we headed up to Moraine Lake, which most tourists don't bother to go to. And that's too bad, because Moraine Lake is a deeper shade, but just as surreal. It's teal! There's trail that went up a pile of rocks called "Rockpile Trail" (what'd you expect it'd be called???) and the color of the lake from up there is absolutely shocking. The color is so vivid that the water looks almost like plastic. Again, you have to see it to believe that a color like that occurs in nature. My pictures don't do it justice, and, all afternoon, I was wishing I had a polarizing lens filter. We were there for almost an hour and I spent most of it at the top of the rock pile, although the trail was only a ten-minute walk (according to Terry, anyway), but it was steep.Both to and from the lakes, Terry pointed out some mountains and their names were pretty straightforward -- the Ten-Peak Mountains whose names were the numbers 1 to 10 in the Cree(?) language. A mountain with four peaks is called Quadra. A mountain that looks like a temple is called Temple Mountain. A mountain that looks like a castle is called Castle Mountain, and the column next to it is Castle Tower. A mountain with a unique peak was used by some cartographer as a point of reference and is called Pilot Mountain.
There's a story about Castle Mountain. When Eisenhower was the president of the US, he went on a tour of Western Canada. The Canadians wanted to honor him by renaming Castle Mountain to Eisenhower Mountain. They even had a ceremony all planned for the renaming. Well, you know that expression that sometimes you just have to show up and you get credit? Well, it also applies in reverse. Apparently, Eisenhower dissed the ceremony and went golfing instead. So, after being snubbed, the Canadians went back to calling the mountain by its old name.
We also saw some wildlife, a few elk (four total) and a couple of osprey nests (one on a bridge and another on a telephone pole). And they even have overpasses and underpasses for wildlife, and I thought that was funny. Did the park officials put up signs to tell the wildlife where to go? Did they distribute brochures that taught them how to cross the highway? Why did the elk cross the road? Because the park ranger built an overpass for them. :-) Well, okay, there are fences along the highway so they're forced to cross at the designated trails. Apparently, they also track whether the overpasses and underpasses are being used by the animals. Some have sand, which is raked every morning and some expert reads the tracks. Others have cameras that are sensor-triggered.
Anyway, the tour ended with the dispatcher informing Terry that there was an accident on TCH 1 and they closed the highway. But he didn't know if it was on the westbound traffic or the eastbound traffic. He suggested taking Hwy 1A, which we took on our way back from Lake Louise. But I decided to have dinner at Banff before getting back on the road. I found an Asian restaurant that served Vietnamese and Japanese fare, and as soon as I put in my order, the lights went out. It was out all over town. But they were able to cook for me.
I took TCH 1 anyway. I figured the accident would have been cleared already. It turned out that it was on the westbound lanes just before the Lake Louise exit, but the police had already coned off a lane borrowed from the eastbound traffic. There were steep climbs and dips and tight twisting curves. I passed a point of interest called "Spiral Tunnel", but it was already 7:30pm and I didn't want to drive down the mountains in the dark.
French quiz for the day: Match the French words/phrases in List A with their English translations in List B.
List A
1. lac
2. mont
3. escargot
4. sortie du secours
5. parc
6. eau
7. bienvenue
List B
a. park
b. water
c. snails
d. emergency exit
e. welcome
f. lake
g. mountain
Who said learning French was hard?
More pics here.
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