We had a beautiful day for our drive into the Waterton side of the park. Along the way we saw six elk wading across the narrows near Waterton Lake.The Townsite Campground was nestled between the mountains along the shore of Upper Waterton Lake. It's great when you can get a hookup site in a gorgeous location! There were bighorn sheep and mule deer right in town, too--and they always have the right-of-way on the streets, so you have to watch closely.
We took a drive to Cameron Lake which is situated at the base of a white, snow-covered wall of peaks. It was so peaceful to be there as the sun set--it gave us time to reflect on God's glorious creation. (The big guy sure does good work, doesn't he?)
In the morning we took a few minutes to enjoy the music and the beauty of Cameron Falls near the Waterton townsite before heading north.
On our way to Banff, another of our original trailer tires lost its tread. Luckily, there was a convenient side road nearby where Tom could safely change it. The flapping of the tread had beaten a hole in the plywood floor of one of storage compartments. The day was sunny, and the roads were dry, so that repair job could wait for another day.
We continued on through the gorgeous mountain scenery to beautiful Banff. These mountains are awesome because they're so close they are literally "in your face." We had a very nice hookup site at the Tunnel Mountain Campground. This campground afforded us great views of Mt. Rundle, and came complete with lots of wildlife. Elk and deer grazed on the grass and dandelions right by the steps of the APPLE. They weren't even scared when we opened the door and said, "Hi."
There are many beautiful lakes in the area, however the water levels were all much lower than they were when we visited this area in '94. We enjoyed checking out the nearby Vermilion Lakes, Two Jack Lake, Lake Minnewanka and Johnson Lake.
One of the most wonderful things about our trip to Banff this time was our visit with Lloyd, Faith, and Ashley Watts. I had met Lloyd and Faith in Santa Monica, CA, in February at Empowerment Week 2000. It was wonderful to connect with them again and have a chance to get to know them better. They are kindred souls walking a spiritual path and wanting to help create a more loving world.
Lloyd is the General Manager of the Kananaskis Inn in the heart of Kananaskis Country, an area slightly south and east of Banff. Lloyd also manages the Timberline Inn in Banff. One evening they treated us to dinner at the Inn which has the best view of the whole Banff area. Great view, wonderful people and good food--what more can you ask for? Lloyd also generously arranged a night for Tom and I in the honeymoon suite at the Kananaskis Inn. It even had a two person jetted tub and fireplace! What a wonderful way to be pampered.
Faith and Lloyd also have two shops, one in Banff and one in Chateau Lake Louise, that Faith manages. In these shops they sell garments made from Qiviuk (musk ox) and alpaca fiber. These beautiful sweaters and scarves are the softest garments I have ever touched. Qiviuk is 8 times warmer than wool, and much softer than cashmere. These sweaters are hand knitted in Peru by expert crafts people. Now that we know about this fiber, we are going to be sure to visit the musk ox farm near Palmer, AK when we're up there.
One evening we treated Faith and Lloyd to dinner--it was the least we could do to repay all their hospitality. It was so fun to spend time with them. We even went to their home one evening for a spiritual study group and met some more nice folks. Faith lent us several books from her collection, and she borrowed a few of ours. We'll be meeting up again at the end of the summer on our way back to the states. We sure look forward to seeing them again. (Thanks for everything, Lloyd and Faith!)
Besides the beauty of the mountains, one of the things we loved about this area was the plentiful, friendly wildlife. There were lots of bighorn sheep and elk everywhere.
One of our favorite drives in this area was the Bow Valley Parkway. This road served up one spectacular view after another.
There were many scenic viewpoints along the beautiful Bow River. Near Lake Louise we took the road down to spectacular Moraine Lake set in the Valley of Ten Peaks. The Lake was still pretty much frozen over, but it was still a wonderful feast for the eyes.
One of our favorite sites from our last trip had been the view of Peyto Lake from the Bow Summit, so we headed back there again. This time the road was covered in 4-5 ft. of snow, so we hiked up the last 1-1/4 miles. When we got to the summit, Peyto Lake was still mostly frozen over. Only a hint of the spectacular turquoise color of the lake was visible along the edges. We'll have to stop here again on our way south to see it in its full glory.
