The Banff National Park

The next morning we set off with a new coach driver in another luxury coach to explore the Banff National Park.

For everyone, except myself, the highlight of this tour was travelling up on a mountain on the Banff Gondola to ear-popping heights, and walking out on a ‘flyway’ with a sheer drop below. I could not go because of my ears, so waited around below for two or so hours. Still, even the view from the complex and inevitable souvenir shop below was worth seeing. Everyone came back in great excitement, very proud they had completed the challenging part, especially as the air was very thin up there and they had been quite breathless climbing the 300 or so steps up to the very top. It was only early the next morning I discovered that the top of the gondola ride was on the mountaintop facing our hotel.   

For me, the highlight was not even the lovely scenery we saw afterwards, or even the coyote we unexpectedly saw on the quite famous Banff golf course, but the great sense of humour and stories of our driver.

He told us that at school, which was in eastern Canada, he was always dreaming, looking out of the window instead of paying attention to the teacher. This of course affected his grades, and his mother admonished him and told him he “would never get a job looking out of a window”. “And look!” exclaimed he, sweeping his arms out at the vistas before him! 

Then he told us what was most probably a tall story, but I loved it anyway . . . and so did everyone else. 

Because of all the recent wildfires, the air had been thick with smoke for a few weeks and tourists were complaining they could not see anything - no mountaintops, no animals . . .  So he and some other young drivers met to talk about what they could offer their passengers to keep them interested. Eventually one of the girls said she had an old moose costume at the back of her wardrobe and maybe they could use that. The plan was that on her day off she would dress up as a moose and pop out of the trees along one the routes they would take. 

So the next day he drove along and there she was, so he stopped the coach and everyone very delightedly got off to take a photo of a moose. That was OK until he saw a grizzly bear creeping up behind her . . .

He frantically tooted and waved, but all she did was wave back. “I didn’t know moose could wave” said a passenger. “Oh, Canadian moose are very friendly” said he, frantically beeping the horn again. More waves, more photos. Eventually she turned around and saw the bear and pulled up some of her costume and ran for her life. “I didn’t know moose could run on two legs” said the same passenger. “Oh well, up here moose are very adaptive -  that is how they get away from grizzly bears!” he answered his heart in his mouth. The girl, by now panic-stricken, then remembered that grizzlies can’t climb trees, so up she started to climb. “I didn’t know moose could climb trees!”  . . .  “Canadian moose are very intelligent - they know grizzlies can't climb trees ” . . . The grizzly bear started to climb up after her!  “I didn't know . . . “

The girl by this time was completely terrified, and thought she had better throw off her moose costume altogether so someone might see she was human and try to rescue her. Just then, as she raised her arms to pull it up over her head, a voice just below her said “You take off that costume and we’re both out of a job!” . . . 

At the Banff Gondola, which can be seen going up the centre of the trees. Apparently it was very fast ride, adding to the  ear-popping problem. I took this photo when we arrived. An hour later there were huge crowds, which no doubt is why the gondolas are sent up very quickly. 

One of the views from the complex where I waited, and waited . . .

This was part of a dam, which is very popular with skin-divers as the dam covered a whole village. Apparently the divers like to take joke photos of themselves sitting on a loo in one of the submerged houses. There were quite a few divers there when we stopped. 

The water in the dam was crystal clear instead of milky blue.

Our hotel from a lookout.

The next three photos were taken at a lookout over a river where various curious formations called 'hoodoos' were present as a result of the erosive action of a glacier. The second of these shows an example of the hoodoos best - using a zoom lens. The remaining photos were of scenery as we drove back to our hotel for our second night stay.