Day 30-Yellowstone-31 Jul

Yellowstone National Park. 

Left Mammoth Hot Springs at 8:30 and headed south towards Lake Village.

Unitas Falls:

Blacktail Lakes: 

Petrified Tree:

We saw a mule deer:

Later in the day we saw car jambs of people trying to photograph single bison and we saw a whole herd! They were amazingly close too: 

Calcite Springs:

Tower Falls:

Mount Washburn:

Lunch:

Yellowstone River Lower Falls:

Yellowstone River Upper Falls at Uncle Tom's Point: 

Artists Point:

We stopped where some others had pulled over to find 2 national parks people and some other people all with telescope looking at some bison, an elk and a grey wolf with 2 cubs. We were really interested in the grey wolf. It was a huge distance away so no chance of photos but it was great to see one as they are very illusive. The people there think she was babysitting the Cubs or teaching them to hunt the elk. It was amazing. 

Sulphur springs: 

Mud Volcano Area: 

Black Dragon's Cauldron: 

Day 29-Yellowstone-30 Jul

Left Whitefish at 8 am went via Hwy 83, Hwy 141, and Hwy 12 to Garrison. Then along Hwy 90 to Livingstone at 2:15.

Entered Yellowstone National Park through the Roosevelt gate:

Got to Mammoth Hot Springs at 3:30 and checked into our cute Pioneer cabins: 

Had dinner at the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel Cafeteria. 

Day 28-Many Glacier-29 Jul

Left Swiftcurrent at 7:15 and 5 minutes later a young grizzley bear walked across the road in front of us: 

Morning coffee at St Mary's. 

Entered Glacier National Park again and stopped at Sunrift George:

Arrived at Logan Pass at 8:50 to snaffle almost the last park in the parking lot. We set off on the Hidden Lake walk. It was another beautiful sunny day. We saw:

Mountain goats:

Long Horn sheep: 

Golden Mantled squirrel:

Columbian squirrel & Hoary Marmot: 

We left Logan Pass at 12:30 and stopped at Big Bend:

Weeping Wall: 

Bird woman's Falls:

Haystack Falls: 

Lake McDonald: 

We arrived at our accommodation at Pine Lodge, only to be told the booking had been cancelled because my card hadn't worked. I explained my card had been hacked, cancelled and renewed. They should have sent an email confirming the situation, but didn't. The hotel was full. The manager's solution was to give us a room with 2 beds at his sister hotel. While we're discussing it a guy came to the front desk saying he had just checked in but had to leave because of a family emergency. We were offered his room and the Best Western room all for the same original rate. Which was lovely.  Hot breakfast included for us all at the Best Western before we leave for Yellowstone. 

Dinner at Craggy Range Bar and Grill. Very nice. 

Day 27-Many Glacier-28 Jul

At 6:15 a grizzley walked in front of the Swiftcurrent Inn - close to our cabin!

We caught the 9am boat across Swiftcurrent Lake, we were about 10th on the waitlist! The second boat across Josephine Lake had broken down to the ranger led walk went around Josephine Lake instead. We then continued on the Grinnell Lake walk. 

Spectacular scenery and Hidden Water fall off a short side track:

We had lunch at Grinnell Lake: 

This little Columbian Ground Squirrell watched us eat: 

We walked back via the other side (south side) of Josephine Lake and caught the boat back to the beginning. 

On the way back to the cabin we saw a brown bear cross the road - right in front of the car - but he was too quick for the cameras. 

Sandra and Paul saw a moose at where Paul went for a swim.

Dinner at Nell's. Staying at Swiftcurrent cabins, again.
I think we are destined to have erratic internet for the entire trip.
Staying in Glacier Nation Park, admittedly in the middle of nowhere but still...we are supposed to have wifi here.  After we arrived we discovered it is only available in the hotel lobby.  50 people are trying to access it there and on the very long verandah.  Consequently there is no wifi connection.

Day 26-Cowboy Trail-27 Jul

Left Banff after our hot breakfast at 8:30. The Rockies followed us in the distance on the drive down highway 22 called "The Cowboy Trail" through the rolling hills of horse and cattle country.  We saw strange sights such as this fence which had s baseball cap on the top of every fence post on their road frontage (very long):

Saw a deer (wild) and donkeys (domestic). Stopped for coffee at "The Stop" at Black Diamond (the only espresso shop for miles!)

Saw lots of mini oil rigs in people's back yards:

Endless fields of hay bales at Pincher Creek:

Pine Ridge Viewpoint:

Lunch at Waterton Lake in Waterton National Park:

Crossed the boarder into the USA. 

Chief Mountain: 

Brief heavy rain while we were driving for 15 mins.

Arrived at Many Glacier at 3:30 and tried to book a 9am Ranger walk the next day and have to be waitlisted. Couldn't book this until we were in Glacier NP).

This is the view of Grinnell Point from the Many Glacier Hotel boat ramp: 

Saw a bear and cub on the hill above Many Glacier Hotel. 

Dinner at Nell's restaurant at the Swiftcurrent Inn.  A few spots of rain at 8:30 pm. Stayed at Swiftcurrent Cabins. 

Day 25-Lake Louise-26 Jul

After a hot breakfast at the B&B we left Banff at 8am heading towards Moraine Lake - no one else was on the road! Got to Moraine Lake at 9:30 and Parked right at the lake. 14* but a beautiful sunny day. 

Hiked the Rockpile - the moraine left by the glacier at the end of the lake. By the time we were driving out at about 10am Parks Canada had closed the road - only allowing a car in when one came out! I'm  so glad we got there "early".   Yes this is the real colour of the lake! 

We drove to Lake Louise hiked the Fairview Lookout walk (way above the lake), had coffee and were on our way out of the huge mass of people. 

Ron's photo: The Canadian "Wilderness" Experience!! Not so much worried about being attacked by "Grizzly" bears, as being trampled by bus loads of pushy/grumpy Russian tourists ☺

The mountains here are incredible. So steep, rising right out of lakes,  seemingly continuous with a never ending variety of geological forms. 

We drove down the Bow Valley Parkway to Johnson Canyon and hiked up to the lower falls. 

So many people and so many cars and buses. We semi- successfully fought off a bus load of Russians who tried to steal our position in line to enter a tiny cave and view the waterfall up-close-and-personal.

I took a quick look and fought my way back through the line to freedom. Ron, Paul and Sandra were more resilient and got some good photos. 

This is the view of the falls from the cave after all that. Photos don't capture the noise and power of the waterfall at all: 

We drove a bit further up the Parkway and stopped at a beautiful, peaceful (3 cars) place with picnic tables for lunch. 

After lunch we went to Lake Minniewanka which is a man-made powers generating dam. A few people were in boats using the lake. 

We saw saw three Bighorn sheep near Lake Minniewanka! I know I say this every post but, this is a very rare sighting as they usually stay in the mountains up very high as protection against predictors. These looked to be licking some sort of mineral deposits in the side of the road. They do this to help supplement their diet to make their horns. We have been very lucky with animal sightings. 

We drove to Johnson Lake (no where near Johnson Canyon) and discovered the local swimming hole. People were paddle-boarding, sun baking, swimming and fishing for the four different types of trout in the lake. It was a very large lake so it wasn't crowded. It was a lovely spot even if it isn't as spectacular as the glacial lakes. 

We did some washing tonight - Note to self: Next time don't bring so many clothes - travel lighter! 

Dinner at Boston Pizza where we had pasta, go figure. Stayed at the Rocky Mountain B&B

Day 24-Banff-25 Jul

IWe did the Icefields Parkway again and saw some of the things we missed.

The RVs here are unbelievable. They are the size of a bus - not a school bus but a big touring bus but about a metre longer. The people toe Utes or cars or boats behind them. Today we saw a quad bike in the back of a ute that was being towed! 

Left Jasper at 8am. We are getting a bit blaze about wildlife now because we drove past Elk on the side of the road! 

Stopped to see Athabasca Mountain:

Tangle Falls (without people):

We walked to the bottom of the Columbia Glacier:

Weeping wall: 

Water fowl Lake with Mt Cepheren (the pyramid) and Mt Howse. 

Herbert Lake for lunch with our first Pika sighting:

We saw a Golden Mantled Ground squirrel - note wide grey stripe on his back:

When we got into Banff we went straight to the Sulphur Mountain Gondola at 2:30 and were told there was a 2 hour + 20 mins in queue wait. We decided to book at 6pm ride and went to see the Hoodoos. 

It started to rain (our first real rain) and got really cold. We booked into our accommodation, did a bit of food shopping and decided to go up and change our reservation to tomorrow. On the way up the mountain it started to clear and by the time we got there it was lovely, warm and sunny! We rode up 

the Gondola (it was extremely high) and did the boardwalk to the cosmic radiation Space research centre!

Dinner at the Magpie & Stump Mexican restaurant. 

Stayed at the Rocky Mountain B&B.