Once again we got breakfast from the kickass Bear Paw bakery, and got some bread to make sandwiches on the road. A quick fill up at the tanks and we were on our way south along the Icefields Parkway.

After a couple of quick stops at lookouts, we stopped at a place called Beauty Creek. We set out for a two-hour hike up a hill, alongside the creek, past a series of waterfalls. Maybe they were waterfalls, maybe they were chutes, maybe they were cascades, I’m not sure. All I know is that there were loads of them, and they were beautiful. We reached the top of the trail after about an hour, but decided not to press on since we could see bear(?) tracks on the trail and we were completely alone up there. Still it was a great hike and a nice change from the parade of mountain scenery. We got back to the car and continued on our way.

After that we hit a bunch of sights we bypassed on the drive north: we stopped for a quick bite while we gazed at Tangle Falls on the side of the highway, drove past the Big Bend to see the Weeping Walls, hiked down the Mistaya Canyon and stopped to have a look at both the Bow Glacier and Hector Lake. Around Lake Louise we cut over to the Bow Valley Parkway and drove to Johnstone Canyon. It was good, especially ’cause you could walk through a cave to view the waterfall up close, but the plethora of tourists and easy walkway made us long for the hike along Beauty Creek.

After that came the wildlife tour: a few minutes down the parkway we saw some deer on the other side of the divided road, so Nellie swung the car around. I snapped a few pictures before they took off, but now we were headed the wrong way. We drove back up to the split, but on the way we saw something small and black on the side of the road. I thought it was a bear cub, but then we realized it was a wolf. I snapped a quick picture as fast as I could, and I think we got it. I’ll know later.

When we arrived in Banff, finding the way through the hotel complex was more complicated than the town itself. We finally got checked in to our room, I found the internet connection, Nellie found the bathtub, we saw the elk on the lawn, and I wrote this up. Time for dinner!

[tags]jasper, bear paw bakery, beauty creek, mistaya canyon, bow valley parkway, banff, fairmont banff springs, elk[/tags]