No, we weren't on the bus

A horrific crime happened in Canada that apparently has made news in the United States. (I saw it on CNN this morning.) But this is a big country. So, no, we were nowhere near the Greyhound bus in which a crazed guy stabbed and decapitated a fellow passenger (caution before clicking on this. It's disgusting). The suspect apparently did it for no reason at all. By coincidence, though, we recently camped in Brandon, where the 37 bus passengers/witnesses are staying in a hotel. And we stayed in Winnipeg, the bus' destination.

Animaux Sauvages

We get a kick out of seeing everything in English and French. Animaux Sauvages is wildlife. We're learning a lot of French. Luis no longer tells me that the exit on the highway leads to Sortie. (Sortie is "exit" in French. All the exit signs say "Exit Sortie")
Anyway, here's some wildlife. A beautiful black bear. We hiked to Johnston Canyon and went to the lower and upper falls. After that is a pic of Luis at Moraine Lake.

Hike to the falls; Today we freeze

Yesterday we hiked through Johnston Canyon, which has two beautiful waterfalls. Then we went to Moraine Lake, a turquoise lake surrounded by 10 peaks. We then saw Lake Louise, which is one of the most well-known lakes in Banff. It's also a beautiful turquoise lake, but the Fairmont put up this ugly hotel and charges $40 for a half-hour canoe ride. (Oh, and by the way, if you fall out, you have about 15 minutes before hypothermia kicks in.) The Fairmont says it's not responsible for deaths of canoe passengers. We took the beautiful Bow Valley parkway on our way up to the Lake Louise area, and two park officials stopped us to tell us to slow down but not stop because a bear was alongside the parkway. We didn't see the one she mentioned, but then we saw an adorable bear a little later. We then looped around again, embarrassed that we would have to pass the same official. Luis said "Put on your sunglasses and a hat." The official approached us and apparently didn't recognize me. She began to give us the spiel, then she looked in the car, and saw Luis, and said, "Oh, you know what to do."
We went past the same spot on the way back in the evening, when the bears come out. We would drive along the parkway, looking at both sides for a bear. Finally, we spotted one. We got some great pics and video of this bear eating berries. It was so cute.
We also saw some elk with really big horns.
Today, we're off to the Columbia Icefields, the largest remnant of a giant glacier.
We hope to post pics tonight.

View from Campground

Here are some views from our campground.
But after two weeks of camping, we have chosen to live it up at a hotel in Banff.
We had a nice time at the campground and loved all the prairie dogs. They're so adorable.

Banff Springs Hotel

I zoomed in on this beautiful hotel from atop Sulphur Mountain.
 

Prairie Dogs

There were holes in the ground all over the Tunnel Mountain Village I campground at Banff, Alberta, Canada. We had no idea what they were until we started seeing beautiful prairie dogs all over the place. They are so cute that we posted a bunch of the photos in an album. Click the photo below to see all of them.

Prairie Dog Photos

Whitewater Rafting

We had a great trip going whitewater rafting on the Chinook River, and we jumped from cliffs into the river. It was wild. Rich had only gone whitewater rafting once before and it wasn't nearly this rough. It was Luis' first whitewater rafting trip. Click on the photo below to see the entire album of pictures.

Chinook Whitewater Rafting

Jake Gyllenhaal & Heath Ledger and Rich & Luis

Here's another scene from "Brokeback Mountain."
Click on the last photo, which is a panorama of the area, stitched together from nine different photos.
Location also found courtesy of http://www.findingbrokeback.com

Luis, Rich and Jake Gyllenhaal

Taken at Kananaskis Lakes Road, Upper Kananaskis Lake, Alberta, Canada
Location found courtesy of Finding Brokeback.com
Taken Friday, July 25, 2008

Goat herd crossing highway

A herd of Rocky Mountain Goats was on one side of Highway 40 in Alberta, Canada during the afternoon of July 25, 2008. One lone goat was on the other side. The herd wanted to cross either to join the other goat or to drink water alongside the highway. They began to cross but hung out one side, possibly because some motorcyclists were coming on the other side. We were nervous wrecks as they crossed the highway but we couldn't do anything. Here's what happened.