In our Own Back Yard

We travel all over the world to see the beautiful sites and sometimes we forget to look close at home for that beauty.

We took a trip to Snowflake and drove through the desert. It was very green from the rain and so beautiful. Canada was amazing, but so is Arizona.

I think we're that way about people

sometimes too. The best ones are really here in our own back yard.

Oh, Canada

The first reason we loved Canada was the company.

Who are those old folks?

We don't look like much, but we sure do have a good time!

We rode a gondola to the top of one of the mountains and then Allan, Brent and I hiked even higher.

View from the top. Wow!!

This picture does not do it justice! It was spectacular!

Next stop-The Canadian Palace. This is now a museum and has lovely gardens.

There are many old hotels in Canada. They were built by the Canadian Railroad to encourage tourism in the late 1800 and are quite amazing and beautiful.

Room rate then $5---Room Rate now $600. They are national historic sites so you can visit for free. Guess what we chose to do.

The hotel overlooks the Bow Falls and Bow River. Rafting his river sure looked fun, but was not a good choice for us old folks.

Scenes of Beauty everywhere you look!

Lake Minawanka. We took a boat cruise to Devil's gate.

This is another railroad hotel. This one is at Lake Louise. It was a beautiful, tranquil place that we loved.

This was a very cold, glacial lake. No swimming here, but paddling a canoe looked fun. All the glacial lake's color was a pale, cloudy (caused by rock dust from the glacial movement) blue--check out the color of Brent's eyes sometime. They're just the shade of the lake.
Lake Morraine was another beautiful lake. It was freezing cold and raining this day.

Look what came in handy. "Anybody can wear it!"

One of the most amazing experiences was walking on the Columbia glacier, which is the tip of the ice fields in the area. It goes for miles and miles behind the moutain that you can see.

It was much different than expected-Icy, bumpy, rivers and riverlettes all over it. We were only on the tip of the glacier. It goes back for many, many miles.

Riding this big snow bus was about Brent's favorite thing. You should have seen the first hill we took. Yikes!

Canadian tourism is alive and well.

The hole in the ground to the left is the birthplace of the Canadian Park System. Three explorers went down the hole, found a hot springs and developed a mountain spa at this site. Tourists loved it and everybody got rich, except the tourist. Everything was sooooooooooooooooo expensive in this area.

The middle picture is how the spa was in the 1800's. There was also a warm thermal spring coming up out of the ground.

Takkakah falls was named for the Cree Indian word

for magnificent. And it was!

We also went to an old train station in Lake Louise. It has been there almost a hundred years. It was a charming place to have lunch and enjoy the railroad history of Canada.

And all this at less than 80 degrees!

Not much wildlife. They heard Brent was coming and went on vacation. A few big horn sheep, a single deer, and some mule deer, a ground squirrel or two. But there are always zoos to see!

Oh, Canada. We will miss you! It was a great trip.