Northern Rockies – September 6 – 17, 2005

Lynne and Jim head to the land of glaciers and grizzlies

Tuesday, Sept. 6 – Michelle had turned eighteen in the spring and was now an adult, so we opted to head out on our own. Our flight was at 8:55 AM. Figuring we would hit a backlog at the airport, we left for Greater Cincinnati International a little after 6:00 AM. Our first snag occurred at checkin when the Delta kiosk wouldn’t process Jim’s ticket. We headed over to the counter and discovered Jim’s name was on a list of common aliases so an extra identity check was in order. Once through that, we had almost no delay at the security checkpoint and had about an hour before our plane began boarding. Our plane departed from the gate all the way at the end of the concourse – funny how that always seems to happen to us. We had a 757 for the flight out and our seats bore no resemblance to the ones we had picked when securing our tickets. The flight was uneventful and we passed the time listening to our iPods. We tried using the ear buds to listen to the inflight movie (Herbie Fully Loaded) but the sound only came through on the left channel. Our plane landed earlier than scheduled at Salt Lake City and we had to sit on the apron for a few minutes waiting for another plane to clear our gate. We still had over an hour between flights and ate at Cinnabons. The cinnamon smell from the eatery permeated the airport.

Our flight to Kalispell was on a Skywest Canadair Regional Jet, a much smaller airplane than the one we took to Salt Lake. Our carryon bag had to be checked at the plane. We had a good look at the Great Salt Lake as we headed north, amusing ourselves by looking at the real estate ads for multi-million dollar ranch and ski properties out west. Utah and Idaho were largely barren and arid, but as we approached the Flathead Valley, the mountains began to green up and we had a lovely view of Flathead Lake which looked much more enticing than the Salt Lake. When we arrived at Glacier Park International Airport, one of the other passengers grabbed our carryon bag instead of his own and scurried away. We were sent to the Delta ticketing desk to try and straighten out the mixup. Fortunately the man who picked up our bag realized his mistake and we were able to get everything sorted out and recover our bag which had all our prescriptions, papers, and other hard-to-replace items. We were finally able to head over to Hertz where our rental car turned out to be a silver Toyota Corolla, a nice size for two people with plenty of trunk space for luggage and a minimal appetite for fuel. The airport is on U.S. 2 and the stretch between the airport and Kalispell is not particularly scenic.

Our hotel, the Best Western White Oak Grand, was south of Kalispell near the town of Somers. Kalispell is the largest city in the Flathead area and has plenty of traffic lights to prove it. We checked in and learned a construction crew working next door had cut the hotel’s phone line, so there was no telephone or internet service. Our cell phones reported a good strong signal but wouldn’t place any calls for us. Somers proved smaller than we thought and neither of the bar/restaurants that were open appealed to us, although the view of the lake from town was very pretty. We headed back up to Kalispell past an establishment called “Scotty’s Dance Hall” and casinos too numerous to count, and ate dinner at Bojangles, a 1950’s themed restaurant. The phones were still not working at the hotel so we called Michelle from a pay phone at a gas station to let her know we had arrived in one piece. After the long day of travel we turned in early at the hotel.

Wednesday, September 7 – While looking for a spot for dinner the day before, we had seen an interesting little place in Somers that was only open for breakfast and lunch, the Somers Bay Cafe. The building had been the town’s bank in its halcyon days. The food was very good and Jim and the waitress had a nice conversation about the area when she found out Jim’s parents were from North Dakota. Apparently that’s a good way to move from being a tourist to almost being a local. On the way to Glacier National Park we stopped at the Walgreen’s in Kalispell so Lynne could get a couple of prescriptions filled. It was pleasantly cool with bright blue skies when we got to Glacier and started up the Going To The Sun Road. We walked the Trail of the Cedars at Avalanche Gorge. Going To The Sun was fun to drive, despite some construction, and the glaciated scenery was spectacular.

At Logan Pass we had to circle the parking lot a few times waiting for a space to open up. Apparently everyone wanted to be there at lunch time, although there are no lunch facilities there. When we came down out of the mountains to Saint Mary we found we had a lot of time to spare, so we drove up to the Many Glacier region. Our plan was to have a slice of huckleberry pie at the Swiftcurrent Lodge, but they were out, so we ate a late lunch/early dinner at the Italian Ristorante there instead. Several people had binoculars or telescopes out in the parking lot and were watching grizzlies on the mountainside when we got there. They were still watching when we finished eating and Lynne asked it she could take a look, finally getting to see a grizzly bear in the wild.

We continued up highway 89 to the Piegan border station where we had to show photo identification to enter Canada, a first for us. The prairies of Alberta swept eastward to the horizon. In the town of Cardston we saw a tribute to their most famous citizen, the Fay Wray Fountain, complete with a silhouette of King Kong. We passed wheatfield after wheatfield with the occaisional cattle ranch offering a bit of variety, but never saw any pronghorns. In Fort Macleod we looked over the motels and stayed at the Century II, a charming little place with decor from days gone by, but very well maintained. We weren’t very hungry after our late lunch and opted for hot dogs at the A&W. The hot dogs were served split lengthwise, with ketchup, on a toasted hoagie bun. Lynne noted that we really were in a different country.

Thursday, Sept. 8 – The manager of the Century II introduced us to her cat, Miss Coco, as we were checking out. She (the manager, not the cat) was lonely as her husband was in a nursing home so we stuck around for a bit and spent some time talking to her. She showed us some of the other units in the hotel she was renovating and we promised to put in a good review for her motel on the internet. She recommended the Java Shop at the Greyhound Bus station for breakfast. We were dubious, but the food turned out to be good with large portions for a reasonable price. A few streaks of clouds in the north broke up the brilliant blue sky as we headed north on Alberta 2 to Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump. Back in the dog days, as the Blackfeet call the time before horses, the Native Americans would stampede buffalo over a cliff. Over the centuries thousands of skeletons piled up at the base of the jump. From atop the jump we could see the mountains of Glacier and Waterton Parks to the south and the endless Alberta plains stretching to the east and north, while the grassy Porcupine Hills reared above us to the west. In the museum we learned how Napi created the buffalo, the people and all the other things in the world.

From Head Smashed In we continued north on 2 to Calgary where the tiny inset map in our Rand Macnally misled us, and we got onto 2A which turned out not to be a freeway. In Midnapore we stopped for gas and ate lunch at Wendy’s. Midnapore is largely Indian and the local restaurants were heavy on curry, probably not the best food to eat while traveling. We wandered through the streets of downtown Calgary, took a few wrong turns crossing and recrossing the Bow River, and eventually got to Canada 1 westbound, driving past the Olympic park with its ski jumps and bobsled run, and Calaway Park, the local amusement park as we headed toward Canmore. The mountains loomed higher with every kilometer we traveled, but our joy was tempered by the dark gray clouds looming in the west. In Canmore we had a room at the Canmore Inn and Suites. The room was large with a couch and table and had a great view of the mountains from the window, but we were right above the front entrance and every tour bus that pulled up to drop off passengers gave us a lot of noise and exhaust, so we weren’t able to enjoy the mountain air. We went to the Oh Canada Eh! dinner show in Canmore for an evening of songs, corny humor and so-so food, heavy on the rosemary. The entertainment more than made up for the food and we had a wonderful evening with lots of laughs. It was raining hard and steady when the show let out and we made our way back to our car.

Friday, Sept. 9 – We awoke to a steady soaking rain. The hotel had one of the best continental breakfast spreads we had encoutered, served on real china, and the only downside was the tour groups who would all show up en masse. We drove around Canmore to see a little more of the town before heading west on 1 to Banff. Banff had lots of traffic and no place to park in addition to the rain. We drove part way up the road to the Norquay Ski Resort for a overview of the town, and the rain started turning to ice. We backtracked through town and drove over to look at the Banff Springs Hotel and the golf course. By the time we got to Bow Falls the rain had let up considerably but it was still very gray and drizzly. The Bow Valley Parkway was recommended by all the books for wildlife so we took it north instead of 1. We saw one deer. We hiked to the lower falls in Johnston Canyon, a narrow slot where the trail sometimes was on a catwalk cantilevered over the gorge. At the falls there was a small tunnel that led to a good viewpoint. We ate lunch at the Coffee Shop at Johnston Canyon Resort and the rain picked up in intensity while we were eating.

At Lake Louise highway 1 turns west and we headed up Kicking Horse Pass, keeping a close eye on the temperature as it dropped near freezing. Fortunately we didn’t hit any icy conditions as we crossed into British Columbia and made it to the Cathedral Mountain Lodge. The main lodge building was under construction and had just opened that day. Lynne got an umbrella and headed over to our cabin (23) while the desk called for a porter to have our luggage delivered. The log cabin had a spacious porch, rustic decor, a down duvet on the bed, and a couch and chair arranged in front of the fireplace where the logs and kindling were already laid out for us. The bathroom featured a huge soaker tub and the scent of rosemary. Colors ran to earth tones with a green armoire serving as our closet. Moose, bears and fish adorned the lights and a moose-shaped plaque on our front door reminded us to remove our shoes before entering. After a couple of false starts we got a cracking, popping fire going and took the chill and damp out of the air. Lynne’s stomach was giving her some trouble so rather than eating out, Jim picked up some supplies from the general store in Field and we had sandwiches at the cabin before curling up with a couple of books in front of the fire.

Saturday, Sept. 10 – Light rain greeted us in the dawn. The peaks around us sported a fresh coat of snow. At Cathedral Mountain, continental breakfast was served buffet-style at the lodge and we had a picnic basket to take the food back to the cabin. Lynne was still having stomach trouble and the small stores in Field had a limited selection of remedies. The clerk at Yoho Brothers said the nearest pharmacy was in Golden so we headed west on 1 out of Yoho through scenery that rivaled anything we’d seen in the parks. Compared to the heavily zoned towns of Canmore and Banff, Golden had a haphazard appearance but it did have a drug store. The rain finally let up on the way back and we saw a couple of patches of blue sky, but it remained mostly overcast. We had sandwiches and cookies at the cabin while Lynne’s medicine kicked in. Once she felt better, we drove to Takkakaw Falls, the tallest in the Canadian Rockies. Normally the falls are a trickle by autumn, but with all the rain there was plenty of water plunging down. We saw the confluence of the Yoho and Kicking Horse rivers, with the milky, glacier-fed waters of the Yoho tinting the Kicking Horse a brilliant aquamarine. We also saw a train pass through the upper spiral tunnel, but no trains passed through the lower tunnel while we watched.

We got to the natural bridge over the Kicking Horse just as a tour bus was pulling out and were able to look around before another bus pulled up and disgorged another load of tourists. Emerald Lake was beautiful with its deep green water, forested slopes and snowclad backdrop. We walked over the wooden bridge to see the lodge and were glad we weren’t staying there. While the setting is beautiful, during the day the place is swarming with tourists, a problem we avoided at Cathedral Mountain. We ate dinner in Field at the Truffle Pigs Cafe (oink oink) which was every bit as funky, and as good, as the guide books promised. Unable to resist dessert, we had it boxed and took it back to the cabin. We passed on the special at the Truffle Pigs that night (rosemary barbecue pork with rosemary potatoes) because, between the rosemary potatoes, rosemary chicken, and rosemary vinaigrette salad dressing at Oh Canada Eh! and the rosemary sprigs and rosemary-scented soaps in our cabin, we were rosemarried out. Instead Lynne opted for Pasta Proletarian and Jim went with Maple Pecan Spinach Salad with Pressed Maple Duck Breast.

Sunday, Sept. 11 – At last we got to see what the mountains looked like in the sunshine. After breakfast at the cabin we braved the morning chill and headed for Lake Louise, bundled up against the cold air that had pushed the clouds away. Our first stop was Moraine Lake. The sun was just hitting the tops of the seven peaks surrounding the lake when we arrived. Moraine Lake’s water was a beautiful opal color in the mountain’s shadow. We walked partway along the trail on the lakeshore but the mud and cold air discouraged us from going all the way to the end of the lake. We heard snatches of a dozen or more languages around the lakeshore. There was no wind at all and the snowy peaks were mirrored in the glassy water. It was absolutely beautiful. Like almost all places in the area, it was crowded; we counted eight tour buses in the parking lot when we left, with another pulling in, and we were there early in the morning. Lake Louise was also very pretty, but the development around the parking lot and Fairmont Lake Louise has taken away a lot of the wild nature. Its water was perhaps the most vivid blue we’d seen but there were just too many people milling about to really enjoy the view. The hotel, like its counterpart in Banff, was more impressive in person than any pictures we’d seen.

On the other side of the village we took the gondola up to a viewpoint just below the snowline, riding an open chair up the slope. Although there were plenty of warning signs and a lecture before we headed up about the grizzlies, we saw nothing larger than a squirrel on the trip. From the top there was a good view of the Bow Valley, Lake Louise, the mountains, and Kicking Horse Pass. Our lift ticket included a buffet lunch at the Lodge of Ten Peaks and we ate there after taking another open chair back down the mountain. We looked over the lodgings at Lake Louise to see what the Post Hotel was like (very nice) before heading back to Yoho. At the spiral tunnel overlook on 1 we had better luck and watched a train go through. At one point the locomotives were right below us while the train was still entering and exiting the tunnel on the other side of the valley, so we saw the same train in three different places going different directions at the same time.

Back at the lodge we wandered down to the bank of the Kicking Horse, sat in some Adirondack chairs, and watched the world roll by for a while. We spotted several mine tunnels on Mount Field to our north and later learned the silver mines there were still active up into the 1950’s. South of us, we watched trains ducking into and out of the snowsheds and tunnels on Cathedral Mountain. The snowsheds are massive concrete structures where the tracks cross the paths of avalanches. Field is a busy railyard with trains stopping to wait their turn through the spiral tunnels. The sound of trains was a near constant, but never an annoyance. We finished off our ham back at the cabin for dinner, and spent the evening enjoying another crackling fire with our explosive firewood.

Monday, Sept. 12 – We awoke to the sound of rain on the roof, our respite from the rain having lasted a mere 24 hours. One last picnic breakfast and we sadly bid Cathedral Mountain goodbye. In Lake Louise we topped off the tank before heading north on the Icefields Parkway. Num-ti-jah Lodge at the north end of Bow Lake is the last building along the parkway until Sasketchewan Crossing 40 kilometers north. The rain was light but steady so we opted to pass all the overlooks, stopping at Sasketchewan Crossing to stretch and get a drink and snack. By the time we reached Bridal Veil Falls the precipitation had pretty much ended, but low clouds obscured the summits and much of the waterfall. Trees disappeared as we climbed to Sunwapta Pass and made our way past the Icefields Centre where the Sasketchewan, Athabasca and Snowdome glaciers were all in view, with the toe of the Athabasca coming within a kilometer of the road. The weather and the hordes of people at the Centre convinced us to wait and come back when we could get there earlier.

The weather improved as we left the alpine vistas behind and descended towards Jasper, and the sun was out by the time we reached Sunwapta Falls. At Athabasca Falls we had a hard time getting good pictures because the Asian tourists off the buses all wanted to pose on the rocks at the brink of the falls to have their pictures taken. It was near the freezing mark when we started the day, but had warmed up considerably by the time we neared Jasper. Once in town we ate at Smitty’s where the food was poor and the service indifferent, and the rain picked up again while we were eating.

We headed up Pyramid Road to the Patricia Lake Bungalows and checked in to cottage 19. The cottage was laid out a bedroom, separate living room and kitchen, and bathroom, with a gas fireplace in the corner of the living room. The decor was pretty plain with a couple of pictures doing little to enliven the sterile white walls, but the setting was very nice with pines and aspens spread around the grassy grounds, little white cottages with green roofs and red shutters, and Patricia Lake just down the hill and a couple of cabins away from us. The sun even appeared while we were settling in. The cabin didn’t have a phone but there were a couple of pay phones by the hot tub so we called Lynne’s mom to check on things back home. The bungalows consist of a small motel unit, several cottages and a few log cabins in the trees. It was a very quiet place where we could hear the cry of the loons on the lake. On our way back into town to pick up a few things we saw a coyote beside the road. The produce at the IGA in Jasper looked dismal and their selection left a lot to be desired so we drove to the town’s other market. While we were shopping the rain started up again. We ate a light dinner back at the cottage, sampled the Edmonton television stations, and kicked back to read about the local sights while the rain fell.

Tuesday, Sept. 13 – After breakfast at the bungalow we headed south back along the Icefields Parkway, passing a couple of elk on the drive back down to Jasper. The parkway is supposed to be a good place to see wildlife, and even sports a couple of signs warning to watch for caribou crossing, but we saw little more than ravens and squirrels on the way south. The guide books had all recommended getting to the Icefield Centre before or after the crush from the tour buses and they were correct; we arrived and got our tickets for the next bus departing for the Athabasca Glacier. The sky was overcast but free from rain when we got there, and we avoided precipitation all morning. The bus drove up a paved road that climbed the side of Mount Athabasca and put us on a gravel road atop the lateral moraine from the glacier. According to the driver the road shifted about three feet down the slope every year so it couldn’t be paved.

The bus dropped us off at a loading station for the Ice Explorers, huge buses on six-foot balloon tires that drive out onto the glacier. The trip begins with a steep descent down the side of the moraine and through a puddle that rinses the mud off the tires, then slowly crawls to a groomed area near the middle of the glacier. Our snowcoach was the only one on the glacier when we got there and we were given twenty minutes to explore. Mount Athabasca and Mount Andromeda soared to our left, Snowdome to our right, and ahead of us rose the headwall where the Athabasca Glacier tumbles from the Columbia Icefield, a frozen mass of ice larger than Rhode Island. Smaller glaciers cling to the sides of the mountains, which are otherwise barren; the cold wind from the icefield keeps any trees from taking root, and the rocky piles of the moraines have no soil in them. We stood on ice 1,000 feet thick, filled a bottle with meltwater that had frozen 400 years before, and marvelled at the frozen world around us. A line of hikers making the ice climb from the toe of the glacier to the headwall appeared as tiny dots to our south. Sunwapta Lake at the foot of the glacier is the source of the Sunwapta River and is milky to the point of opaqueness from the rock flour. Every year another fifty tons of it are deposited by the meltwaters and the lake is shrinking year by year.

Although bundled up, fifteen minutes was about all we could take of the arctic conditions. The overcast proved something of a blessing as our eyes weren’t blinded by the vast expanse of white surrounding us. According to our driver, our snowcoach was one of 22 built by a Canadian firm; 21 prowl the Athabasca Glacier while the other ferries scientists from one post to another in Antarctica. We were chilled thoroughly by the time we boarded a regular bus to head back to the Icefield Centre. When we got there, the tour buses were filling the lot and the centre was jammed with people. We had lunch at the cafeteria there, the food better than expected and the view of the glaciers and mountains across the road was a pleasant treat. On our way back to Jasper we stopped to take pictures of Tangle Falls and found the rain again.

Back in Jasper we headed for the tram. Unlike the lift at Lake Louise which hugged the mountainside as it climbed, the Jasper Tram has only one tower to support the cable between the lower and upper stations. The weather was gray but not unpleasant at the lower station. A few other people boarded the tram with us and we lifted above the treetops and began the long ascent of The Whistlers which was named after the marmots that sun themselves on the rocks near the summit. We soon passed the treeline and were in snow by the time we reached the upper terminal. A fiercely cold wind was whipping the mountaintop. We walked around a little there in the alpine zone but saw no marmots, pikas or ground squirrels, just a few birds braving the wind. Despite the clouds, the view was spectacular. We couldn’t see Mount Robson but had an excellent view of the Victoria Range across the valley, the town of Jasper, Pyramid and Patricia Lakes, and the Athabasca and Miette Rivers. The wind was too much however so we headed back to the tram for the descent back to the montane zone.

On our way back to Patricia Lake we ran into a traffic jam because of an elk beside the road. The laundry room was busy at the hotel and held us up a bit, so we ate a late dinner at the L&W Family Restaurant in Jasper. We saw a deer on the way back to the cottage and heard the elk bugling after we got back. Our cottage had a journal in which some of the guests had left comments. We found we were among the few Americans to have stayed there. While most of the guests were Canadian, we read entries from people from Germany, Denmark, France, Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands.

Wednesday, Sept. 14 – Once again hoping to beat the crowds, we headed out early for the drive to Maligne Lake. We took a little detour at Lake Beauvert to see the Jasper Lodge and encountered traffic jams from people stopping to photograph elk. Medicine Lake got its name because it has no apparent outlet but still drains to mud flats in the autumn, and it was well on its way to that state when we drove along the shore. Some cars were stopped about midway along the lakeshore because a small herd of bighorn sheep were milling about the road. Several people were out of their cars petting the sheep, apparently having missed all the signs warning people to let the wildlife stay wild. Maligne Lake has a walking trail along the shore and we started following it. We were surprised to see a pair of ears appear over a small rise in the path. A doe and two fawns were headed the opposite direction. They nonchalantly detoured around us, but were a little spooked when another couple appeared behind us.

Maligne Lake is fed by snowmelt rather than glacier runoff, so it had the dark blue color of a normal lake. The trail was muddy from the previous days’ rain, like the trail along Moraine Lake, so our hike was again cut short. We came across the doe and fawns again on our way back to the Day Lodge. While we were eating lunch there, a tour boat returned from Spirit Island and unloaded a group of Asian tourists. They spotted the doe and fawns and there was a mad rush to the Lodge’s deck followed by a near-deafening click of camera shutters. Heading toward Maligne Canyon, we found the sheep by Medicine Lake were still doing their part to halt traffic. We stopped at Maligne Canyon by the teahouse and crossed at the upper pair of bridges. Maligne Canyon follows a fault in the rock so it is quite deep and incredibly narrow with sheer sides and a wild, rushing torrent at the canyon bottom. There are five pedestrian bridges over the canyon, with one and two at the head where the canyon is at its steepest and narrowest. Bridge five, below the canyon, is a swinging bridge over the now much broader and slower Maligne River.

Back in Jasper we parked in town to walk around and do some souvenir shopping, stopping first to look around the train station and a retired Canadian National steam locomotive displayed alongside. We picked up some souvenirs for the kids and to take in to work, dropped them off at the bungalow so the fudge wouldn’t melt, then drove up the narrow, switchbacked road to Mount Edith Cavell.

Even after Labour Day, the town of Jasper and the attractions like the Icefield and Maligne Lake have their share of tourists, but we saw almost no one other than a couple of cars going the other way on the 14 kilometre drive along the Astoria Valley. Once at the parking lot for the trailhead we encountered a first on the trip — annoying insects. The bugs were like gnats, but larger, and insisted on flitting around our faces. The trail to the cirque at the base of the mountain is a loop with a steep but paved ascent up the lateral moraine along the left side of the valley. Very little grows in the glacial till below the cirque. Mount Edith Cavell towered overhead and wrapped around the valley as the trail climbed.

At last we reached the peak of the trail and started heading down toward Cavell Lake, its western end a mass of ice – the Cavell Glacier. Icebergs calved from the glacier float on the milky green water. The glacier itself presented a sheer cliff of ice while the top of the glacier was largely covered with fallen rock. The mountain rose vertically above the cirque with Ghost Glacier far above our heads and Angel Glacier creeping down the mountain to our right. The bugs didn’t seem to mind the chill from the thousands of tons of ice around us and kept buzzing our heads the entire time. Warning signs along the trail about the possibility of falling ice or rock didn’t deter another group of hikers from exploring some ice caves along the flank of Cavell Glacier.

We had just started down the trail back to the parking lot when we heard a boom like a cannon shot, followed by a rumbling roar like a passing freight train. We turned and saw ice crashing down the side of Angel Glacier. Luckily for the hikers we saw, the ice was all caught by the basin carved by the toe of the glacier and didn’t reach the area where they were walking. The trail back along the valley floor was much easier and considerably less steep than the trail going up. Signs along the way showed where the glacier had been in past years and explained how plants would gradually be able to colonize the gravel floor. Once in the car we were finally able to shake the insects and crawled back down the road in second gear. Back in Jasper we ate baked spaghetti at the Mount Robson Family Restaurant before retiring.

Thursday, Sept. 15 – Gray skies and more rain greeted us in the morning. We saw more elk along the road down to Jasper. The Soft Rock Cafe was one of the recommended breakfast spots in town but it didn’t appeal to us and we ate across the street at the Bright Spot Cafe. The food was so-so but we got to watch a couple of trains go through the station yard while we were eating. One curious thing in Jasper was the unusual abundance of Chrysler PT Cruisers – it seemed like every fourth car, or more, were of that type. It got to be really predictable and bizarre. Again, lots of rain and low clouds prevented us from seeing much along the Icefields Parkway on the way south. Jim had planned on taking a picture of the caribou crossing sign to show everyone back home, but decided not to because of the heavy rain; when we got to the sign, someone was pulled over and taking a picture of it. Sure enough, farther south where another warning sign is posted on the other side of the road, someone was pulled over to take a picture of it as well. We hope to return to the Parkway sometime in the future when we can see the sights under blue skies.

At Bow Summit we took the trail to the Peyto Lake overlook and snow started falling. Peyto Lake was neon-blue against the green forests and grey skies around it. The snow proved to be the end of precipitation for us. Herbert Lake’s picnic area was wet and muddy but the sun had come out and we ate lunch in the car there before rejoining Highway 1 at Lake Louise. Again we didn’t see any wildlife other than birds along the roadside. Canada built a pair of animal overpasses near Banff and we passed our exit for the Banff-Windemere Highway to gawk at them, but didn’t go into Banff proper. The continental divide is the border between both Alberta and British Columbia, and Banff and Kootenay National Parks. Kootenay had been the site of massive forest fires in 2003 that burned most of the trees at the northern end of the park and some facilities and overlooks were still closed for repairs. The rain we had left in Alberta found us again back on the western slopes of the Rockies so we got wet at Numa Falls, but the rain proved to be a passing nuisance and was replaced by sunny skies as we neared Radium Hot Springs. Kootenay was, to us, the least spectacular of the Canadian parks but the descent from the mountains into Simpson Canyon was one of the wildest roads we’ve ever traveled. One hairpin curve has a large mirror mounted so drivers can see the opposing traffic and we had to stop before the curve to let a couple of trucks negotiate the tight turn.

Radium, just outside the park, is a town of about 800 but has over 30 hotels because of the hot springs. Our reservation was at the Alpen Motel, one of several along Highway 93 that compete for the best display of flowers. The Alpen sported flowerboxes of red and white geraniums on the balconies of the second floor rooms, with an abundance of flowers in planters around the first floor rooms and driveways. The Bavarian motif carried over just a bit inside the room. Our room came with two passes for the Hot Springs. We crossed under the highway in a pedestrian tunnel that led to the pools – a cool pool at 29°C and a hot pool at 39°C. We rented towels and lockers and felt like we were back in school as we made our way to the locker rooms. The air temperature was around 13°C so the cool pool had few takers, but the mineral-rich waters of the hot pool provided a soothing and rejuvenating soak.

One side of the pool is flanked by a rocky cliff; another side faces a steep but grassy hillside across the highway. We noticed people at the other end of the pool staring and some getting out of the pool to reach for cameras. Everyone was watching a herd of bighorn sheep on the hill. That side of the pool faced the sun and we soon retreated to the shady side nearest the building. From time to time busloads of Asian tourists would show up, invariably with the women shivering and running for the pool while the men would posture and show their indifference to the cool air. One woman looked like she was going to cannon-ball into the water as she ran from the building, arms wrapped tightly around her, but she did enter the pool without a splash. Refreshed and free from any stiffness and stress, we headed back to the hotel, made ourselves presentable, and headed off to dinner at the Old Salzburg Restaurant. Coming from Cincinnati, we were no strangers to German food, but had never eaten Austrian before. While many of the dishes were the same, foods like sauerkraut and red cabbage were more subtly spiced and quite delicious. The staff there was also the most energetic we’d seen in ages. The sun set out the western windows while we ate, a good meal to cap a wonderfully relaxing afternoon.

Friday, Sept. 16 – Concerned about the distance we had to travel, we set out a little early, and left the hotel before the office was open. Smitty’s was the only place in town open for breakfast and had a line out the door. We headed south on 93 and ate at Huckleberry’s Family Restaurant in Invermere. The restaurant is a huge log structure and oddly enough, the specialty is huckleberries. We skipped them, determined to get some huckleberry pie when we got back to the Kalispell area. Once out of the mountains, the grass was all yellow, sagebrush was everywhere, and the hills sported different species of evergreens from the eastern side of the Rockies. We crossed the Columbia River where it was little more than a stream and saw its source, Columbia Lake.

There was little traffic anywhere and we made better time than anticipated, reaching the border at Roosville before lunchtime. At Piegan we had been the only car going through into Canada, but Roosville had a backlog of five or six vehicles at each of its three lanes and each one took several minutes to get through. We noticed the Canadians entering the U.S. went through much faster than the returning U.S. citizens. We had to present both driver licenses and birth certificates but otherwise had no problems getting back in. Lynne breathed a sigh of relief to be back in the land of green money and Imperial measurements. We searched in vain for a wayside with a picnic table, finally pulling off on a road to a campground in the Flathead National Forest to eat some of our leftover junk food for lunch. The only large wildlife we saw all day were quite a few deer, both north and south of the border.

Lynne’s brother had asked us to pick up some information on the Big Sky Ski Resort. When we got to Whitefish, we found we were at the turnoff for the mountain with plenty of time so we drove up the steep and twisting road past multi-million dollar properties to the resort itself, an entire village near the summit, complete with its own fire department and medical facility. We picked up a trail map and some other information. Very little was going on during the off-season and the gondola which runs sight-seeing trips in the summer was shut down for the fall. Back in Whitefish we discovered most of the hotels had no vacancies because of an upcoming marathon but Lynne got us a room at the Holiday Inn Express on the south side of town.

Determined to taste the elusive huckleberry, we headed east to Hungry Horse. No pie, so we settled for a shake and an ice cream cone. The flavor is a lot like blueberry. Since we were in Hungry Horse, we drove over to see the dam and were happily surprised to find it was one with a road running across the top. The visitor center was closed for the day so we just drove across the dam and back, took a couple of pictures, and left. In what had come to be a standard practice, rain started coming down as we headed back to Whitefish. We ate dinner at the Taco John’s next to the hotel, got back to our room, and discovered our alarm clock wouldn’t work. The hotel brought us a new one and we turned in to rest up for the flight home.

Saturday, Sept. 17 – Clouds but no rain for our last day in the west. After breakfast at the hotel we headed back to Glacier Park International Airport (quite a grandiose name for such a small facility) to return our rental car and check in for our 10:30 AM flight. Check-in went without a hitch. Our flight left right on time, but the cloud cover kept us from doing much sight-seeing on the way south. There was no mix-up with our carry-on in Salt Lake. We just had time to eat a sandwich for lunch before Delta started boarding our 767 for the flight back. Our seats were in the center section, right behind one of the hanging movie screens.

During the flight another passenger tried to open one of the overhead bins the screen was hanging from, and it fell and hit Lynne on the arm and leg, and Jim in the bridge of the nose. Fortunately the rest of the flight was uneventful. Back at Greater Cincinnati, we and about twenty other passengers from our flight waited with increasing frustration for our luggage. Everyone from our flight was paged to the baggage office and some people had just started filling out forms for misplaced luggage when a call came in that two carts from our airplane had been found left sitting on the apron. A few minutes later, our luggage finally appeared on the carousel and we were able to return to our car and head back home.

Milestones on this trip: Lynne got to see a grizzly in the wild. We walked on one glacier and saw ice falling from another.

States and provinces we visited: Kentucky, Utah, Montana, Alberta, British Columbia

Capital cities we saw: Salt Lake City