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Monday August 26, we woke and left our campsite early. On our way to the Banff Springs Hotel,
we passed by this doe grazing on the roadside. Our car did not scare her at all. The deer was quite happy to pose for our
picture.
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Well here it is, the Hotel. We drove around it, but did not take the time to go in. Banff is
an interesting town. Very service/tourist oriented. Set nicely between a few forested mountains. If you want to sit on a
patio with a view and drink a beer, we'd recommend you try Banff.
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Ah, Johnston Canyon. Driving the TransCanada westbound from Banff will bring you past this 1.5 mile trail along the inside edge of Johnston Canyon.
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Here's Leanne...
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... and Brian
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At the end of the trail you come to a fast flowing waterfall. It has dug "pots" into the ground, acting as a drill over the decades. There were two falls, approx. 1/2 mile appart responsible for the canyon creation.
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Our first snow capped mountain. Both of the trip, and of our lives. The first. Ah, the beauty, the intrigue, the absolute puny amount of snow. But like we knew. We were pleased.
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Crossing in to British Columbia. This is the view leaving Banff National Park, and entering Yoho. Kootenay is a little to the south, but since it was on fire at the time, we avoided it. Talk about beautiful mountains. wow. It just gets better and better.
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After crossing in to BC, we stopped by a tourist information center, hoping to get lots of info about where we were headed. 95% of the place was for Alberta... where we came from. Oh well. We'll wing it.
BTW, that water was COLD !
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These birds were REALLY common. If any birder out they could identify them for us, that'd be cool.
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Quite often along a lake you'll see the train track running along the shoreline. It is much easier for a train to twist and turn along the shore, than climb up and over the mountains. A typical lake in this region had the road along once side, and the train on the other.
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The problem with this idea was that a rock slide or snow avalanche would quite often wipe out your track, or your train if it was in the wrong place at the wrong time. These tunnels were constructed at common avalanche/rock slide areas to prevent the disaster.
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THE LAST SPIKE !
If you don't know what this is, then you are not Canadian. Come on ! The last spike was driven in ... well, somewhere around "here" near Craigellachie British Columbia. The Canadian Pacific Railway now had a ribbon of steel running right across to the coast.
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Leanne decided to help out.
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While at the last spike, a train went by ! How cool is that !
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So Leanne decided to pose for a photo-op. :-)
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