Banff Day 3

saturday, may 16

with Amy's snoring, it was quite hard to get a good sleep having slept late the night before.
anyway, we went to the bus tour today.
but before that, Amy suggested to go to the Banff Gondola.
it was a nice detour.
i think i had a mild altitude sickness, that made me feel light headed in higher places.
gotta eat more carbs then.
we got some very nice pictures up on this Sulphur Mountain.
it's kind of cold there though, because it's pretty high up.
too bad we don't have enough time, or else we could take the side trail that could get us to the Cave & Basin site.

on our way outside of Banff downtown, we encountered a few wildlife.
first is elks. 2 of them - both male and female. they were crossing the road when we spotted them.
then we saw 2 mule deers, which other drivers obviously didn't see and scared them away.
then the bus driver pointed out a osprey nest on top of a bridge structure, when we crossed that bridge.

our first stop was Johnston Canyon.
indeed it was the trail i was planning to take for monday, so i guess we're doing something else that day...
we only had 50 minutes there to see everything. needless to say that's not enough time to see the canyon.
there's the upper falls trail and the lower falls trail. Amy and i went to the lower falls, and we were able to get some very nice pictures. we were able to spot 2 chipmunks playing. they were FAT. i mean, FAAAAAT!
the end of the lower falls trail was a cave, which we did have enough time to go in and get some pictures with a big crowd of people.
on our way back down, we bumped into Eric and Paul, who proceeded very slow...
we were already making our way back, which means the time is up...
at the end, we had to wait for them at the bus. grrrrr...
wasted me 2 long distance calls to get to their voicemails.

the bus driver told us that the Moraine Lake was closed.
i was so disappointed.
but what's even more disappointed would be seeing Lake Louise being frozen still.
i was totally expected blue waters and nice flower beds nearby.
instead, we got the Victoria Glacier pretty full, and Lake Louise very white, with no flowers whatsoever anywhere in sight.
that was the end of our tour.
o well, better luck next time.
it really isn't a great time of the year to go to Banff/Jasper right now, because a lot of the sites aren't thawed yet.
the best time would be the last week of may, before the summer flight price hike.
but because Eric and Paul work normal hours, i can't ask them to take so may business days off.
darn.

hope it's better tomorrow...
rafting!