28 August 2016, Sunday

The morning is cloudy at Crandell Campground but there are enough breaks in the clouds for the sun to turn their undersides golden. As we drive down to Prince of Wales Hotel for our last breakfast at Waterton the cloud cover thickens. We are seated right by the window overlooking the lake. The clouds, lake and distant mountains are varying shades of silver. On the lawn overlooking the lake the silvers turn to shades of green and brown. We both order saskatoon pancakes and Canadian bacon for breakfast. When the pancakes show up we are surprised to see that the saskatoons look much like blueberries…so I suppose our breakfast pie last Thursday was saskatoon and not blueberry. Now we have to look up the difference between blueberries, huckleberries and saskatoons. In any case, the pancakes are delicious.

After breakfast we take the scenic route north through the rolling foothills of the Rockies. We drive past expansive ranches and expensive-looking mansions. Soon we take a short detour eastward to Okotok, site of the largest glacial erratic in Canada. The more than 16,000 ton chunk of quartzite originated in the mountains around Jasper and hitched a ride on the southeast flowing glacier. This is also a sacred site for the Blackfoot nation.

From Okotok we turn northwest towards Banff and stop for a late lunch at the Banff Brew Pub. Both the beer and the food is excellent. Banff is quite touristy and we are glad to move on. We drive north up a wide glacial valley with imposing peaks on either side. I feel as if I am driving through a picture book. It’s almost too beautiful to be real.

We finally arrive at Lake Louise, 50 km north of the town of Banff, but still in Banff National Park. We can see glaciers on the mountainsides. A teal-colored glacial stream runs through the valley. After mistakenly driving all the way up Lake Louise road looking for the campground we finally remember we have a detailed map of the park in the car. Looking at the map, we see that we missed our turnoff. Back we go, down the mountain. We now turn onto the proper road. There is a sign saying the campground is full, and a line of cars and RV’s waiting to get in. Thank goodness we have a reservation. We soon check in to campsite C3. Here at Lake Louise the area for “soft-sided” tents is surrounded by an electric fence. We are still warned to keep a clean campsite. The fence is not foolproof. For all the cars and RV’s waiting to get in, this is a nice campground. There are many tall pine trees and the nearby rushing stream makes for pleasant background noise. We’ll only be here for one night, but we will be returning after our backpacking trips for another 6 nights.