Banff

After several days and nights up in Lake Louise we packed up camp and headed to Banff and quaint (but touristy) mountain town. The scenery of the Canadian Rockies is stunning! Everywhere you look are high, rocky mountain peaks that arise suddenly from the valley floors, sprinkled throughout are clear blue lakes and rushing mountain streams. This is animal country for sure (black and grizzly bears, cougars, mountain sheep, mountain goats, and rodents) but we didn't see much except lots of fat rodents.




This is our campsite in Banff. Every morning Mara did yoga, often turning herself into a pretzel well before I could think about touching my toes. Adam usually would do a bit of yoga too, but never for very long before the temptation of coffee overcame him.
This is Hou Ling Peak. Rich and Chris climbed a 21 multipitch sport climb up this one day. They linked pitches so did it in about 10. At least half the climbing was sustained at 5.10 and they somehow made it back by late afternoon...did they really climb that day?
We hiked up Johnston Canyon on a 'rest' day from climbing. This is a narrow canyon with a rushing stream and multiple waterfalls. They have put in quite a railing system to allow visitors the experience without causing damage.
Above Johnston Canyon were Inkpots- clear blue/green ponds who's aquamarine colors were amazing to behold, but difficult for me to capture (I'm waiting for Chris's pictures).

Cougar Canyon- another climbing day. To access the climbing one needs to hike up the canyon stream, and then there is climbing along the cliffs directly next to the stream. The climbing was only OK due to poor quality rock, but the setting was idyllic.


Chris working out a problem in Cougar Canyon.


Relaxing after a day of climbing. I'm not seeing much motivation in this crew...

Hiking back down Cougar Canyon.
On the way down we found berries that somehow the bears had not yet found. Notice Rich picking and saving, and Chris eating...
We made berry pancakes the next morning.Another climbing spot: Grassi Lakes. The clear aquamarine water was gorgeous and the climbing super fun on pocketed limestone. Here's Adam as we come upon our first lake where we started climbing.




Wrapping it up after a great week of vacation. We can't wait to travel with our friends again. All of us are going to Thailand in February, we will then part. Rich and myself with Adam and Mara will head to Vietnam and then Rich and I will head off to Hong Kong to visit family. We'll be gone 2 weeks total- can't wait!

One last parting shot of Grassi Lakes and fireweed.
On the drive home we stopped at a lovely hot springs above Revelstoke (where our car still is. The VW's transmission went out on the drive to Banff, and we still don't have it).
Of course we had to squeeze a little more climbing in on the way home and stopped at the Kettle River area, only 1.5 hours from our house.Cooling off in the Kettle. I was hesitant to post this pics, I obviously ate too much the last week, but it was the only good pic of us in the Kettle.