We drove down to Banff along the Icefields Parkway and saw more Mountain Goats, this time it was two mommas and two kids.
When we got to Johnston Canyon Campground we set up camp then headed into the town of Banff for ice, gas, misc. and dinner at Old Spaghetti restaurant, a great place for pasta.
Banff is almost like a big city; LOTS of people crowd the sidewalks shopping for lordknowswhat. Still in need of a pack-purse, I stopped in two stores before giving up. The grocery store was even more chaotic. Gimme some wide open spaces, please.
Thursday, August 31, 2107
We Got up at 6:00AM to drive up to Moraine Lake. This is a very popular tourist/photo stop, and for good reason. The views were well worth the little bit of lost sleep. When we got there the parking lot was already filling up, would-be photographers with their iPhones were everywhere. Fortunately we got there ahead of the worst crowds and I got some nice shots.
We hiked around to the river, on the opposite end of the lake, that was the main source of glacial melt for the lake.
When we returned to the trail head it was a madhouse. We were glad to be shut of it.
We took the free shuttle to Lake Louise to scope it out for a shoot the next day. Once there I decided that it wasn’t worth the time to come back – I felt Moraine Lake was much prettier.
The afternoon was spent washing clothes at a coin laundry in Banff.
That night, at around 11:00 we drove out to a field to check on the sky situation. Alan was hoping for Northern Lights and I was hoping for good Milky Way shots. We were sorely disappointed.