Banff

I have been wanting to get up to Banff since we moved up here - it's just an hour from our house. It's amazing to think that this beautiful national park is that close to us - with amazing beauty, skiing, wildlife, resorts, etc, etc. Today we were only able to see just a small part - but I hope to get up and explore more especially Lake Louise and the Columbia Icefields. What we did manage to do with two small girls and the dog was to walk around the town of Banff, have lunch and take the gondola up to a summit to see the spectacular views. The day started a little rough with little Lauren throwing up just a few minutes from our house (poor little thing), but we made it up and were treated to this....



As we walked through Banff Katherine was very interested in all of the moose, bears and other "wildlife." Unfortunately, they were the only animals we saw today. Even though I'm sure she knew they weren't, Katherine kept asking me if the animals were real - cautious kid. Side note: I noticed the french word for "wild" was "savage" - that seemed sort of funny to me today.





I also was astounded at the recycling center which included a place for organic waste for compost!






While the recycling center was pretty interesting, the views became much more spectacular as we parked and walked up to the gondolas.



Here are some shots from the gondola - spectacular - it was a long ride up and not for those who are afraid of heights...and I read that it has one of the steepest pitches in the world! Great.





In this photo Lauren seems pretty unsure of the whole thing, but she really didn't mind it. She kept saying "up."



Finally at the top - the payoff.









I was really surprised that there weren't more trees that were changing color - lots and lots of evergreen trees, however, you could see sprinklings of yellow trees amidst the sea of green. This picture doesn't do it justice, but maybe you can get a taste....




Fun day - can't wait to go back!