We pulled out of camp this morning at 9:00 into a cool morning...55 degrees...with a few high, thin clouds and several airplane vapor trails heading off into the wild blue yonder. Leaving Radium Hot Springs we were immediately in Kootenay National Park and then were quickly driving through a narrow slot in the mountain!

One of the reasons we wanted to go back to Banff was to see if the Canadian Rockies are as beautiful as we remembered . Well, they were even MORE beautiful. Our trail today was indeed breathtaking...huge, jagged, glaciated mountains on either side of us as we wended our way across the back of the Rockies towards Alberta and Banff National Park. There were also aqua mountain streams around several turns in the road. Each corner we went around was even more beautiful than the one before. We stopped at two different designated scenic view spots and John took two videos. We have zero wifi where we are tonight so all uploads will have to wait until we get somewhere besides where we are right now. 

One area of several miles that we drove through showed evidence of massive forest fires. They must have been several years in the past because green grasses were growing at the feet of the standing victims of the fire and huge patches of pink fireweed showed all over the faces of the mountains we passed. Actually, the pussy willow gray of the dead trees, the bright green of the low vegetation growing at their feet, and the pink of the fireweed was very beautiful in its own right . You could see "the bones" of the mountains in the outline of where the trees once grew. Fascinating. We crossed into Alberta at 11:00. We also had our 3rd Born Free sighting.

When we came to the main road where we could turn right and go to Banff or turn left and go to Lake Louise (both equally distant) we were in somewhat of a quandary. When we talked to the ranger at the toll booth before we went into Kootenay National Park she said that the campground at Tunnel Mountain in Banff showed full on her records. We had thought before we heard that news that we would drive to Lake Louise, look around, eat, and then head to Banff and get a site for tonight. We sort of looked at each other and decided that rather than that plan, we would instead turn right and head directly for the Tunnel Mountain campground "just in case" there might be one walk in site available. I had read in a brochure that not all campsites are placed in reservations and the earlier you got there, the better the chance of getting one of the so called "walk in" sites . At any rate, we continued the few miles down the road and arrived at the campground at 12:00 with fingers crossed.

How blessed we were. There was a darling girl working the registration booth at the campground who winced when we said we did not have reservations as the campground showed full on the sign. John explained that not only was I taking 18 months to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary but I had also thrown my 70th birthday into the mix! Noori asked us to give her a minute and she did something magic and was able to get us a site for the night and for tomorrow night also. We have to change sites tomorrow but since we plan to drive back up the parkway to Lake Louise that will not be a problem. Noori was able to get us not one but TWO really good sites for our stay here. We can see Tunnel Mountain from one side of Mufasa and Rundle Mountain from the other! We could not have asked for anyone to have been nicer to us...she treated us better than family. By the way grandson Steve S ., Noori is 26 years old and a real beauty...maybe you should plan a trip to Banff??!! We also had our 4TH Born Free sighting as we came into the park. A couple stopped to chat as we were taking on water and said that they are here in the park also with the exact model of Born Free that we have! We saw their unit as we continued into the campground so that made it officially number 4!

By the way, we drove the magnificent total of 85 miles today.

After taking on the water (only electric hookups here in the National Park) we got settled on our site pretty quickly. There is a very well organized tram system set up in this area with nice and very clean buses making the rounds about every 40 minutes from the campground (and other points) into Banff, out to some other outlying areas, and to the Banff Springs Hotel, an old historic hotel built by a railroad companty. Yay for us! For $1 apiece we walked about 500 yards from our campsite, jumped on a bus, and were off for the afternoon . 

We did the usual looky-loo shops (bought a magnet, Laura) and then had lunch at "The Tavern" on Bear Street. There we had some of the best gourmet pizza that we have ever had. Very light. The really different trick that they had was to serve their pizza with both a container of honey and a container of hot pepper oil. The idea was to put a little of each on a plate and dip your pizza much as Italian restaurants do with seasoned olive oil and herbs with their bread. I can't tell you how very good this was! Yum!

From the restaurant we did a little more looking around town before getting back on the bus. Rather than taking the direct route back to our campground, we took it through town and up to the Banff Springs Hotel and then back through town and to the campground. It was quite a nice ride and we were thrilled that we weren't battling The Big Muf through the traffic which was very busy since this is a weekend. We are now back "home" in camp and plan to sit outside and enjoy our evening and the fantastic views!