Two Jack Lake, Alberta, CanadaBANFF
Lake Louise - Paid Parking – what!!!!
As we head into Lake Louise we need to
fill up gas – then we went over to the village parking lot to check out on our
options: we said let’s try to drive up to Morraine Lake all that can happen is that
it is full – ok driving up the road was full but there was still space at Lake
Louise but what really upset us was: we did pay 20 $ a day for National Park
fee so we can park in the national park and then at the Lake Louise they have
“paid parking” – so what did we pay the NP fee for???? That is so stupid and we
decided that we will not pay and we turned around and left. Guess – Lake Louise
is not our favorite at all – as the last 3 times we were here we had not so
great experiences.
As we are on the road for a bit we
need a coffee and so we stop along the highway to make coffee with some
beautiful views on the Castle mountain.
In Banff NP:
- We are in the birthplace of Canada’s national park system – established in 1885
- Today around 4 Mill visitors come each year – no wonder everything is so packed full
- Did you know that tourism was Van Horne’s idea?? He had the idea to park a dining car at the base of the Big Hill at Field in 1883: it was set up and timed to the arrival of trains so they could get a meal (the CPS could not pull a heavy dining cart over the pass, as this would have required a third locomotive). The visitors were awestruck by the mountain scenery and Van Horne realized it should be expanded to over overnight accommodation. The first one started to operate in 1886 – by 1908 the Mt Stephen House welcomed 8443 guests with 60 rooms and a 200-seat dining room.
- Van Horne took then a calculated approach to establish Banff as a resort, he said “since we can’t export the scenery, we’ll have to import the tourists”. The spot for the hotel was at the confluence of the Spray and bow River in 1888 Banff Springs Hotel opened with 250 rooms and was at that time the largest hotel in the world with water piped in from the nearby hot springs: only 3.50 a day
We set up at Tunnel mountain
We decided to head right away to the
Tunnel mountain campground, as we learned in Lake Louise, since Jasper has no
electricity at all they shut down all businesses, gas stations and campgrounds
– the town’s generator will only operate important buidings like the hospital.
That means all the thousand people who booked into Jasper no have to see where
to stay and Lake Louise is full – so best we check that we get a campsite here,
as we don’t know on how many will venture to come here. As we drive into the
campground there is already a line-up… and lucky for us we got a site, and
decided to book for two nights, as you never know and better save then sorry.
We check out our site and finish our coffee – now let’s do something:
Sunshine at Two Jacks Lake
Our all-time favorite – not to far
away, a nice lake and as we came there we even found a parking spot down by the
lake, so we could open the back and Mandy can come out. We also decided to eat
on what we have so that today we don’t have to drive back into Banff town
through the mad zoo of tourists. It was a bit windy – so Gine decided no paddle
board and rather walked along the shoreline and to read a book.
Supper in the sun
Heading back we first stopped at the
shower and then back at our campsite we had a sliver of sun on our picnic table
for supper – perfect and with electricity we can charge up our laptops as well
we can have a heater on that means no freezing tonight and tomorrow morning.
This is such a funky campground as you
park along the roads but at least this time we have a bit a view on the
mountain.
And in the morning we have some
sunshine and it looks like blue sky – perfect, we decided to have breakfast on
the lake
Back at Two Jacks Lake
The plan was: to spend a nice hot
sunny day at the beautiful lake Minnewanka – as we drove there we discovered
the parking is not very close to the beach at all – that would mean carrying
the paddle board on long way, Mandy is stuck alone in the truck…. We decided
back to Two Jacks lake: and here we had a parking lot near the picnic table and
Mandy could go in and out as she wanted. With the nice blue sunshine we
decided: this is perfect for a nice breakfast with eggs, spam and potatoes….
Where is the sun????
Gine brought out the paddle board and
after pumping it up there was one teeny tiny cloud – no big deal, wind who
cares!!! And so heading out to the end of the lake and up the river: the wind
was super strong and the waves splashed cold water and the clouds came in!!!!!
it took around 50 Min to paddle up and less than 15 Min to head back (oh and on
the way back it was more steering than paddling!!) – back gine was cold – but
then Paul called via the Walki Talkis and was asking for sun – guess it is all
gone, so we packed up!!!
And the fridge does not work!!!!
And that is when we discovered that
the fridge was at 11 C – now what is wrong there – we suspected maybe too much
ice – time to head back to the campground and then we defrosted the fridge got
a lot of ice out and had it open for quiet a while – and then we watched the
temperatures – but when you watch they don’t go down – when checking the pilot
light works and it was heating up – let’s hope it is only very slow and we had
everything to warm before putting back in. Good thing the freezer was nearly
empty except our supper and icepacks and two more slices of bread.
We head to town
The sun comes and goes – let’s go to
town!!! I may should mention this morning we went to the supermarket here for
shopping and decided to make our own buns as everything is so expensive!!!! I
mean here we end up in the poorhouse.
This time we parked close to Tim
Hortons and then got a coffee and some dessert for tonight. Then we walked over
to Banff Avenue to sit down and relax have our coffee and watch people – and
the sun is out!!!! Heading down the street, checking out souvenir shops we came
to a “Farmers Market” – and quick walk through here and a little park and we
are down at the Bow River.
Cascade Park
Since we discovered last time this
super cool park, we decided to head back and walk through it to admire the
beautiful flowers and views – and we were so lucky with the sunshine. We really
like Banff – as we can still find free parking, there is always something to
see and do – the views are great. We decided now we deserve ice cream and then
were sitting down at McDonalds to also have some free wifi!!! Perfect.
As per Paul we saw the Bow River Falls
so often that we don’t have to go over there again – as you should always check
out new things!!
That means we headed back and it was
past time for supper. Tomorrow we will leave Banff again – and we are still
heading south.
Cold Sunshine??
And this morning it is cold again –
even the sun tries to warm us up. After coffee we leave for the Cascade Ponds
so we can have breakfast in the sun with a beautiful view on the mountains.
Time to leave – good bye Banff, it is
always a nice stop here.
And the fridge still doesn’t work
This morning our fridge was still at
14.8 C – that means it is not working neither on electricity nor on gas. Paul
called a shop and you can’t refill the coolant as it is too old and they are
not allowed to do it. His suggestion is to keep the fridge off for at least 48
hours and then try again – maybe we are lucky. Also we can come by once we are
in Calgary – so this means we have to be a bit more pro-active: no “it is
necessary to keep it cool” food anymore.
Good thing – the fridge & freezer
was empty.
2025-05-22