More Camping...

I just love camping.  Its a lot of work though to set everything up and make sure everything stays clean.  On top of it, we have to basically pack almost everything up each night and lock it up in the truck.  Not because people will steal it, but because of the animals getting into the food - mostly bears.  But to see some of the most amazing scenery around is worth the extra effort it takes.  The second day we were camping is really the only day we had to go out site seeing.  We decided to take a short drive to Johnston's Canyon (correction from yesterday.  I called it Johnson's canyon) - about 1/2hr outside of Banff on Hwy 1A going to Lake Louise.  There are two falls on the river that runs through the canyon.  Since neither Rob or myself are in any kind of physical condition to hike in the mountains, we decided that we would take the short 1 mile (round trip) hike to the lower falls.  It was so beautiful, but of course there were tons of people there also. We had hoped being the middle of the week there wouldn't be that many people, but of course, it being the middle of summer, there are thousands of people from all over the world visiting Banff and Lake Louise.  Rob is very uncomfortable in crowds, so that is another reason we decided that we would take the short hike.

This first picture is at the start of the trail. I took it on a small foot bridge crossing from the tourist parking lot to the parking lot for a lodge at the foot of the trail.  The water is so clear it almost looks like you could drink it (but I wouldn't).  And the next picture is just a little further up the trail.  They had a walkway with metal handrails so you can't go over the edge, unless you're an idiot and go off the trail.

(click on the pictures if you want to see them full size)

The next picture I took of Rob and Mitzy walking up the walkway.  Rob has these recurring nightmares of being on balconies or ledges with railings that give way and he is hanging there holding on for dear life.  So needless to say, this little hike was somewhat unnerving for him.  On top of all the people pushing to get by in some spots because its so narrow.  He made it through though without any melt downs.  Mitzy loved it.  So many new smells and she met a few other dogs on the walk.

The next picture is of the canyon wall.  At the point that I took the picture, it was probably about 60-70 feet to the water level.

The next picture is a mini rapids in the river and where it starts to climb up to the falls.  I can't believe the colour of the water.  Its such a beautiful turquoise colour.  I bet its darn cold though.  Its fed from the glaciers in the mountains.

Finally, we reached the lower falls.  It was just gorgeous.  The falls spilled into this large pool carved out in the rocks.  The colour of the water was amazing and the pool looked really really deep - and very dangerous if you happened to go over the railing into it.  I don't think you'd come out of there alive if that happened.

There was a foot bridge going across the stream to a little tunnel that had been carved out by the water.  It was really cool.  The tunnel is big enough to walk through and there is a little ledge on the other side where you can stand and get an amazing view of the falls.

The next picture is a picture of the falls on the other side of the tunnel.  The picture after that is a shot across the falls on the other side of the canyon wall.  There is another tunnel carved out by the water.

I got Rob to take a picture of me and Mitzy at the tunnel entrance on our way out.  I never have pictures of me when we go places because Rob just can't figure out how to work the stupid cameras.  It really annoys me sometimes cause its not rocket science.  Just point and click.  How hard can it be??  Oh well, it may be just as well, cause the shape I'm in I really don't want too many pictures....

The next picture is so cute.  The chipmunks along the trail were practically tame.  You're not suppose to feed the wildlife (against the law in the national parks), but people always give them food and they'll come right up to you looking for a hand out.  This little chipmunk was on the trail and both Mitzy and the little critter were curious about each other.  They actually touched noses checking each other out.  I couldn't get the camera in there quick enough, because of course, there were people in the way.  This picture was taken just before they touched noses.  As soon as I was able to get to were I could get a decent shot, the little chipmunk took off.  It was sooo cute though to see that.

I was just testing out my macro setting on my camera on the next shot.  There are wildflowers all over the place and these are just some wild daisies.  They're very pretty and I thought the photo might make a nice background for a scrapbook page.

The next picture is kind of blurry because I was trying to hold the camera down just above the ground to get a picture of Mitzy.  She was pooped out from the hike and she liked to sit at the edge of the campsite so she could keep an eye on everything that went by.

These next two pictures were taken toward the end of the evening.  We started a camp fire and were just winding down.  We were heading off to bed fairly early because we had to get up early to pack up.  With all the stuff we have it takes about 2 1/2 hours to tear down and load the truck and we had to check out of the camp site by 11am.  It was a really mild evening - the night before I had to put on a sweater and sit close to the fire.

(as you can see I'm not very good at removing the green glow from pet eyes in the flash.  I'll have to find a tutorial to get better results.  She looks weird with really dark eyes).

That was our camping trip.  We were so tired the next day, we didn't even stop anywhere on our way home for a little sight seeing.  Its a lot of work, but we're looking forward to going again in a couple weeks.  I think this next time we're going to go in the opposite direction and see what there is around the Drumheller area. We'll go and see some hoodoos and dinosaur bones.

I didn't get to making any cards yesterday.  I have to do some today.  I have a ton of stuff to get ready for my craft show in a couple weeks.  I'm no where near where I should be at this point.

So, that's all for today.  Talk to you later...

Cat