Sunday July 26th
Regretfully we left the hostel and headed south. Our first stop, based only on the briefest of mentions in the guidebook, was at Mistaya Canyon. A short walk brought us out to a bridge over rapids, but walking upstream we were able to see the incredible power of the surging water, sculpting its twisting route down the canyon.
We drove on and shortly came to one of the most popular sites on the Parkway, Peyto Lake. The cars and initial crowds were reminiscent of Puerta del Sol in the run-up to Christmas, but just as in Europe there are always tourists who will plump for opening their thermos and Mr Kiplings mere seconds from the car park (if not in it), so here 95% of the visitors limited their visit to the nearest viewpoint. Those of us with functioning legs made it a little further uphill and were rewarded with stunning views of one of the most photographed lakes in the Rockies.
Lunch at Lake Louise was followed by the rest of the drive to Banff and the first rain of our trip. We checked in at the Y Mountain Lodge and Angus and I took a short stroll to the nearby Bow River falls. If Jasper is a delightfully one-horse town in which the arrival of a train is a major event (albeit one which can delay you at a level crossing for a full 10 minutes as the good cars trundle past), Banff is the bright lights. A full 8 blocks of shops and entertainment, though a little too much globalization perchance (I didn’t cross the world to see McDonalds and the Body Shop!). However we dodged the 2 foot high ceramic wolves and souvenir moose heads and found a great Sri Lankan fast food joint for dinner.
