Day 19 - Radium Hot Springs, BC to Lake Louise, AB via Banff

There's Nothing Like A Good Night's Sleep

There's the old saying "There's nothing like a good night's sleep and we got nothing like a good night's sleep".  It was a very hot night with a security night shining into Speedy, so we were happy to leave. We got off to an early start.

The original destination we'd planned was Banff, Alberta, on the other side of the mountains, so we took the only road east over the continental divide. It was an interesting drive through the mountains with some stunning views. The weather was now cooling a bit and getting cloudier.

We arrived in Banff by mid-morning to culture shock. It was massively crowded, The streets were chock-a-block with RVs and the parking was non-existent. we ended up on the edge of the downtown and walked around. Banff is a town within the national park, and a tourist magnet.

Once we finally parked, we headed into the maelstrom. We needed sustenance to cope with Banff. The Wild Flour Bakery and Cafe was on our path so that was where we stopped. The coffee and pastries at were quite good. Ellen & I split an enormous filled almond croissant.

After refueling, it was on to downtown Banff where we found the Banff National Park Visitor Center. We asked questions and picked up maps and other park information. The Banff Townsite is actually part of the national park, but is a large tourist town in its own right.  After the visitor center we strolled through a fair number of shops. Harry was looking for pannier frames for his bicycle's rear carrier...with no luck.

By then it was lunch time. Time to weigh our options. We'd snacked not long before, so it didn't seem that a full on lunch in a restaurant was needed. So we stopped at a little greek take-out place with tables on the sidewalk. The sliced lamb with tzatziki in pita was quite tasty, but a bit garlicky.

After about two hours we'd had enough of Banff traffic and crowds. We thought about the large number of RVs and the big 1000 site Banff campground and decided to move on.

We abandoned Banff for Lake Louise, about 60 miles north, hoping it would be less crowded. It seemed crowded at first when we went around in circles at the village center trying to get into a fuel station with diesel, but when we got to the campground it was better.

There are two campgrounds, one with electric sites and one without. We chose the one without. The electric one was described as open and the map showed it as long rows of pull-through sites side-by-side, wedged between the train tracks and the river. Obviously designed with Class A buses and big Class C RVs in mind.

The other was a series of smaller drive-in sites arranged in small loops in the trees. There really wasn't any choice here. The smaller campground was oriented towards tent campers and small RV's like pop-up trailers. It had one unusual feature, a five-foot high bear-proof electric fence that enclosed the whole campground, including an electrified cattle guard for auto traffic. Think they have bears here?

We settled in at sites J9 and J10 with no one around us. We had planned for an outdoor dinner, but about a minute before we were to sit down, a thunderstorm rolled in. We retreated to our own vans for dinner as the rain poured down. It let up a bit but continued into the night. It is also getting colder.