Conni – 07-19-12 WY/Canada Trip – Banff, ABFriends Bob and Francoise came to visit us from Edmonton today. How neat is that? They are going to spend the nite in Figment, so Figment will get to know them better too.

We decided to take a driving tour looking for wildlife, since the Park Service has pretty well re-located most of it away from town. This is sad for us since you used to see so much here. Best for all, I guess, but still sad.

We drove out to Two Jack Lake and Lake Minnewanka first. A very nice drive and beautiful water. For safety, from July 10 to September 15, you are not allowed to hike the Lake Minnewanka trail with less than 4 people since this is a place where the bears feed on berries. Since none of us can run very fast and we didn’t have the required bear spray, we opted to stay in the Jeep.

Bob with camera in hand.

After that, we drove over to Mt. Norquay looking for mountain goats. This is a two lane winding road up to the Norquay ski area. Every time we’ve driven it in the past, we’ve seen the goats. Well, a big surprise this time. No goats!!!! BUT, a really nice surprise – we saw big horn sheep. The road also offers some very nice overviews of Banff and Vermilion Lakes.

Town of Banff taken from Mt. Norquay.

Banff townsite, Tunnel Mountain (smaller mountain) and
Mt. Rundle in the background. We are staying on Tunnel Mountain with a
beautiful view of Mt. Rundle.

Papa big horned sheep - really pretty eyes.

Lastly, we went back down to Vermilion Lakes. No elk, no moose – we’re not batting very good today. But the scenery is beautiful. We did luck out and spot a bald eagle.

Bald Eagle

All in all, a nice drive with beautiful scenery and good friends.