May 23, 2019,
It was time to get up early and get ready for our trip to Banff, which was our next destination. While we were breaking camp, we met our next-door campsite neighbor, Michael, from Germany. Michael and his wife Annette, had rented a motorhome in Vancouver and were travelling the interior of the province. Michael works in the hospitality industry in Germany and they take trailer vacations in Europe. We had a great conversation comparing trailer experiences and the differences of campsites between Europe and Canada. We asked them to follow our blog as they said goodbye. It was time to head east and put the first province behind us. The light drizzle stopped shortly after we began driving and we were able to admire the majestic mountains as we wound our way through the Rogers and Kicking Horse passes.
There were several areas of construction on the highway, however, traffic was fairly light and the driving was easy.
We stopped for lunch at Emerald Lake. Debbie and I have fond memories of Emerald Lake and have visited it many times in our life. This time we were both disappointed as it was extremely busy with bus tours and motorhomes and we both found the bathrooms and grounds to be unkempt and dirty. Nevertheless, we enjoyed our lunch and a short walk by the lake, which will never lose it beauty. Then we pushed on to Banff.
Banff has lost its quaint alpine town atmosphere, as it is now a bustling tourist city with tour busses and transit buses everywhere. Banff Avenue still has some alpine appeal however, not the same as it used to be. The price of progress and population increases I guess…..
Our intent was to camp at Two Jack Lake, a favorite campsite for us. When we pulled into the entrance kiosk, we were gently told that if we did not have a reservation the campsite was full!!! Again, foiled by reservations!! Even in mid May campsites were filling fast. We were able to secure a campsite at the Tunnel Mountain Campgrounds, not anything like what we wanted at Two Jack Lake, but good enough for an overnight stay.
In terms of wildlife, Debbie saw several Bighorn sheep and there were several elk grazing on the edges of the roads. We have not seen any bears yet, however, the park operator at this campground warned us of coyotes roaming nearby. We toasted Alberta with a glass of Prosecco. We are going to toast each province that we enter this way. Although we were looking forward to enjoying two small steaks, I carelessly burnt them, so it certainly did not turn out to be the supper we had anticipated. Oh, well there’s always tomorrow. Good night.
Quilting in a Kayak 