2016 July Alberta 6

Above, heading North from Lake Louise.  Just one beautiful view after another.  Below is an overpass built just for the wild life to travel back and forth over the highway.  The Canadians have put up hundreds of miles of fences along the highway to keep the wild life from getting hit by traffic. 

Below is Crow's Foot glacier.  The third claw (bottom) fell off.  I though that was humorous. 

 Pretty woman taking a very pretty picture.  Hundreds of people must stop here every day during tourist season.  This is between Lake Louise and the Columbia Ice Fields.

Our 22 rigs pulled into the parking lot at Columbia Ice fields.  It was a real trick getting us all in this tight parking lot.  We had permits to spend the night.  Of course, we had to dry camp which means no electricity, water, or sewer.

Below are people walking back and forth to the bottom of the ice field. 

Below is a distant picture of the one below.  Just 30 years ago, the glacier covered all of the gray area where these people are walking.  The dark spot in the middle of the ice field is where the big trac mobiles that we rode in were parked.

 We had the funniest driver on the trip up to the top.  He was a college student from Toronto working the summer tourist season. He was only 20 and said he was the youngest but the best driver and the most experienced.  It was his 4th day so he said.  He had us laughing all the way up.

These trac mobiles cost $1.2 million each and they run 22 of them round trips all day long.

It was pretty slick walking around at the top.  The Columbia Ice Field is the size of the city of Paris.  What we could see, was only a small percentage of it.

One of our guys on the tour trying to see how much air pressure these tires take.

 Below is the Sky Walk just north of the Ice Fields.  This got my stomach churning walking out on it.  It actually was vibrating a little with so many people on it.

                                                              Don't look down lady.

                                                  A mountain goat just below the Sky Walk.

Cliff talked to the couple driving this truck.  They were from Frankfort, Germany and had this shipped over.  Inside was converted to a camper.  They were camped next to us at the Ice Fields.

                        Our first bear and Big Horn.  I'm sure we'll see many.

 Athabasca Falls just south of Jasper, Alberta.  I'm sure glad we made the recommended stop to see this.

2016 July Alberta 5

Hotel in  Banff, Alberta.  I believe our bus driver said it was $900 a night.

Sitting at the top of a chair lift.  This ski slope has a beautiful view of Lake Louise in the background.

View behind us of Lake Louise.  We chose to do the open chair lift rather than the enclosed gondola. Fabulous views for miles. 

 Caribou in our campground in Banff.

 A closer view of Lake Louise.  These canoes were $90 per adult for two hours.  There was a waiting line.

 Cliff of course has to talk to everyone.  He was asking about the large poppies.  They are called oriental poppies.  Our tour leader on right taking a picture, with the Chateau Lake Louise behind her.

 Picture of the ski lodge.  There was a game of ladder golf set up on the lawn here for anyone to play.  A ground squirrel kept taking the balls.  It was fun watching the guy chase this squirrel to get the ball back.

2016 July Alberta 4

This park is in Calgary.  It's like our Williamsburg, VA, but Canada's version.  Below is some really nicely restored cars worth quite a bit of money.

Our tour guide for Heritage Park.  Dressed in late 1800 period dress. 

Demonstrating an early newspaper press.

RMCP below doing a skit chasing the bad guy.

This is a summer camp group of kids.  They dress them in period dress, teach them how to feed chickens, milk cows, and other farm chores.

Fur trader below, showing us several pelts.  Of course we had to stop at the bakery and get some fresh baked bread on the way out of Heritage Park.  It was a fun day.

2016 July Alberta 3

It was the wettest Stampede they had had in years.  Mud was thick in the stadium.

First bare back rider out of the chute fell and the horse stepped on his head.  He's a young amateur trying to get his start.  Last we heard he was in stable condition.

Lady below is a 57 year old grandmother from Texas that won the barrel racing.  The whole stadium was cheering loudly for her.

Each of these five competitions, bare-back bronc riding. saddle bronc riding, bull riding, steer wrestling, and calf roping paid out $100,000 to the winners.

They final night, they had the chuck wagon races.  Very exciting to watch.  Again a very muddy track.  And again the winner received $100,000.

The evening ended with a fabulous Las Vegas type of show.  They call the group who performed "Young Canadians."  These kids from all over Canada train a whole year for this one show.