Category Archives: National Park

Banff

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The next stop after Radium Hot Springs was Banff.  Only 85 miles or 135 kilometers since we were in Canada.  A nice short drive but very spectacular.  We were last here in 2004 (14 years) and a lot has changed.  We were able to camp in the full hookup campground at Tunnel Mountain:

We were able to show the Chen’s some old spots we went to and some new ones also!  Bow Falls and the Cave and Basin Historical site:

The above shot was in one of the displays promoting Canadian National Parks.  Looks like an Airstream to me!

One day we took a drive up to Lake Louise, a requirement for anyone in the area as the parking lot bore out.  The lot said full but we drove around and found one but it might have been illegal parking.  No ticket in the end!  Lake Louise is amazing but you cannot go into the hotel there anymore unless you are a guest (staying or eating I guess).  We could not even drive to the Moraine Lake parking as they close the road when it is full.  We have to suffice with Lake Louise:

Another day we stayed around the Banff area and drove by Two Jack Lake and Lake Minnewanka.  We also saw some wildlife, mangy and otherwise, you guess which.

I had seen photographs of the Banff valley from an elevated position and I wanted to go there.  There was one possibility, the Mt Norquay ski area.  Actually, there is a viewpoint before you get there and it was the place.  The parks in Canada have a ‘red chair’ promotion going where they place two Adirondack (ironic) chairs in scenic locations and encourage people to find them and sit in them.  There was one here:

One of the days we decided to take a hike.   It had to meet everyone’s criteria.  The kids wanted long and strenuous but we like short an easy.  A compromise was had with the Johnston Canyon hike.  It was listed as not too long and a moderate hike.  They lie!!  We must have a different definition of moderate.  We did the hike but it kicked our butts!  There were numerous waterfalls all along the river along with some ingenious ways to construct the trail:

Our time in Banff was very enjoyable.  The weather was great for the most part.  It was interesting to see the changes.  Banff is still the touristy town it was 14 years ago, just a bit bigger and busier.  But it was time to move on.

Grand Canyon

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It was almost the same situation as last July.  Then we were in NE Pennsylvania and Roxie wondered how far it was to Niagara Falls.  The philosophy was, since we were so close we might as well go!

That was how it was leaving Prescott.  We were so close to the Grand Canyon we might as well go!

The last time we were at the Grand Canyon was in 1999.  We had our two kids with us (10 and 16) and our SOB (24′ Nomad).  We had some big problems with our door latch on the trailer.  One morning Roxie and I woke up with the front door wide open!  We had another time where we could not get INTO the trailer.  Our son had to enter through the emergency window to open the door.  We also had refrigerator problems and found our ice cream melted!

This time, however, we could not get a spot around the south rim.  We stayed at a KOA in Williams:

This KOA reminded me a lot of the one my parent’s owned in Redding.  I remembered working there, showing campers their spot with the golf cart.  Also, the owners of this KOA were part of the family that my parents knew from Chula Vista.

The first day we were there we drove up to the canyon.  The Grand Canyon is misnamed in my opinion but what other superlative would you use?  Fantastic Canyon, Tremendous Canyon, Huge Canyon?  The weather turned out to be very nice and we did a bit of walking and took some shuttles.  We also took some photos:

One thing that I found walking around was this:

It appears that years ago they ran a phone line across the canyon.  You can see one of the poles just a bit down the canyon.

The next day we took the train up to the canyon.  It was an experience that we thought we would do this time.  The trip up was enjoyable but they sure do go slow!  We were able to walk a different part of the canyon.  We even toyed with the idea of coming up the third day and walking down the canyon a bit on this trail:

We took the slow train back and got in the kid’s car with a very talkative train employee which made it seem even slower.

The first day we also researched some NFS locations to boondock for free that were very close to the park.  We thought that would be a good place to stay for the third day.  However, Roxie fell each day that we were there so she did not feel up to walking around much more.  She was having one of her bad days…

Off to the next stop, trying to avoid the heat!