Day 7: The Crossing to Banff, Alberta

The Crossing to Banff, Alberta - 120 miles

Today was a light riding day, with the majority of it spent riding thru the Icefields Parkway, which was absolutely spectacular ! 

The photos posted do not do this area justice. None of the photos are filtered - the colors are unnaturally natural.

We headed out from the Crossing around 10am, and immediately were awed with the spectacle of lakes at elevation and ancient glaciers.

Kate taking it all in....

Alice soaking it all in....

Unfortunately, a large wildfire has destroyed the town of Jasper and large parts of the park. Hoping the town rebuilds and comes back even stronger !

Kate

Alice

I need to find a way to photo shop the GoPro out of these selfies...

Onward to Lake Louise. To be honest, this place is overrun with traffic, tourists, and a pain in the rear end to get in to. All of the parking lots were full and they were turning people away. The only reason we got in was because they had a motorcycle only parking area.

Also - $35 Canadian if you spend 5 minutes or 24 hours parked there.

See the kayakers below ? Provides some perspective....

Kate and I showing off our "club" shirts (which is utterly hysterical when you realize it is only 2 of us....)

Look at this very cool wildlife crossing bridge built over Hwy 1 !

Leaving Lake Louise, we headed out on the scenic Hwy 1A (aka the Bow Valley Parkway) towards Banff - this route was just perfect for riding and just when we thought the views couldn't get better......they did !

This is the Bow River.....the river water color is very light, possibly from the silt from the surrounding rocks. Stunning.  

Kate - taking in the beauty

Alice doing the same

One last pic from the Bow Valley Parkway

On our way to Banff we also did a scenic rode along Lake Minnewanka; see the video below for an interesting wildlife sighting of young long horn sheep (screen shot here as well):

Below is a bit of history about the expedition that found this area:

We cruised into our lodgings for 2 days (the Buffalo Mountain Resort) around 3. Our room wasn't ready yet, so what to do ?!? Well - we passed a good time at the restaurant with some lunch and a few local beers:

Kate enjoying her lunch/beer looking out at the mountain view from our lunch spot

Our room is AWESOME !!

View from our balcony:

We got a bottle of wine to enjoy on the balcony - does not suck to be us this evening ! 2018 Hartford Zin (Russian River Valley):

Happy Happy campers (...well....really "hotelers"); another amazing day riding in the books, and safe at our destination.

Videos !

This one is kinda long (2 mins), but is 3 clips of the Icefields Parkway. If you are EVER within 100 miles (or 160 km) of this place it is a MUST SEE:

Bow Valley:

Lake Minnewonka:

Our route for the day - with a close up of the loop we did on our way into Banff:

We have an off/non riding day tomorrow where we will spend time hanging out in the town of Banff.

Some out takes from the last few days....

1) The amount of foul language that only we can hear in our helmets would make a sailor blush. It's mostly directed at idiotic drives who are looking at their cell phones and doing stupid sh*t other than driving

2) As with every trip thus far, I will inevitably miss a turn and force a scary/tight u-turn on a busy street. Kate is gracious about these, but refers to them as "W" turns cuz it take multiple shots to get out of these tight spaces

3) Given that we have limited packing space, we have to do in room hand washing, which includes Kate putting stuff on lamp shades to dry. And I lose sleep thinking Kate's underwear is going to cause a hotel fire.

4) Every morning, we take turns having "2 minutes" in the bathroom alone where the other person disappears. This is critical to regularity.