Days 5-11: Glacier and Banff National Parks

Greetings from Okotoks, Alberta!

Over the past week, my friend Elizabeth has been on the road with me as we visited Glacier National Park in Montana and crossed into Canada to visit Banff.

Elizabeth took the train from Boston to West Glacier last weekend and flew home from Calgary yesterday, planning the trip in less than a week. So much fun to have her company!

Let's start with Glacier National Park photos:

Next up is Logan Pass, elevation 6,646 feet, along the Continental Divide. You reach Logan Pass by driving up, up, up the Going-to-the-Sun Road. The drive hugs the mountainside with waterfalls dousing you along the way, at least in July. By our trip in September, the creeks were trickling. This drive would remind you Californians of Highway 1.

The historic Lake McDonald Lodge, with one of Glacier's refurbished 1930s Ford tour buses parked in front. The bright orange-red of the tour buses is intended to mimic the local berries.

By Banff, Elizabeth and I were becoming cavalier about the gorgeous scenery and starting to realize our memory drives were getting filled with nearly identical mountain shots. That said, I still wish I'd taken more. Here's my one picture of Lake Louise, where we had stiff cocktails at the lakeside Fairmont:

Last but not least - animals! First, an implacable snacking mountain goat near Logan Pass. He did not allow many aggressive European photographers to interrupt his snack.

Second, a ballsy elk approached the campsite next door to ours in Banff. After grazing within three feet of the neighbors' trailer for about fifteen minutes, he moved back into the wilderness. Given that a grizzly had been spotted in the campground earlier that day, the several hundred pound elk seemed cuddly by comparison.

Highlights not pictured:

1. Sitting in the outdoor Radium Hot Springs on a rainy evening, watching bighorn sheep play on a rocky hillside.

2. Nightly campfires with s'mores. Roaring fires courtesy of our former camp counselor, Elizabeth.

3. Large bruise and gash outside my right eye, thanks to a run-in with the RV's drivers side mirror. (Long story, and no one ever accused me of gracefulness.) I can no longer laugh ironically at peopleofwalmart.com - look for me to be posted there next week, with greasy hair and a snarling "who moved my cart?" face.