We left Banff this morning and headed to Johnston Canyon and Falls. Another great wildlife nature overpass bridge.
As we arrived both parking lots said FULL. Crap. The ranger suggested coming back another day. Yeah, right! Luckily, he let us head into what was ParkLot 2 to see if we found anything. SCORE…there were actually two RV ONLY spots open!! We pulled forward which allowed another to park behind us. We thought maybe it would be another class B. LOL
Since the upper and lower falls were not long hikes we figured we could easily do both.
Lower falls – easy hike, but it was a 30-40 minute wait to get through the short, cave/arch to the full waterfall view.
The backup to go through the cave-like archway to the falls.
VIEW of the falls from the BRIDGE –getting closer. 🙂
We were lucky enough that our wait time yielded a beautiful rainbow!
Prepare to get wet!
The rock walkway was very slippery.
The powerful roar of the falls was impressive. So was the spray mist! I was soaked.
Upper falls – 3 miles (round trip).
This little guy seemed to want to pose. I think he wanted to know his “best side”. LOL
Almost there. This rock wall is so smooth
Starting out onto the viewing platform over the river.
“Full” View.
The upper falls was pretty, but I think we’ve been spoiled with the incredible Athabasca and Sunwapta Falls on the Icefields Parkway! Since this took quite a bit longer than we expected, we high-tailed it back to Sadie to get back on the road.
SURPRISE TREAT…
A BIG Black Bear!!!
Next stop: Fairmont Hot Springs!
We had considered Radium Hot Springs that is run by the Canadian National Park system, but it looked to be close to the highway. Who wants to relax looking at the highway? When we drove by, yep we saw the pool. I believe it was just one big pool. The price was about the same as the Fairmont Hot Springs since you don’t need a National Park Pass this summer- otherwise it is more than Fairmont. You will see why we selected Fairmont over Radium.
We arrived at the Fairmont Hot Springs Resort, parked and went to the pools.
It was $15 CDN for a Senior Single Entry. The setting was awesome.
There were three separated pool areas. The large L-shaped pool area on the left is for swimming and is warm, but cooler than the sitting thermal pool on the right. The far back right section is a deep water pool. All are mineral hot spring pools.
We started in the large swimming pool section.
Next we went to the thermal soaking pool. It borders the deep pool and the L-shaped swimming pool section.
We enjoyed alternating between the swimming pool and the thermal soaking pool for a couple hours.
We needed to call it a day here at the Hot Springs, and drive some more to our overnight destination.
I fixed dinner before leaving the parking lot. We ate and headed on down the road to WasaLake Campground. They had a mix of reserve sites and first come-first serve sites. Unfortunately, we just missed the last two of the first-come, first serve sites. BUT–a bit further down the road we scored a FREE overnight site at a Rest Area -RV Provencial Park. It even had a little lake (pond) view! Only about 5 small RVs can fit. This was perfect–and just as the sun was setting.
We could NOT have had today’s adventures if we had been in Vinny. It was a tight fit at the Hot Springs even in Sadie. And we wouldn’t have been able to pull off in time or far enough to be completely off the road to see the bear. We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Sadie (GrechRV)!!
Looks like you’re having a great trip. Safe travels and as always thanks for the blog that we have been missing lately. Jerry & Belinda
Yes, you have been busy traveling yourselves! The nice thing is that these blogs are here whenever you want to “catch-up”. LOL. It has been a glorious trip- one where we have hit some of the same places as you two. :). Safe travels for you as well. See you in Yuma!