Barry and I agreed it was not worth driving to Lake Maligne early this rainy morning. We slept in for a “normal” travel day. Today we headed back down the Icefields Parkway to Banff.
Shortly after leaving Jasper—I got a bear Jackpot! it was a mama bear and her two young cubs in a big area parallel to the parkway with a decent shoulder.
The cubs were so cute to watch! They romped around like two little puppies! Even climbing a tree…
Turn your sound down or off to avoid a jarring loud car horn from an irritated driver going by. In his defense there was a car that had NOT pulled completely off the highway. Another sounds for extended seconds in the second video below.
What an incredible, unexpected start to our day! This “bear jackpot” totally made my day!!
Since we took two days to stop at the major viewpoints as we drove north to Jasper, we didn’t expect to make any significant stops today. We were just going to enjoy the views as we drove south. Wrong!
We didn’t stop at Goats & Glaciers, but just after that viewpoint pullout, we got this…
Do you see a mountain goat??
Maybe this cropped version will help:
Great natural camouflage!
Still hard to spot–but there is a baby, too!!
Video clip:
We thought this parking lot was for Sunwapta Falls. We got parked, but this wasn’t it. We needed to go to the next street, turn right and go about a half mile or so.
Sunwapta Falls – We got a great parking spot, and made the short hike to the Sunwapta Upper Falls that was only 0.1 km from parking lot. Breathtaking!!
We decided to go ahead and hike the additional 1.3 Km (one way) to the lower falls. (It was all downhill to the falls and all uphill on the way back, but it was NOT super steep to us.) OMG…This was incredible!! SO worth it–nice surprise!!!
Pretty flowers along the way.
Cool how these trees fell criss-crossing each other…
River flowing to the Lower Sunwapta Falls…
Back to Sadie.
Icefield Centre from the north!
Icefields glass overlook – paid tour groups ONLY
To drive the miles of Icefields Parkway and not see dead animals along the road was pretty amazing. The animal fencing and the wildlife overpasses are the reason. I love these genius overpasses that allow animals to cross according to their natural instincts, but in a manner that keeps them out of highway traffic danger. These also keep the people safer from accidents that typically occur when larger wildlife unexpectedly are suddenly in your driving lane!
Approaching Banff:
We made it to our destination in Banff for two nights at Tunnel Mountain Village II Campground, which is surrounded by stunning views of the Canadian Rockies. This is the start of the long 4-day holiday weekend for Canada Day, so the campground will be full.
Behind Sadie is the paved path to the restrooms, but not the shower house. So you would think it would be a no brainer for people to go down that path, but it was amazing how many people crossed through our site–even between the picnic table and Sadie! We finally set out our single lounge chair and a cone. It helped deter some. We are shocked at how many people out in the camping/RV world have no knowledge of campsite etiquette, or just lack respect for the personal bubble of a person’s campsite whether you are outside or inside.