Alaska -- Day 17

Lions and tigers and bears, oh yeah! Well, not really. But we did see deer and elk and bear and moose Saturday when we drove up the Bow Parkway from Banff to Castle Junction, Canada #1 to Lake Louise, then on to Yoho National Park just over the line into British Columbia. We saw lots of elk.



We came to a small bear jam (three other cars) just as this black bear decided to take off. Bear's are really hard to photograph.



Canadians take seriously the need to protect wildlife. We drove under three of the wildlife bridges on Highway 1.



I loved the look of the grove of aspen next to the Bow River.



And, again, the mountain scenery was beautiful.





One of the most interesting sights of the day was the overlook on the Spiral Tunnels in Yoho NP. The Canadian Pacific RR has been on strike for over a week, but they returned to work Saturday and there were lots of trains on the rails. From where we were standing, we could see the front of the train



then it went through a tunnel and doubled back on itself



and if you look very carefully at this photo, you will see it on three different levels, at the very bottom of the photo, in the middle and near the top. Yes, that is all one train.



Next we looked at Natural Bridge



and other rocks in the rushing Kicking Ass River.



We took a beautiful hike around Emerald Lake.







When we arrived, the parking lot at the lake was almost empty. Look at it when we finished our hike. There are lots of tourists out here.



Next it was time for lunch. We returned to Lake Louise, where we bought two sandwiches, two bags of chips and one bottle of diet Coke--for $30--at the Chateau Deli! Then we walked down to the lake. When we were here eight years ago, we saw beautiful reflections there, like we saw earlier at Emerald Lake. But today, it still has a lot of ice.