The Big Slide

Of course we’re now at Banff National Park. But as they say, getting there is half the fun.

Back in December 2004 - long before this blog - Amy, Greg and Ari toured New Zealand in a campervan for nearly a month. That was what got us hooked on traveling by motorhome. In Queenstown, we went on the Skyline Luge, a wheeled cart that you ride on a paved track down the side of a mountain.

Ari was just a toddler at the time, so we simply referred to the luge as The Big Slide. When we asked Ari if he liked The Big Slide, he replied “Wheee!”. When we returned, we learned that there is another Skyline Luge at the Olympic Park in Calgary. We’ve been waiting all these years to try the one in Calgary. Better yet, it was on the way to Banff. So of course we rode it as soon as it opened this morning! The Olympic Park has the ski structures used during the Olympics. The ski jump ramp really scared Amy, just looking at it. We did the max Luge package with 4 rides. It was just as much fun as we remembered.

Across the freeway from the Luge is the Calgary Farmers’ Market. Had we known about it beforehand, we would not have bought so much at the grocery store yesterday. Nevertheless, we got some local bison sausages and BC cherries. And lunch, which was delicious.

With full bellies and a full refrigerator, we drove the last hour to our campground in Banff. Along the way, we listened to Guy from the GuideAlong app. He talked about the wildlife corridors that were built to allow predators like grizzlies and wolves to cross the highway safety. Thanks to the research done here, a similar wildlife corridor was built near us at Snoqualmie Pass. We also found out that the growing season in the Canadian Rockies is so short that pine trees grow very slowly but live up to 200 years. We saw some trees that were planted along the side of the road in the 1990s; today, they are merely the height of a person.

We’re staying at Protection Mountain, a smaller campground roughly halfway between Banff and Lake Louise. This campground is more remote than most and is off the smaller road instead of the main highway. Just before we reached the campground, we saw cars stopped on the shoulder. That means one thing in a National Park: wildlife! Sure enough, we saw a small group of elk eating leaves. Greg got out his telephoto lens and got some great photos. We were a bit annoyed by how close the people were getting to the elk, but they were too busy eating to be bothered by the crowd.

After we settled into the campsite, it was late enough to visit Johnston Canyon after the peak crowds. Although we only had the time and energy to visit the lower waterfalls, it was completely worthwhile. Especially since we were less active today. Even though we arrived well past the peak midday crowds, it was still crowded enough that it took a half hour to get into the viewing area at the falls. The wait was worth it; we were so close to the waterfall that we got wet. Amy smartly suggested that Greg needed to put his good camera away before our turn, so that the camera would not get damaged by the water spray. We already have one too many broken camera components on this trip.

Finally, we returned to our campground for dinner. Just before we arrived, we saw our group of elk one more time. They’re so close that perhaps they’ll wander around our campsite.