Our next trip is across Western Canada.
Alberta and British Columbia.
I am, as usual, drawn away from the well-publicized and massively visited places, so I planned our itinerary so that I could spend maximum time in beautiful and little-known places, away from the crowds.
Marble Canyon. Kootenay National Park. British Columbia.
Arrived in Calgary late at night. Took the car, got to the lodging place.
Bad news – we got an email from Bookings in the morning, that the owner of the motel booked for the next 2 nights in Radium Hot Springs had cancelled our reservation. The time and desire to deal with it all was not right now, it would have killed half a day, so we decided to go as planned, and already on the spot to see what’s what.
In the morning we went to the super – we bought groceries.
Then we had a plan – shopping in Canmore.
On the way we stop for a short snack. Our encounter with the first representative of the local wildlife. Groundhog.
In Canmore we go to Canadian Tires – get a can of bear spray, a can of burner gas, and a roll of chicken wire. You’ll find out what the latter is and why we need it later.
And what cars in Alberta! You can’t drive the others here in the snow and ice.
Entering Banff National Park – buy an annual pass for a group or family of up to 7 people (traveling in one car).
There are five of us – and we are going to visit and repeatedly visit many different national parks, so the pass will pay for itself more than once.
On the Banff-Jasper road cars go in a continuous stream in both directions, there are no parking spaces for a long time now – and on the approaches to especially famous places cars stand on the roadside for a couple of kilometers.
After calculating this option ahead of time, we stop where there are almost no cars. A short trail to stretch out after the flights is Silverton Falls. (Silverton Falls.) Taking advantage of the last warm days, someone is canyoning here.
We stopped for lunch before leaving Route 1A for Route 93.
And now we turn west into Kootenay National Park.
Rocky mountains. On the left is Stanley Glacier.
The first stop in Kootenay National Park is Marble Canyon.
Marble Canyon is the canyon of Tokumm Creek just above its confluence with the Vermilion River.
Bright turquoise water.
Steep marble walls.
The higher you climb, the narrower and deeper the canyon becomes.
The burned trees are remnants of the huge forest fire that raged here for 40 days in 2003.
A waterfall of several steps curves at bizarre angles – so you can only see it in its entirety in winter when the water freezes by approaching it from below.