Sunday 6th July Jasper We were up early today and joined our optional excursion to Maligne Lake and Spirit Island. Our first stop was Medicine Lake and igt is approximately 7 km long and is a relatively shallow lake. The lake is part of the Maligne Valley watershed which is mainly glacial fed. Then onto Maligne Lake which is surrounded by ice capped mountains and is also glacial fed. Our boat tour went for about 90 minutes and a guide spoke part of th...

Saturday 5th July Banff National Park - Lake Louise-Columbia Icefield- Jasper National Park We left at 6.30am this morning heading to Lake Louise. We passed Castle mountain and then arrived at the Lake. It was a cloudy day but the Lake and its turquoise waters were a perfect natural mirror that reflected the mountains and glaciers. The hanging glaciers over Mount Victoria were spectacular and dominated our vi...

Friday 4th July Banff We were up at 8.15 and drove to the Alpine Helicopters for the Mount Assiniboine Glacier Helicopter tour. On our way we passed three bears crossing the road. They had tracker devices around their necks so the rangers can trace their movements, make sure they don't come into town. The bus driver told us that a "fed bear" is a "dead bear". Our helicopter adventure began and we flew past the Three Sisters Peaks and entered the Spray Va...

Thursday 3rd July Kelowna to Banff It's Petes' birthday today. Sharon had the coach sing Happy Birthday and presented him with a birthday boy broach which he wore all day. We travelled north through the Okanagan Valley, famous for its peaches and vineyards. We stopped at Craigellachie, Eagles Pass where the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway and driven in by Sir Donald Smith in 1885. We stopped at Revelstoke for lunch and had a picnic lunch on t...