Jasper, on the whole, is a Stephen King novel of a town stuck in the 1970s.
I would like to title this as “The Day They Never Came Back.”
Oh hey, have some hastily-taken pics of elks:
Hiding his geek collar out of shame
And as a bonus for sticking with me this long, here’s Miss Corene in a hat:
We were determined to ride on horses and so we found some! And you thought we were merely making friendly conversation with Australians.
Miss Corene psyching herself up for the challenge
“Please be good to me, horse,” said she. Unfortunately, that was not the horse she ended up riding.
This is the horse she ended up riding! Aw, look at that beam. His name is Jackpine.
And then the reality of the situation struck her:
But she recovered swiftly. “I can do this,” thinks Miss Corene. “I can do this.”
My horse Sox was a sweetie. Jackpine, we later found, was opinionated. Mostly on the subject of things to eat right here and now. Here they are communing pre-ride:
The horse that kid behind me is sitting on? His name is Thor.
And off we go!
We encountered three elks during our ride. One of them had a collar, and our guides advised us to be careful with the collared ones as “they get wary.” No kidding. If someone shot you down with tranquilizer darts, put a geek collar on you so that all the other elks made fun of you, and continued to stalk you every so often in order to note your progress, you’d get a little paranoid yourself.
During the final part of the ride, Jackpine decided he’d had enough of riding second to Sox and me. After a brief hissy-fit, he took first place and was content. I think we should’ve guessed the pecking order when, while still in the paddock, Sox automatically lined up behind Jackpine. And Jackpine was only drinking water at the time.
They had Ice Explorer vehicles so that you could traverse the fields of ice. We have seen too many survival shows and movies to know that getting on one could not possibly end well.
And then we saw sheep! We kept calling them goats but the park authorities are so appreciative when you properly identify them as sheep.
‘Twas the first of many, many wild animal sightings on this trip. Many.
Yo.
Not included here because I didn’t manage to snap in time: mama & tiny baby sheep just next to us. So very cute, so very close. Baaaaa.
The majority of this weekend has been spent with ze birdies either cuddled in the crook of my shoulder or napping on my lap. Aw, I missed you too, babies.
One of the best parts is that there are so many random paths to follow.
(Just make sure you don’t end up hiking 5 hours through the valley of beautiful destruction, as occurred during the last time we went to Banff.)
I may have sung a few The Sound of Music tunes during our stay.
Aaaaand last of our road trip pics. I have gained a whole new appreciation and respect for national and provincial parks. Definitely need to return to Banff one day.
We swung around to pick Pekoe up again, then drove back to BC. Stay tuned for bonus goat farm vid near the end!
Emerald Lake
Beach stopover 10km from Vernon to feed Pekoe
Then we had to stop for a surprise goat farm. Always stop for goat farms. Vid of this near the end below:
We went to Johnston Canyon and then to Lake Louise. The Teahouse is too far away.
That dark hollow on the right is a tunnel where we went to get a close-up view of the waterfall
Glacier lake at Lake Louise
Chateau Lake Louise suddenly looks so far away in our hike
Of course, this being Canada, there’s always going to be an inukshuk
You can actually watch the glacier water flowing from the mountain all the way to the lake
Along the long, steady climb to get to the Plain of Six Glaciers Teahouse. Lud, it was a long climb. Pretty, though.
Plain of Six Glaciers Teahouse
This is the view outside the Plain of Six Glaciers Teahouse, where we collapsed and laid down on a bench to recover.
Arlo, resident dog at the Plain of Six Glaciers Teahouse. At one point, he stuck his entire face into her pocket in his search for treats.
This is the view from our table where we were having our afternoon tea. We spent most of our time just gazing.
Alternatively, the city wants you to know you’re going down.
Take that, 6 deg C weather
Drive, drive, drive to Banff after a quick stop to doggie boarding and another stop at Canmore.
The next morning, we seek out canoes!
That blue is where the canoe rental place awaits
I’m not even kidding how gorgeous this place is.
She’s probably saying, “Look, a bear.” Or, “Keep paddling, wench, or I’ll bap ye o’er the head.”
Heading into shallow water
![Solstice morning](/cafe/pics/solsticemorning.jpg")