Invasion of the grizzly and bighorn sheep as we were leaving Jasper, headed for Banff:
It studied us reeeeeeeeeaaaaaaally, really carefully.
Deigning to release us from its intense stare
And then we were back in Banff. Whoo!
Part 2 of the day in which we saw all the animals.
On our way down from Maligne Lake, we decided to stop at Medicine Lake.
It was just around this time when a busload of people stopped by to ask us if we were taking shots of the bear.
“Bear?” I asked.
See if you can spot it in the far right here, before I’d been aware of it:
And then the bear turns up.
Oh wait, you thought it was just one bear? Nah, it was a whole bear family. Bear families turned out to be all the rage that day.
Oh hey, guess what was at that same lake?
This, my friends, was the moment when I finally felt justified in that trip. The whole time we kept seeing signs alerting us of caribou crossings, but naught a single one. It was like a hoax. And then he showed up, and all was right with the world.
Aaaaaaand pretty soon it was a day filled with really cool sights and other wild animals. I should point out I didn’t manage to take pics of the majority that we saw, which should tell you how many they were.
Again, Corene with her animal soundtrack
Guy sittin’ and takin’ pics. Because he can.
I’d like to think Corene deliberately picked the soundtrack in anticipation of every animal we spotted. Like before, and like so:
Please do not get out of your car for a bear. Please especially do not get out of your car for a mama bear and cubs.
And then we saw our first bear. Up in a tree. In the rain. It was wet.
We carried on to Maligne Lake.
And then a whole slew of bears from thereon out.
Spot the mama bear and cubs.
So many cubs.
Corene somehow always knows to play the most appropriate soundtrack for each wild animal we spot.
This is merely part 1 of the day in which we saw allllllllll the wild animals. Part 2 coming up. You’ll see further proof of Corene’s animal soundtrack sense.
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.
Horse pics coming up! From now on I’m demanding a horse ride on every trip. Ho Silver! Silver, you ho.
Re: movie summary — those were the exact words she used. Note to self and to everyone in the world: get Miss Corene to narrate movies to you. Especially the bad ones. She ends up making you really, really want to watch them. Hey, she’s got me now interested in This Means War after all.
I have no excuse.
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.
