The area surrounding Banff National Park is also home to 3 other parks. Jasper is to the north. Kootenany to the south. And to the west, along our route that day, was Yoho National Park.
Even with the late night the evening before, we were up early and headed out of the Lake Louise area. Our first stop in Yoho was at a vista where you could view a couple of the mountain tunnels associated with the Spiral Train Tunnels. Instead of having the tracks slope straight down a steep grade or building huge bridges, they decided to make a series of huge sweeping spirals. And most of these spirals are actually in long tunnels through the mountains. Not much to see from the road, but a pretty sweet marvel of a design…
The next stop was at a Natural Bridge that a river had cut out of the surrounding rock…
Further west, we turned onto a crazy switchback filled road up to Takakkaw Falls. At one point we actually had to do a three point turn because one of the switches was so quick and narrow! There had been a sign at the bottom saying that only vehicles less than 7 meters where allowed up the road. But, obviously, we had no clue how long that was… Oh well, we made it. And the waterfall was pretty sweet…
Our sightseeing mainly completed, we began the long trek to Vancouver. Along the way we passed a bunch of interesting towns. One, in particular, boasted that it was the houseboat capitol of the world…
It was also on this drive that we realized how high of an elevation we had been living in for the past few weeks. There was one point along the drive where we drove downhill for almost two hours without the road leveling off at all… Better than going up!!
Eventually we hit flat land and it was only a little ways further to Vancouver. We found a Walmart that was within a couple blocks of a commuter train station! I love it when a plan comes together.
Tomorrow, Vancouver!!!
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