Banff National Park

July 7-9

Millions of conifers, powder blue streams, and emerald green lakes fill Banff National Park. Through the knowledge of Hugh Southee, one of our guides, we discovered that the different water colors are from the tiny granules of quartzite silt, and that water color—whether powder blue or emerald green—was determined by the swiftness of water movement. The slower the movement--> more green the water; the faster the movelemt--> the more powder blue. We also learned that the beauty of these mountains comes from their origins as sedimentary rocks turned metamorphic.

From glaciers, visible along road travel, to thundering canyons to emerald-green lakes to majestic mountains to lady slippers and orchids, the scenery was eye candy.

Can you believe that the park has overhead bridges for the animals to cross the road? Do the Canadians think of everything? In order to keep the animals from getting hit, fences line the the highway, and the bridges are a means for animals to cross from one side of the highway to the other.

At Lake Louise a young, third generation traveler (mother/daughter/granddaughter) within our group brought out her ukulele and played a melody echoing her voice through the beauty of the scene before us.