Canada day 8: Banff, Bow river, Morant’s curve, Growfoot gletsjer, Bow lake, Peyto lake, Waterfowl lakes, Mistaya canyon, Columbia icefield, Valemount

Today we will leave Canmore to go to Valemount (Kirstens Chalet), via Banff and Jasper. We will stay two nights in Valemount. We will drive again via the 1a to get another chance to spot some wildlife. We were lucky we spotted abother bear.

I could not really get a nice photograph, but it appeared to be a grizzly, although it could have been a back bear again.

The 1a volgt follows the Bow river. At Morant’s curve (N51.399772, W116.128706) you have a good view on the river:

The 1a end just after the junction to road which leads to Lake Louise. We continue on the 1 /93. This one splits up not to far down the road and we continue on the 93, the Icefields parkway. We pass by the Growfoot gletsjer you can stop there at N51.663027, W116.438625 to take a picture:

Little bit further you come to Bow lake (you can park at the roadside at N51.673326, W116.449930):

A little bit further is Peyto lake (parking area N51.716554, W116.498412). There is a pth from the parking are to the viewing point, where you have a nice view of the lake:

Slightly further down the road we saw a sign that pointed to Waterfowl Lakes. So we turned off to have a look there. When we got out we saw a squirrel running over the hiking path (I got it rather nice photograph)

We ended up at a path to a brigde over a small creek which runs between the Waterfowl lakes.

In the distance we could see the two lakes:

After this we walked back to the car as time was running a bit short, we had to be in time at the “B&B” (which did not have any breakfast…). So we drove onward to Mistaya canyon (parking area N51.941139, W116.717456).
On the parking area there was a raven:

The canyon itself has a rather powerful rappid:

After a quick viewing we drove onward because time was really running short now. We did do a quick stop at the Columbia icefield (N52.219713, W117.227598) just to make a quick photgraph.

We did not have any time to go up to the glacier. There were some more things we could have done or seen in teh are, but alas no more time. The B&B is some way from the center of Valemount. Our room is very large and looks good. After we put our stuff inside we went to downtown Valemount to get something to eat. We decided to go to the Caribou grill. This was so so, the fish was a bit too “well done”…