Banff - Day 3

On our last day in Banff we scheduled ourselves on 2 tours. A morning tour called Discover Banff and it's Wildlife and in the afternoon we did a Lake Louise and Lake Moraine tour. I would highly highly recommend these tours if you ever get to Banff. They were amazingly informative and we got to see so much. They were also cost effective for everything you got to see and experience.
After indulging in a grand breakfast yet again, we went outside to meet our bus at 8:45 AM.
We got on the bus and after picking up a few more folks, we made our first stop at the Bow Falls. This was a beautiful place and I must say, the weather was perfect for basking in nature! We had a few minutes to look around and then we went to our next stop.Our next stop was the cave and basin. Back in the day when the Canada Pacific Railroad was busy building railroads all over Canada, 2 young men who were employed by the CPO had some spare time. They noticed a tree that looked like it was growing out of a hole in the ground and so curious, they climbed down the tree to see what was there. There, they were surprised to discover some natural hot springs. They wanted a claim on these hot springs, thinking it would make them a lot of money. While they did get a cut, they were not allowed to lay claim to this find completely.This place is also where they discovered a rare snail that only lives there in the hot springs and is now a threatened species. They had a viewing area for these snails and we had a hard time finding them until we learned that the snail is not large as I thought it was, it was about the size of your pinkie nail. I immediately found a few but it really wasn't that exciting to see this tiny snail. Apparently, it will upset the delicate ecological balance if this snail disappears, and there fore, you are not allowed to put your hand int the hot springs because the chemicals in human flesh could kill these precious snails.After this exciting stop, we went off to a place called Surprise Corner. I think it is called that because if you are driving up this winding mountain road, you may be surprised to find people crossing the street on this corner. It offered some great views of Sulphur Mountain and also our hotel. I was also able to get a picture of the building on top of Sulphur Mountain that we had visited by riding up the Gondola the day before.After the Surprise view, we were off to the Hoodoo trail. Hoodoos are tall thin spires of rock that protrude from the bottom of arid basins and badlands. They are composed of soft sedimentary rock and are topped by a piece of harder, less easily-eroded stone that protects the column from the elements. I must say, the hoodoos here were not the impressive but the other views we got on this trail were, so it was very nice to stop there and take it all in.Next, we drove through the National Park in Banff to try and spot some wildlife. I was hoping to spot a moose, since a moose spotting had eluded me at Yellowstone many years ago on a family vacation. Alas, we did not see a moose, but we saw elk and horned sheep (complete with babies). The park was gorgeous and on our way back from this 4 hour tour, we stopped at the site of the first mining town in Banff. All that was left there were some railway cars and apparently some steps to an old church (but I didn't see those).Since we were booked on 2 tours with the same company that day, they bought us lunch at The Old Spaghetti Factory. This was in the little town of Banff and the food was pretty good. It was nice to have a little break and enjoy a good meal together. We only had an hour however and then had to head back to meet our second tour bus.
Our second tour took us to Lake Louise first. Lake Louise was about an hour or so away from Banff and the drive there was so beautiful. I loved Lake Louise, it was picturesque and gorgeous. We took some time to walk around and found out that Lake Louise was named for Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria. The big glacier mountain behind us in the first picture is Victoria Glacier and the lake is of course a glacial lake. They had some cute stairs that allowed us to put our feet in the water. It was cold and if you stayed in too long you could start to feel the numbness come on in your lower extremities.We then boarded the bus and went to Lake Moraine. Lake Moraine had even bluer water than Louise and was breathtaking. We climbed up the rock pile that nature put beside the lake to get a better view. The lake is in the valley of the ten peaks and is also glacial fed. According to Wikipedia (love it) the view from the top of the Rockpile trail (which we climbed) is the most photographed spot in Canada.We boarded the bus again and were greeted by our tour guide with a maple cookie and water. This seemed to be a tradition on these tours as we had gotten a maple cookie and water on the first tour as well. These cookies are pretty good, maple creams as they are called and show off Canada's love for their maple syrup. We enjoyed them and had to have a picture of us eating them. Also, we saw a black bear cub as we were leaving Moraine. He was super cute but we weren't fast enough to get a picture.After a long day of tourism, we scheduled a dinner with our new friends The Boyce's from Boston, at a German restaurant on the hotel property called the Waldhaus. I had wanted to eat there because there i a restaurant in Wurzurg, in Germany, that I eat at several times each time I visit called the Waldhaus and it is also the spot that Ute had her wedding reception. The food we ate at this restaurant was delicious and the company was fun. All in all, our last day in Banff was amazing.