OFF LINE ENTRY

Rampart Creek Campground

Banff National Park, Alberta

Friday, August 21, 2008, 7:45 pm Mountain Time

Clear and cool;  Temperature 56F

A beautiful day:  a little morning fog, followed by a warming sun, brilliant blue sky by afternoon, and wonderful displays of light on the freshly snow-dusted mountains as the clouds and fog cleared and the sun grew in strength.

We slept in until 8 am (it was a chilly 44 degrees outside and not much warmer in the camper), then listened to the Diane Reahm Show on the Sirius Satellite radio as we ate breakfast (it was the Friday news round-up and we heard for the first time that the number of houses John McCain owns, or remembers he owns, is now a political issue!).

After breakfast and a morning walk around the campground with Charley, we drove down the Icefields Parkway a few miles to a short walk into an interesting canyon.  A rushing mountain stream flowing out of Peyto Lake has cut a steep, narrow canyon of nearly perfectly round holes in the rock that contains it, and over the years the water level has now dropped well below the rocks.  So one is left to view these fascinating scultpted round rock formations with a roaring stream flowing well below them.  We’d never seen anything like it.

We then drove back up the Icefields Paarkway, past our campground, to the Columbia Icefields exhibit center.  The Clarks had elected to take the all-terrain motorbus tour out on the glacier, something we had done 30 years ago with our girls and decided not to repeat.  We toured the glacier exhibit, checked out the gift shop, and just in time for lunch, ran into the Clarks.  So we had lunch in the cafeteria, with a wonderful view of the icefields.

We then split up, they to take a hike, we to return to the campground for a short walkabout with Charley and a planning session for our next week’s travels.  We’re looking at a sidetrip and studying the possibilities.  More later....

Tomorrow in Jasper, we hope to get an Internet connection so we can post a number of pictures and comments.