To Lake Louise and Canmore

Driving down the highway, you see these animal overpasses to allow to animals safe passage to the other side. It has really cut down the road kill since this was started. The next picture is the the electrified Bear fence.
This is the new bridge over the Kicking Horse river.
Here's the moose profile with Attention written on it. Didn't see any!

Off we went into the Kootenay Rocky region. What a beautiful but challenging road along the Kicking Horse Pass. There’s lots of construction as they are twinning the road but, hold your breath, at times the side of the road is 6” from the coach and it’s a 300’ sheer drop to the winding river and train tracks below. there are many signs saying 'Attention' on the figure of a Moose. We went over the brand new bridge and admire the milky blue green water. There was a Spiral Tunnels Viewpoint at the Kicking Horse Pass. You can see the entry and exit portals of an engineering marvel. These tunnels reduced the grade of 4.5%, the highest in North America, to 2.2 % by making 3 quarter circles driven into the valley walls. When you inmagine the labour for this feat, it is awe inspiring.

Into Alberta we go. Hudson Bay started fur trading posts in 1670, the first European arrived in 1754, the Canadian Pacific Railway arrives in Calgary in 1883, it became a province in 1905, oil was discovered in 1914 and the Great Canadian Oil Sands started production in Fort McMurray in 1967.

We had an interesting stop at Lake Louise, one of my ‘must sees’. Think we’ll be discussing this further. The road advisory said no bigger rigs so we went left to a campground and were advised to go back to the Husky for day parking. We went around the campground to return to the road and a gate was closed across the road. Well, unhook the car beside the wired bear fence, I kept looking over my shoulder! and back up to turn around, narrowly missing the soft dirt sides and start again. We went through 4 parking lots in the car and no available parking. We finally parked off road in the bus parking lot and walked down to Lake Louise which is beautiful, one of the most photographed lakes in the world. It is an incredibly beautifully aqua lake framed in front of the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise Hotel, with snow capped mountains and the Victoria Glacier in front of it. It is named for Queen Victoria’s daughter Princess Louise Caroline Alberta.Hooked up again and away we went.

We turned off to Banff where the hot springs were discovered by 3 railway workers in 1883. There were so many disputes at the time over ownership; the Canadian Government declared it National Park 2 years later, the beginning of Canada's National Park System. We weren’t able to park due to total congestion so off to Canmore. The campground wouldn’t accept 40 footers so we crossed the highway and are parked in a construction turn around and happily had a beverage surrounded by the Rockies. Beautiful weather and another beautiful day.