[Day 1 - Off to Radium Hot Springs] As I started out my trip, I kept taking pictures of just anything that caught my eye. Like these white cliffs

Not that I got a lot more discerning, but lots of things just struck me as worthy of a picture. Tough to imagine that the locals are likely jaded to such beauty.

Just a nice, windy river along the road to Radium Hot Springs

This is a panorama of the body of water that forms the headwaters of the Columbia river. Very big!

Up behind Radium, someone has gone to the trouble to carve larger than lifesize versions of the Stations of the Cross. Very impressive. I'm not sure I would have thought it'd get much traffic, but it did.

A good bit of work on someone's part.

And, as I said, quite a few people up there.

[Day 2 - On the way to Banff] Just stop at any random rest stop and wander to the water and see pretty things.

The milky green color is the first evidence I saw of the "rock flour" that washes off the mountains, in to the water and colors it. Some bodies of water get more or less than others.

What are you supposed to do? *Not* take pictures of the great scenery?

Numa Falls. Some guy in the shadow of the water.

Clouds over a nameless mountain.

Okay, maybe I could have taken fewer pictures of nameless mountains...

The Basin in Cave and Basin, the first Canadian national park. If I only had Smell-O-Vision, I could have shared the joy that was the strong sulphur smell.

The reflecting pool outside Cave and Basin.

Heading up the mountain on the gondola to take a look around.

Hey look! A mountain! What are the odds!

A view from the top down in to the Bow Valley.

Big Horn Sheep! How cool to see them up here!

Okay, maybe not all that rare...

A view down in to the valley where Banff resides.

A view up the trail to the high point.

From the high point, back down the trail and in to the valley again. Many a person carved their "Kilroy was here" in the wooden railings.

Fairmont/Banff Hot Springs. Very ostentatious. Not very interesting otherwise.

Falls behind the resort.

[Day 3 - Lake Moraine, Lake Louise]

Lake Moraine

From up above, at a view point. Note the nice green color.

More lake, without people in the shot.

Some guy gets in the shot.

Many a photographer has taken a picture of the canoes that you can rent, because they are colorful, in the foreground with mountains behind. It was overcast, so the lighting wasn't great.

Bubbles at Lake Moraine

Lake Louise, the view up to the Plain of the Six glaciers in the distance (about 5 miles)

The boathouse where you can rent canoes here.

A guy with a really big horn. You could hear it from one end of the lake to the other.

The view from about half way along the lake back towards the hotel.

Another view back. Don't want to get lost...

Last view from the end of the lake.

A guy was climbing this rock. Looked like a bit of fun.

The trail up in to the hills

The Plain of the Six Glaciers. My destination, assuming I don't die or get eaten by a bear first.

Hard to get used to the fact that they just leave glaciers lying around up here...

The trail back to civilization after I was about as far back as you can get without mountain climbing gear. And me with just my tennies. Darn.

Off the side of the trail I realized was more snow or glacier or *something* that was largely water.

Finally, back down to the water. Starting to drizzle and rain now.

On the way back, several cars had pulled over so I went to see what the fuss was about. Just some tranquilized or animatronic elk. But a *big* one! Just watched us placidly as we took pictures of it.

[Day 4 - Off to Peyto Lake, the Columbia Ice Fields and Jasper] It was just cool looking, okay?!

More with the glaciers. This one above Peyto lake. Back in 1890, it was all the way at the shore, but since it's pulled back a half mile or so.

A bit of the lake and some stuff above it.

Peyto Lake, but hard to get a picture without people in it.

Unless you climb way up above and try again.

A view of the peak above the lake. You could (and I did) take a trail up above the alpine line where the trees stopped.

Notice the swooping layers/lines from the lower portion to the upper. At some point in history (some 200 million years ago) those layers were all the same level and material. But, over time, the crust was pushed up more on the right than the left, resulting in the elevation of the right side being significantly more than the left. Cool, huh?

Columbia Ice Fields. Yes, a big glacier.

You can pay your bucks, ride these buses ...

Then transfer to another vehicle and go all the way up to the middle of the glacier field.

Should I do it?

Sure, why not.

Though it was pretty miserable up there. Rainy, nasty windy. The guide said the bad days are when the frozen precipitation bounces up off the glacier and in to your face. Now, *that's* not fun.

But this was warm enough for a stream to run.

It looked, for all the world, quite blue. But the guide said it was an illusion. A *blue* illusion...

Elk in the campground!

[Day 5 - Back home again] The road back to Coeur d'Alene (after 10+ hours).