Banff

After a night in "proper" isolation, we had booked a couple of nights in a campsite near Banff. The town was one of those "had to go and see" places and Martin and Inge had told us that the Whyte museum of the Rockies was a must see. There was an exhibition of First Nations art that was highly recommended.

So, we travelled happily down the highway to the Tunnel Mountain trailer court, enjoying views like this on the way:

with the odd bit of glacier and lake to admire as well:

Yes, it was pretty awe-inspiring really, luckily the road was pretty empty as you can see so the whole trip was very relaxed:

We checked in to the trailer court - a way bigger place than we'd seen before but still very private / secluded pitches with plenty of trees to screen you from other visitors. This was a "full service" spot, electrical hook up, mains water and waste disposal so we took advantage of all three. Mid-afternoon, we drove into town and found a parking spot near the train station - despite all the warnings of how few spots there are and how many visitors, it was fine. The usual thing of people not being prepared to walk any distance into town happens there too. 

True to form our first stop was for coffee and cake. We'd read about the Wild Flour bakery (see Weblink ) and tried hard to find it but Mr Google maps combined with the GPS on our phone got very confused. Luckily a local man helped although he said that he would not go there as the drip coffee in the supermarket at the end of the street was way cheaper. With our minds in flat white mode we ignored his advice but followed his pointed finger to the bakery. We were very glad that we did - another excellent carrot cake moment followed. 

As you can see, the town is pretty touristy:

and we wandered around spotting the locals (way fewer than tourists) and generally soaking up the atmosphere. As our native coffee guide had explained to us earlier, Banff seems pretty recession proof - Rockies visitors in the summer, ski folks in the winter.  The place certainly was busy enough for the "end of the tourist season" lull before the ski mob arrive. Would not want to be there in high summer. Our timing was good. There were still plenty of suicidal visitors who wanted to walk under the (rather large) wheels of the truck and cyclists who wanted to die as well. Driving through the town was not relaxing.

Back at the camp we had some chores to do:

The Airstream awning helped make a great washing line as you can see. We were careful not to put much weight on it though despite the rather rugged aluminium supports. #notourvanandverynew was at the front of our minds all the time! The Airstream made us instantly popular with other Airstream owners who came to chat. We always 'fessed up that we were not the owners, just rather fortunate folks who had borrowed it from some amazingly trusting (misguided?) people. Despite that, the other owners were still chatty and prepared to share their experiences. It felt a lot like the Nordhavn community in a way.

After a fortifying BBQ dinner we retired fairly early to be woken up by some interesting animal noises - Elk wandering around the campsite at night. Less scary than bears of course.

Our plan for the following day was to visit the museum that had been highly recommended. We are so glad that we did. Have a look at their website - Weblink.  There was an exhibition called "The ancestors are talking" of paintings by "The indigenous Seven" - a group of 7 first nation artists. You have to look at this Instagram link for a flavour of the artwork. Some of the styles like this from Norval Morriseau needed some explanation for our philistine brains:

but we were lucky enough to get an almost personal tour of the artwork by one of the staff, which really brought it to life. We learned a little about the history of the individual artists and were so impressed. Sadly the exhibition is now over so no point in you rushing to the museum. We also learned a lot about the history of the Rockies and how they were developed by the arrival of the railway. All in all, a great day. So good that we had to retire to the bakery once more for sustenance before a last wander around town:

and a chance to admire the surroundings on our way back to Tunnel Mountain and the waiting Airstream:

Such a different day to one spent in the middle of nowhere at Silverhorn Creek, but still massively enjoyable. The mix of scenery / wildlife / get away from it all / town / history / culture was working so wonderfully well.

Silverhorn Creek - Rockies time

After the ice-cream overload of Dinosaur Park, we planned to head west, towards Vancouver Island our final destination. We had a plan for later nights but the first one was very "open". Being a bit adverse to the concept of first come first served on some of the (pretty busy) campsites run by the Park Authorities, we made a decision to simply retrace our steps. We arranged a spot back at the Bow Riversedge campsite so that we could raid the supermarkets there before we headed into the National Park proper where provisions and fuel are less widely available. So, we overnighted there, once again amazed at how empty the National Highway no 1 was. We raided the Canadian supermarkets (sorry Walmart),topped up with good price fuel ($1.34 Canadian per litre, around the same price in dollars as pounds in the UK. At the time of our visit a Dollar was worth around 55p so you can work out how much cheaper!) We enjoyed a peaceful night there before venturing into the National Park proper.

You can get the idea of how the topography changes on the trip from this satellite image of our route from Cochrane to Silverhorn Creek:

Yes, as we drove west so it got more and more spectacular. This view from the truck kind of hinted at what was to come:

and as we got closer so it became more and more tempting:

We stopped at the National Park entrance kiosks to buy our park passes, and the crew had great delight in telling the lady that we needed "one adult and one senior" pass. The captain managed the humiliation happily though as his pass was way cheaper. Then he remembered that we have a joint bank account. Must be an age thing. Stopping off on the roadside for a break and to make tea, this kind of view was pretty typical:

and as you can see, the weather was kind and the little rest areas were hardly full (until the truck and Airstream arrived of course):

Note that there were still no nasty dents in the Airstream (on both sides actually, just don't want to bore you with too many "Silver bullet" pictures)

We made it to Silverhorn Creek campsite in perfect time and had a nice quiet spot to settle into. A late lunch involved digging out the Wurlitzer organ like gas BBQ and carefully cremating some meat, veg and corn cobs:

That was the standard method of cooking every day and very good indeed. Each campsite had an outdoor dining table ready for use too. Perfect.

Some folks were enjoying the great outdoors, but not in the same level of style or comfort that the Airstream offered us:

Watching the owners hitch that to an antique rusty truck and strap stuff to the roof the next morning was interesting. Looking at their attire, we kept our distance as we feared that the odours would have been quite pungent,

The view from our dining table was not too shabby really:

and we decided that we rather liked the Rockies and exploring by Airstream. Even better there was no mobile phone reception there so it was a most peaceful stay.