Banff Bound

We left the window and the curtain open.  I woke at 6 a.m. to a beautiful view.  

I got dressed and went downstairs to find some coffee.  Neither Gayle or I can get going in the morning before a cup of coffee.  We ate breakfast in the hotel with this amazing view.

We bid farewell to men in kilts and headed to Red Rocks in the Waterton Lakes National Park.  The road to the canyon is beautiful, covered in wildflowers.  There are signs warning of avalanches along the way and they have wired stones along the road.

Everything we read warned that the parking lot fills up fast and it would be hard to find a parking space.  That wasn't our experience.  Red Rock Canyon is a beautiful place that a photo can't quite capture.

We got on the road to Banff.  It was rolling green hills and pastureland.  There are bright yellow crops we decided were canola.  

It is also a windy area and there were many wind turbines along the way.

I had read something online about the beauty of highway 40 so we cut over and went through Kananaskis Country. The road runs through the foothills of the Canadian Rockies.  It was beautiful. 

It is 1500 square miles the Alberta government designates for many different uses, including free range cattle grazing.  We had to pass over multiple cattle guards, called Texas gates here.  We saw mountain goats.

We saw Rocky Mountain sheep.

We made it to the TransCanada Highway in time to find gas and a bathroom.  We spent some time trying to figure out the gas pump and how much we were paying per gallon since the pump is in liters.  The sign in the bathroom said: "Please no standing on the toilet seats."  I wonder what happened to make them create that sign.  

To get into our hotel room, Gayle had to upload an app to use her phone as the mobile key to the room.  As soon as we got to our room I curled up on my bed and fell fast asleep.  I can't believe how tired I am.  I woke up very hungry.  We didn't stop for lunch.  Our hotel is located across an alley from the street in where the majority of Banff restaurants are located.   We walked over to Nourish Bistro, which happens to be a vegan restaurant.  We ordered the nachos which boasts 27 ingredients -- chickpeas, quinoa, mandarin oranges, pickles, cucumbers, beets (just to name a few) and the beet root bruschetta.  The bruschetta was incredible.  The nachos were okay.

We came back to the room and made our reservations for the Banff gondola for tomorrow night.  We had hoped to eat at the restaurant at the top but there are no available reservations until August 4.   There is plenty of food in Banff. We won't starve.