We're in the Rockies!

(By the way .... Click on the pictures to make them huge! The panorama looks awesome.)
So we finally got our night in Elk Island, which was really great because after a nice hike we did an evening drive and saw a bunch of wild bison grazing the grass near the road. The next night we went about 3 hours north of Edmonton, to Sir Winston Churchill Provincial Park, where we finally got to swim and hang out at a beach. (Until the storm rolled in that is). Then we headed a few hours west and spent a night at Hilliard's Bay Provincial Park, where it looked like it would rain, so Chris put up some tarps. However, it seems that his tarps are the magic touch, for whenever he puts them up, the skies clear and the sun shines!
We had to go back to Bev and Bill's for mail, and since that was a four hour drive south, and we had another four hour drive west to the Rockies, we were convinced by the both of them to stay the night and hang out with them. Done deal! Pizza and TV ... it was beginning to feel like home! But we headed out the next day, after a glorious brunch with Bev at Smitty's. And that was the day that Chris saw his very first mountains of the Rockies, as we did the amazing drive into Jasper National Park from Edmonton. It was so beautiful. We spent the night at Pocahontas Campground, and before going to bed that night we soaked up the views and the hot mineral waters at the Miette Hot Springs (where the water is so hot coming from the ground that they have to cool it by 16 degrees Celsius before it's even bearable!). The drive deep in to the mountains to get to the hot springs is marked as Chris' favorite road yet this trip!
Well rested (but very very cold) the next morning, we explored as much of Jasper as we could. We did an awesome drive to Maligne Lake, where there was a caribou hanging out at the side of the road ... it was massive! At the lake we did a really nice hike, and once we were done we drove to the town of Jasper (where the caribou were roaming everywhere and eating the shrubs out of people's lawns) and had a picnic lunch in the park. That night we stayed at Wapiti Campground, and yet again it was a night that required toques, double layers, and an extra blanket.
The next morning, after hot hot showers, we started our drive down the Icefields Parkway, which was surrounded by stunning views everywhere we looked. We did a drive down a nice quiet road called Edith Cavell, where we saw our first grizzly bears!! ... From the safety of our car. It was a really amazing moment, because they are such powerful creatures it's hard not to be in awe of them. We continued south to the Lake Louise area of Banff National Park, where we did a (crowded) hike around the Athabasca Falls, and stopped at a picnic area to have some lunch. Farther south, we did a short but steep hike up to the Athabasca Glacier, which was so awesome. They had signposts to show where the glacier had been over the last hundred years, and even as late as the fifties it was where our car was parked. That night we stayed at Waterfowl Campground, which had its own awesome little walk over a bridge and around the forest. The views were so incredible ... it was impossible to get used to seeing such immense and overwhelming nature.
In the morning we continued south, and decided to check out the Bow Glacier. It turned out that it was the same place Katie and her family had spent hours checking out many years ago on their trip through the Rockies, and yet again it was stunning. We were really lucky with our timing on getting there, because when we arrived there was absolutely no wind, which turned the glacial lake into a perfect mirror of the mountains around it. Then, within minutes, the breeze picked up and the lake rippled, showing off its unbelievable turquoise colour. Finally we moved on, and we spent the afternoon hiking around both Lake Louise and Morraine Lake, both of which were ridiculously beautiful and perfect. Over and over again, we marveled at the amazing ways that nature worked. We stayed at Lake Louise Campground that night, where we had a relaxing evening of pasta, a campfire, scrabble and tea.
Today we were on the move again, and we decided to take the much more relaxed route on the Bow Valley Parkway (1A), where the speed limit was way lower and the people had time to cruise. (We got a little tired of aggressive vacationers who forgot they were there to relax ... people kept passing us on the Icefields Parkway when we were going the limit and enjoying the views. Didn't they notice what was around them? ... Yes, yes, we sound old). We did a 5.5 km hike to the Johnston Canyon and back (another nostalgic moment for Katie!), which had several beautiful waterfalls and was surrounded by an old, quiet, peaceful forest. We set up camp at Two Jack Campground about 20 minutes east of the town of Banff, and right now we are in the town making good (and much needed) use of their laundromat and internet cafe.
So far, amazing. We are loving the Rockies and the views all around us, and even though we wish we were billionaires and could do all the amazing and very expensive tours (rafts and horses and helicopters and so on), the best part about nature is that walking through it and marveling at its beauty is still free.