Banff

Our caravan of 3 RVs has made it to Banff. All the planning has worked out so far, but I was "biting my fingernails" waiting for something to go wrong. So far so good. Three more "tests"---arrival in Lake Louise, Jasper and back to Banff--then my fingernails will be safe!

The mountains in Banff are wonderful. They look like layer upon layer of greyish silver rock. The Bow River is turquoise, painted by the glaciers

From the top of Sulphur Mountain, the view to Banff "town site" is amazing. Mt. Rundle (on the left) dominates the landscape, while smaller Tunnel Mountain, stands right in the middle of the town and the blue Bow River wraps around the landscape. It's absolutely stunning. 

This is the Banff Springs Hotel, built by the Canadian Pacific Railway sometime in the late 1800s. The hotel was modeled after a Scottish castle. It overlooks Bow River Falls and dominates the upper town site. 

We took this raft on a 2.5 hour float trip down the Bow River. The white foam in the background is from the Falls. Our guide was born on the river, and his daddy is still rafting the river too. In fact we saw his daddy rowing another raft. I guess it's the "family business."

At first our ride was peaceful and filled with wonderful scenes of mountains and trees along the river. But there are fires in British Columbia and they started to "flare" up and soon our vistas were marred by smoke and even ash.        

And then it became a bit worse...       

The sun was obscured by the smoke, but we could still see the red tinge of the sun of the water...    

The fires are about 25 miles away and while they are not in Banff per se, their aftermath is.

I'm happy to report that this morning the air is clear, but there's no telling what the afternoon will bring. Today we clean up our campsite and get ready for Lake Louise where we will be camping tomorrow.