Canada-eh (Banff & Jasper)

Well Banff & Jasper National Parks in Canada were as beautiful as we thought they would be. Unfortunately we were not the only people who had heard of their beauty. We knew it was going to be crowded when we barely got a reservation at the 1,000 site campsite in Banff. It was packed! Thankfully the parking lot campsite wasn't as bad as we thought it would be, we actually had a nice view and some good neighbors. We were only about a mile from downtown, again their weird park/city system may be something we could get used to, so we were able to walk around and battle the crowds without having to have fought for a parking space as well. James finally broke out in hives so we decided to head back to our patch of asphalt. The next day we went on a hike and a bike ride and ended up kicking both of our booties. I realized that I may be able to beat James up a mountain on foot but put him on a bike and it is I who eat his dust. We were barely able to drag out early enough the next morning to get to Calgary and pick up Bill & Mary, we were actually a few minutes late but we quickly found them a Tim Horton's (a coffee chain in Canada) and all was forgiven. We toured them around Banff a little and showed them their new deluxe accommodations. I have to say they handled the ladder to the bunk like pros and I only heard one head conk all week. Sunday we put on our battle gear and went to Johnston Falls and Moraine Lake. At Johnston Falls we were actually able to score a parking place, but at Moraine Lake we added about 3 miles to the .5 mile hike around the lake by parking so far away. It was insane. There were cars and people everywhere. We quickly oohed & aah ed at the glacial lake and raced back to the safety of the RV for rum & cokes and Mary's yummy chicken parmigiana. The next day was Monday and we assumed alot of the people would be leaving since it was the end of the holiday. Apparently the park assumes this same thing because about 1/2 of the campgrounds closed promptly at 11:00 that morning. Thankfully we were on the road headed up to Lake Louise & Jasper at this time so we didn't have to suffer the shame of being kicked out of our campsite. Lake Louise was as gorgeous as we had heard, it is a glacial lake so the color is this amazing blue or green, depending on where the sun is hitting it and reflecting off the 'rock flour' in the lake. We drove up towards Jasper and dropped off the RV in the Columbia Icefields parking lot because we had the brilliant idea that we would go just a little way up the road and secure a campsite. We were not aware of the parks labor day shut out system and ended up driving all the way to Jasper without spotting an open campsite. We made the most of it and toured Jasper stopping at a yummy pizza place along the way. We came back to the icefields parking lot and realized it was also an overflow camping spot. So for the low price of $10.00 we spent the evening playing cards at the base of a glacier with the place all to ourselves. The next day we headed out of the Banff/Jasper area in search of beautiful, but perhaps a bit more peaceful places.