Day 4 - Monday, September 10^th, 2007

Banff

                Jerry came out of the shower all fresh and clean, but not me! Quarters didn’t work in the women’s bathroom and the camp office did not open for yet another hour. Apparently the showers only accept loonies – not implying anything about Jerry but…

                The first stop on our northbound trip was at “Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump”.   This was one of the more famous places where Native Americans – or as they are called here in Canada First Nations, drove buffalos over a cliff as a way to kill them. This place, however, was not named after the buffalos but rather a boy who wanted to see what falling buffalos would look like – from beneath!!! Shaking our heads we got in the car and drove further north thru Calgary up to Banff.

                Wow, what a dramatic change in landscape coming from the flat prairies and now seeing the big trees, lots of water falls, and even some snow covered mountain tops. If we got lucky we might even see some wild life here in Banff National Park .  The drive was fantastic, one big mountain after the other; the glaciers overhanging on the passes and ledges, and the warm gloom of the sun on the mountain sides.

                After a long day of driving – with approximately 167 photo stops – take and give a few! We finally pulled into a campsite at Mosquito Creek. Had it not been this late in the season I am not sure I wouldn’t have liked the name of that place too much. Luckily it was too cold for those little winged blood stealers.

                To stretch those stiff driving legs we decided to go explore the creek a little. It was shallow with really clear water. You could all the colors of the smooth rocks lying in the bottom of the waterway. Trees and bushes were growing all along on the banks as the water would diverge only to have several little streams run together further down the creek. This was prime wild life area for moose and elk.

Due to the lack of moose and elk Jerry and I had to heat up water for our mountain house meals! I must say it sure is easy to “cook” this way. Tired and excited about what next day would bring we crawled in the back of the truck were Jerry listened to music and I tried to write a few words before I would fall asleep.