Exploring the Kootenays

Part 2

Kootenay National Park & Banff Area

This September was a busy month with building a proper stable for the horses, designing and starting to build a more sturdy chicken coop after the first one got tumbled over during a windstorm. Putting a new roof on the garage and fixing the one on the house...in short getting ready for winter and not too early as the temperatures are dropping daily.

But when a good friend from California comes to visit, there is always time to explore....

One of my favorite spots here is Banff and the drive to there through the Kootenay National Park. 

We chose what we hoped to be a sunny day and started early into the mountains.

The park greeted us with a gorgeous view over Crook's meadow and the Rocky Mountains.

A little farther up the parkway we stopped at Numa Falls. Not the highest or most spectacular falls in the park, but nevertheless impressive if you are standing on a wooden bridge only few feet above the violently cascading down waters of Vermillion River .

Next stop: Marble Canyon. The walls are dolomite and limestone, but in some parts so white it resembles marble.

The farther up you walk the meandering path along the canyon, the steeper down and narrower it becomes.

Looking up to 40m/120ft down into the pounding waters of Tokumm Creek is scary and fascinating at the same time.  Erosion at it's best....

After this short hike we headed towards Banff, marveling the views and using the way too few pullouts to take photos. Here Mt. Rundle with fall foliage.

Banff  is not only a popular tourist destination, it is also the only incorporated municipality within a Canadian Park and resides over the Banff National Park, a United Nations World Heritage site. Reason enough for us to stroll through the town and grab lunch in this bustling and inviting alpine village.
Street View:

Somehow a mountain goat spotted me...;-)

After indulging in city life we were ready to go back to nature and headed towards Moraine Lake, unfortunately the weather decided it's time for winter and sent us some snow flurries.

But even in this weather Moraine Lake is breathtaking!

Due to the weather, dusk came early, but we could sneak in a short visit to Lake Louise.
A fitting end to a great day trip!