Fangless

Benji lost one of his canines the night before we left for Calgary and the other the night before we flew home. Made for a busy time for his tooth fairy:

Day #5: Back through Banff

We packed up the cabins Tuesday morning and hit the road again. One last photo of the kids in front of the Pine Bungalow:

We took another slow trip back, detouring to see cool sites and to take a few short hikes.  First stop was angel glacier:

little falls at the start of the hike

 

Mt. Edith Cavell, with a blizzard blowing on top

Angel Glacier

We heard a crack and realized a piece of the glacier was breaking off

You can see the spot where it broke

From the side, you can see how thick the ice is

Glacial pond

That's ice that rings the water

little floating icebergs

he thought the sun was too bright

 

boys with rocks, part 6

 

rugged plants growing out of the rocks

 From the hike back down:

 

Can you spot the marmet?

 

Our second stop was majestic Sunwapta Falls, which had a paved walk all the way around:

 

Last stop of the day was Mistaya Canyon, which we just got a quick peek at because it started to thunder as soon as we got there:

Whew! Great trip. We got up and flew back to Virginia the next day (Wednesday) and are slowly getting ourselves ready for the school year which starts next week.

Day #4: Sky Tram and Lake Annette

We spent the full day on Monday in Jasper, getting up early to take the second sky tram of the morning up to Whistler's Peak. We drove part way up the mountain to get to the tram platform, which has pretty nice views itself:

View from the bottom

Jasper the bear

watching the first tram ascend

We could not actually see a ton on the tram ride itself, but when we stepped off on the upper platform, the view was great, even though it was a very hazy morning:

 

Mt. Robeson, the highest peak in these mountains.  It has its own weather system and is rarely viewable, so apparently we were lucky to see it

We decided to take the 2.8 kilometer hike from the tram to the summit of the mountain:

a little friend at the start of the trail

the valley below us -- you can see all the little kettle lakes

Other side of the valley -- that's a train winding its way through the middle of it

 

the kids climbing up ahead of us -- Benji's red sweatshirt made them easy to see

We stopped at what we thought was the summit -- a large flat area with clear views of everything around us:

Boys on rocks, part 3

 

 

Boys on rocks, part 4

Boys on rocks, part 5

 

 

As it turned out, we were not actually at the summit, and Benji really wanted to climb the last little bit to the top (but the rest of the kids did not), so Kevin took him while the rest of us had a rest:

Path to the summit

 

Benji and Kevin making the climb

At the top

The way back down:

Abby and Neena

We finally spotted a marmet! (their whistling gives the mountain its name)

He was awfully cute

After lunch and a rest, we headed out to Lake Annette in the early evening to picnic and swim:

Fathers and sons on the dock

Abby insisted it was not that cold

But Benji and Kevin would not move off this rock

Abby swims!

After the lake, we headed back to make a campfire for our last night in Jasper:

 While we were sitting there, some elk walked by! (not as cool as the bear we saw on our first day, but still....)

Tomorrow...our slow trip back through Banff and more glaciers!