Carol's Excellent Adventures: This side of heaven!!!

Internet access is about a frog's hair away from non-existent here since we hit Canada.....we can occasionally get on, but at best it is spotty. Kinda like a bad relationship....on again...off again......

I have been trying since 7pm to get online here in Hinton, Alberta!!!! YIKES, right?
The things we just take for granted.

It is 11:37pm and the sun set roughly 1/2 ago or so.........it truly is an adjustment..........the sun rises at 5:30am which prompts you to begin your adventurous day....and with the sun setting so late, you tend to sit, like me and all the other travelers, on the lawn, outside your RV, blogging, reading, chatting, exploring, taking pictures..........anything and everything to prolong the days activities.

So, after we left Calgary on day 5, we headed to Banff and Lake Louise.
SPLENDIFOUROUS!!!!! Unbelievable, spectacular, breathtaking beauty surrounding you in all directions.
I am pretty darn sure we were all in "AWESOME SHOCK"!!
I will try to post pics.....

sunrise 530am

After tooling around Lake Louise etc, we went to Lake Louise ski area and rode the chair lift to the top..........GUESS WHAT WE SAW?????? Come on.....guess!!!! Don't make me tell you!!!
OUCH! You are hurting my arm!!! Jeesh, you did not need to twist it!!!
We saw 6 (SIX) grizzly bears feeding on the new grass in an attempt to cleanse their bellies after the long hibernation.
So very awesome!!!!!!
We had such a terrific view!
There were a lot of hats that folks had apparently dropped while chair lifting their way to the top....I could have dropped my cell phone, purse, passport etc and you would not have caught my large hiney trying to retrieve it.
Those grizzlies were MASSIVE!

Views from the chairlift.

Indescribably delicious, right?

And if that was not enough, we proceeded to the Columbia Ice Fields that next day........OMG....!!!!
Nothing will describe this splendor except the pictures, which, if I must be honest, would not even BEGIN to show what our own little peepers were blessed to experience.
Nonetheless, I will post pics of this phenomenon.
A GINORMOUS snow cat type vehicle brought us up to the Glacier. We were able to walk around and we even got to 'drink of the glacier'.......pics to depict.

Our transportation

And old fashioned snow cat

Check out the view DOWN!! Way ahead of us is another snow cat

Athabasca Glacier~Columbia Ice fields

Beautiful blue

Kaye, the Abominable snowman!

ME!

Crazy Sherry gathering glacier water!

Pat

Sherry and Tobin

Marie

Ted and Linda

Wil and Cyndi

Bob and kay

Me and the Grizzly

And if THAT was not enough, we proceeded shortly thereafter to the SKY WALK..........talk about a birds eye view...........
Kind of creepy to walk around this sphere of plexi-glass suspended high above the canyon! You could see beneath you, to the sides, and above. AND GUESS WHAT WE SAW????
No, silly, we did not see more grizzlies......We saw a mom, dad and 1 week old mountain goat negotiating the rocks better than I negotiate the way to the Bathroom in the middle of the night.
So incredible!!!

Today we traveled from the Ice fields to Hinton........beautiful journey....how can it be that each day multiplies the sensory pleasures of the day before?
No need to answer..........
Take a gander at these pics of the quite impressive Athabasca Falls!

Somewhere over the rainbow........

We stopped by the town of Jasper for sight seeing and lunching. I was fortunate enough to hook up with our 'tailgunners', Ted and Linda.........(did I mention that Ted gave me backing up lessons this morning?....I was remiss not to mention this. He is awesome and did indeed impart much needed wisdom!)

On the way to this evenings campsite, I was ever so fortunate to run into a group of Dali Sheep.
Whenever you are traveling and you spy up ahead a few vehicles stopped on the side of the road, it is common knowledge that you, too, must stop, because surely, there must be something to see. (I am only grateful that this was not the case when I stopped to make a pee pee stop sans WHIZ!)
I was reprimanded when I arrived to our stopping point. Apparently, standing a few feet away from sheep with huge horns and babies is an unwise choice.
As i have said before, I am, perhaps, stupidly, unafraid of animals.
However, on the flip side, they were all correct.
So, futuristic-ly,I will keep my distance when photographing the creatures we see along the way.

The campground we are currently in........with the questionable ability to access cyberland, is a KOA....not much to do around here except relax, do laundry, stock up on groceries, and go visit the nearby Beaver lodge. I did not get to see the beavers, but did see their lodges.
Pretty cool, industrious creatures, these beavers.

A few miscellaneous shots...........