Category Archives: Travel

Lake Louise is a Bit of a Zoo

When we visited Lake Louise, we immediately took the shuttle bus that ran down to Moraine Lake. That was a wonderful place to be, and I have posted about it previously. When we had wrapped up our time down there, we took the shuttle back up to Lake Louise. We had figured on spending some time there but, as soon as we got there, the contrast with Moraine Lake couldn’t have been more stark. The place was absolutely heaving. The lake’s shoreline was jammed with people. It was really unappealing, and, after the tranquility of Moraine Lake, it seemed even worse. We had a brief look around and then bailed out.

The APM at LAX is Almost Ready

If you have ever flown out of LAX, you will know the delights that the road access to the airport provides. The time it can take to get around the loop of the terminals can often be awful. If you are on a shuttle bus looking to get to the other side of the airport, it can seem like forever. Combine that with the offsite rental car facilities and the journey from gate to car and in reverse can be a big deal. LAX is currently building a people mover system. It will connect the new consolidated rental car facility with the terminals and will, hopefully, address a lot of the congestion. The system is in test at the moment and, while I was at my hotel, I got a view of some of the system. Vehicles were on the tracks so hopefully the testing program will go smoothly and the APM will soon be active!

Bow River Loop

A short walk from the heart of Canmore is a loop trail that runs along the Bow River. It probably was a longer walk to get to the trail and back than the trail itself was but it was a lovely stretch of the legs for us. I have previously posted about the elk encounter that we had on that walk but the rest of the walk provided some lovely scenery to enjoy. There are some old bridges across the water that look like they would have been rail bridges at some point but now provide great foot access for everyone. A relaxing place to stroll, for sure.

Icefield Skywalk

Before I start, I should point out that I really enjoyed Icefield Skywalk. The reason I say that is I shall sound a little critical about it. I don’t want that criticism to lead to the conclusion that it isn’t worth visiting or that we didn’t enjoy it. It is and we did. However, before getting there, it did give the impression of being an elevated walkway over the glaciers. That it is not. Maybe I was reading what I wanted it to say, and their material never made that case but, either way, this is a cool location in the vicinity of some glaciers but definitely not over them.

With that out of the way, this was a very enjoyable experience. Because of its location above a gorge, you have to take a shuttle bus from the visitors’ center to the skywalk. It only takes a few minutes, and the bus drivers do a decent job of providing amusing commentary on the way. Once there, you are free to stay as long as you like and take whichever bus you want back (provided it is from the company you came up with).

From the drop off spot, you walk along the edge of the gorge with a variety of exhibits along the way to look at. You also are getting a great view down at the river and the falls beneath you. The skywalk itself is a semicircular structure suspended out over the gorge. It has, naturally, a glass floor so you can look down and the large drop beneath you. Part of the fun is actually people watching as people either get freaked out or start goofing with each other.

How Many Glaciers Can You Find in a Day?

We drove up the Icefield Parkway in Alberta during our trip to the Rockies. It was a lovely ride through some gorgeous scenery. The mountains around us included a lot of glaciers – the extent of which was apparently less than it used to be as they have retreated as the temperature has increased. I tried to strike a balance between stopping every five minutes to take photos and making sure we got all the way up the highway that we wanted to cover before we needed to turn for home.

The glaciers were quite distant but sufficiently large that this didn’t matter. What I found most interesting was the shapes that the ice would distort into as it came down the side of the mountains with some folding and crumpling of the ice sheets. Also, there was the dirt trapped in the ice from the rocks over which the glacier was passing. We also got to learn about the various types of glacier from some of the informational signs alongside the road. I am glad to have seen this many because who knows how long it will be before they have to rename this road??

Asiana A380 Takeoff

While at LAX, I did see two Korean A380s depart in close proximity. Korean Air is buying Asiana (or may have done so by the time this appears) so I imagine this won’t continue for long. The Asiana colors will, presumably, vanish before too long. I decided a bit of video was in order so shot the take off roll and climb out. Below is that video.

Staring Out of the Window at Southern California

Work took me down to Los Angeles a while back and I was on the right side of the plane as we took our usual route in that comes down the cost near Santa Barbara. It was still morning, so this side put me in the best spot to see the coastline below and I grabbed a few images. Once we turned into the downwind portion of the approach to LAX, I was now facing directly into the sun.

This did not make for ideal photo conditions both with the phone’s ability to handle it and the windows I was shooting through. However, still managed to get a few shots looking down at the airport and then the Coliseum before we turned on to final. Once on the approach, I was back on the right side of things. Perhaps not the most interesting subjects at this point but a cemetery certainly caught my attention.

Some Unusual Maintenance Vehicles from CPKC

While we were staying in Canmore, we got plenty of train traffic passing us by. Most of the time, it was just the regular freight train movements but there was some maintenance work underway in the vicinity and we had a train come by that was not like the others. The locomotive was a different looking beast and it was pulling some flat cars including one with a backhoe loaded on it. I assume that they were heading to or from a work site, but I don’t know where it might have been. They train did look pretty clean so maybe it was not that old?

Natural Bridge Lower Falls

For the start of our journey home from Alberta, I had seen some info about Emerald Lake and decided to check it out. I also saw mention of some falls on the road to the lake, but it had far less about it. We decided to drop in on the way back to see if there was anything worthy of a look. As we went up to Emerald Lake, there were maybe a couple of cars in the lot, so I didn’t think much of it. One our way back, we swung into the lot and there were way more vehicles there. It wasn’t hard to see why.

The falls were really very cool. The river came into the falls in quite a wide form and then accelerated as they narrowed down. The water cascaded in from several angles and was concentrated in a narrow cut through the rock – I assume you could jump across this and it was the natural bridge referred to in the name of the place. People were all around the falls with some getting very close to the water. It must be quite exhilarating being that close to fast moving water, but I didn’t feel the need to do that.

It was easy to wander the paths both upstream and downstream of the falls to see them from all angles. Downstream, the wind would blow a fair bit of spray at you, so a good coat was in order. I split my time between photos and video. The motion and the noise of the falls is really best appreciated in motion so some video I pulled together is included below.

Bow Falls

A short trip from the heart of Banff takes you to Bow Falls. The Bow River runs through the town, but it makes quite a drop shortly afterwards before continuing on its way towards Canmore. The falls are a short distance from the Chateau although you can barely see it from the river.

There is a trail that runs up the side of the falls with a long set of steps to get you up to the higher levels. It is not a tough climb, but it does get the heart rate up. That doesn’t stop plenty of people checking it out. From the bottom, the view up the falls is very nice whereas, on the climb, the views of the river can be a bit restricted in places. The noise of the water is most impressive and, as soon as you go behind an outcrop of rock, the quiet can catch you by surprise. While I took a bunch of photos, it felt like the noise and the motion of the water meant video was a better option so here is an edit I pulled together of what I saw.