Banff - Tunnel Mountain

Gosh, I have a hard time understanding why I am so blessed in life! To grow up in one of the most beautiful areas of the world and then have the opportunity to move to another wonderful country which has provided us with a fabulous life filled with love, comfort, and freedom. It is only reinforced by camping up here in Banff National Park!  Oh how I regret not appreciating the majesty of the mountains when I lived here, how I didn't take advantage of all the outdoor activities that I should have. I guess it is a reminder to me to enjoy the moment in anything that occurs in my life, there are blessings and beauty in everything. Sometimes it is difficult to see the beauty but in those times I believe it is God's gentle reminder that we do need to appreciate all that we are given.

We hiked yesterday afternoon around Lake Louise, which brought back very fond memories of a family hike around the entire lake as well as a magical New Years celebration. I think we were the only North Americans there though. It was interesting trying to discern which country each group we encountered came from. I have run out of adjectives to properly describe natural beauty so I will let these photos speak for themselves.

We checked out of Lake Louise campground this morning which had fabulous scenery but the TRAIN felt like it was 20 feet from "23" last night!!! Not only that, I would swear there were at least two tracks with 20 crossings whereby the trains blew their EXTREMELY loud horns for each one and there 100 trains that went by last night!!!  Ok a bit of an exaggeration, but not much!!!

As we were eating breakfast we were reminded of the necessity to check and double check our "bug out" list to make certain we had dealt with every aspect. Some poor camper stopped in front of our campsite to pick up his power cord which apparently had been plugged in when he drove off. Check and recheck has become our mantra especially after my lapse of intelligence when I failed to raise the storage door high enough and the aerial was swiftly removed!  Dirk was so sweet to try and shoulder some of the blame but it clearly was the co-pilots fault!

We packed up and moved on to Banff where we met up with my brother and his family.  After the obligatory hugs demanded by auntie, we chose to hike over to the HooDoos. Although I didn't get any photos of them, I did take some of the beautiful Bow River as it gushed down the river valley towards Calgary. Also a quick photo of our campsite. Good night all!!!