We're Going On A Bear Hunt.....

During our travels through the Rockies we'd walked through several canyons, some narrow, some filled with fast flowing water. Arriving in Calgary gave us a different experience, one of walking through canyons of glass and steel and concrete.  Calgary is (in part) an oil town. Our hotel was in the downtown area, close to the Bow River, but, despite having 35 floors, was dwarfed by the skyscrapers of the oil and finance companies. It was Labor Day when we arrived and the city centre was quiet. After dropping our bags at the hotel we walked a few blocks to the downtown core to find somewhere to eat. Most places were closed but a cheap and cheerful bar served beer and burgers - sufficient to refuel a little more exploring. The main street did have some attractive heritage buildings and Calgary is quite big on statues and public art. "The Conversation" Our wanderings took us down to the Olympic Plaza where we caught the tail end of a trade union organised Labor Day ...

Canmore was our last but one stop in Canada, and we'd booked 4 nights in a motel right on the main street with wonderful views of the mountain peaks surrounding this small town on the edge of the Banff National Park.  The view from our motel. Even better - we were next door to a brew pub - the Grizzly Paw - which is a Canmore brewery and this was (for me) an obvious choice for our evening meal. Before heading to the pub we walked around the town to explore. Canmore claims some Scottish connection, taking its name from the Gaelic 'Ceann Mór' (or big head) having been named after Malcolm III of Scotland by a Director of the Canadian Pacific Railway. A piece of public art celebrates this. Big Head....(the one on the left) The Scottish connection also meant Canmore was hosting a Highland Games over the coming weekend, advertised extensively around town, so kilts, bagpipes and caber tossing were anticipated! We liked Canmore straight away. It had attractive buildi...

The next stage of our journey, returning down the Icefields Parkway provided many more opportunities for photo stops. However the wild fires in British Columbia had created very smoky hazy skies. This has been the worst year in recorded history for British Columbia wildfires and many,many hectares have been destroyed, some homes evacuated but no loss of human life.  Sometimes it is lightning strikes that spark a fire, sometimes the carelessness of campers. Fire is however important for the regeneration of these vast northern forests and some pine cones will only open at 40 degrees celcius to spread their seeds. We felt fortunate that this haze hadn't affected much of our journey although the smoky air made being outdoors akin to standing downwind of a bonfire at times. Our first little stop was at the romantically named Honeymoon Lake, an idyllic little campsite and small lake surrounded by trees and with a mountain backdrop. For reasons that remain a mystery to me, Mrs B decided t...