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Thursday 3rd July Kelowna to Banff
It's Petes' birthday today. Sharon had the coach sing Happy Birthday and presented him with a birthday boy broach which he wore all day.
We travelled north through the Okanagan Valley, famous for its peaches and vineyards. We stopped at Craigellachie, Eagles Pass where the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway and driven in by Sir Donald Smith in 1885. We stopped at Revelstoke for lunch and had a picnic lunch on the grass. Revelstoke is a mountain paradise high in the Kootenay Rockies. We continued on the Trans Canada Highway into Glacier National Park. Glacier National Park is one of seven national parks in British Columbia, and is part of a system of 43 parks and park reserves across Canada. Established in 1886, the park encompasses 1,349 km2 and includes a portion of the Columbia Mountains. It also contains the Rogers Pass National Historic Site. We continued on Climbing up 1,334 metres high to Rogers Pass . The views were magnificent with rugged mountains, glaciers, and waterfalls.
We then entered Yoho National Park and scaled the Kicking Horse Pass at 1652 metres. The Kicking Horse River was named in 1858, when James Hector, a member of the Pallise Expedition, was kicked by his packhorse while exploring the river. Hector survived and named the river and the associated pass as a result of the incident. The Kicking Horse Pass, which connects through the Rockies to the valley of the Bow River, was the route through the mountains subsequently taken by the Canadia Pacific Railway when it was constructed during the 1880s. The railway's Big Hill and associated Spiral Tunnels are in the Kicking Horse valley and necessitated by the steep rate of descent of the river and its valley. We stopped at the Natural Bridge Lookout which is an impressive natural rock formation that spans the flow of the Kicking Horse River west of Field, where the slower waters from the Field Valley flats begin their descent through a canyon to be joined by the Amiskiwi River. Sculpted by the erosive forces of rushing water of what had once been a waterfall, the Natural bridge is a powerful reminder of how much influence water has in shaping the landscape.
We then entered Banff National Park which is Canada's oldest national park, established in 1885 in the Rocky Mountains. The park encompasses 6,641 km2 of mountainous terrain, with numerous glaciers and ice fields, dense coniferous forest, and alpine landscapes. The Icefields Parkway extends from Lake Louise, connecting to Jasper National Park in the north. Provincial forests and Yoho National Park are neighbours to the west, while Kootenay National Park is located to the south and Kananaskis Country to the southeast. The main commercial centre of the park is the town of Banff, in the Bow River valley.
The Canadian Pacific Railway was instrumental in Banff's early years, building the Banff Springs Hotel and Chateau Lake Louise, and attracting tourists through extensive advertising.
Our accomodation here is the Mount Royal Hotel which is centrally located. We had dinner at Tony Ramona's.
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