moose creek campground

The water was a long way down so required lots of pumping before we could wash the breakfast dishes - about fifteen pumps

pump, pump
pump, pump, pump
and finally a gush of water but don't stop pumping or it's fifteen pumps before more water flows.

hoodoos and a mountie

This is the only Royal Canadian Mounted Police person I encountered, a bit one dimensional. So on the way back home I checked out the intriguing looking and sounding Hoodoos
View up towards the Hoodoos (in the middle of the photo looking like pale towers on green sloping hillside) from the bridge over the Trans Canada Highway. Up close a hoodoo is like an impossible pillar of gravel. Why doesn't it melt? The information board beside the hoodoos says they are formed from glacial till deposited at the end of the last ice age. The hill and the hoodoos are eroding at different rates - a cap of resistant material, rock or just a hard layer protect the hoodoos from erosion.
Further up the hill and looking back towards Canmore, hoodoos bottom right

lake agnes tea house

Lake Louise, the starting point for our hike up to Lake Agnes...

Lots of colourful annuals, including these poppies, at the Lake Louise hotel along with hoards of tourists and colourful musicians.

This golden mantled ground squirrel came looking for anything edible on the ground around our backpacks but found nothing.
Lake Agnes looking very tranquil. We managed to gather together enough cash (cash only taken at the Tea House, no plastic) to buy a pot of tea (three small cups), a mug of chai and two large cookies. The people with no cash has to sit by the lake and entertain the golden mantled ground squirrels.

camping in the woods

Big green lockable bins to keep campers' food safe from bears and
huge garbage bins to keep garbage safe from bears.
It is really all in the best interests of the bears as well as the campers

a wildflower walk at sunshine meadows, banff

There were lot of mountains, many, many mountainy mountains,

and cunningly camouflaged ptarmigan, there are some in the photo below.
Also flowers, the redish one is Indian Paint Brush and

a glacier lily,

ground squirrel watching out for bears
and lovely lakes
but not a single bear.

across the pacific ocean

Leaving San Francisco and on the way to CalgaryWaking up to an amazing view the following morning at my holiday destination, Canmore in the Canadian Rockies.
More amazing views
A couple of (wild) Big Horn sheep rearrange the gravel on the road near Goat Lake

wednesday walkers

Returning to the Bus Corner - we made Emily walk in the gutter but she was still a head taller than Zara.

mystery object

It isn't a spider and it isn't an earwig, maybe it's an ogopogo