We spent our first day on the boat going past the American side of the Falls to reach the Canadian side as it is much more spectacular view. This was due to the boat traveling under the falls and looking up at the water as it cascades over the huge dam. The city of Niagara Falls has a population of over 82,000 mostly due to nearness of the Falls and to the large number of tourist visiting the Falls.
The falls are a real experience, in that you have to get on a boat, cover yourselves with rain gear and pass by the American Falls which are not as attractive. It is because they are covered with rock which has fallen off the top of the dam and clogs the beauty of the falls as it flows over the reservoir. These fallen rocks block the bottom of the flow on the American Side. As you can see, it is not as picturesque as it is on the Canadian side of the falls.
We boarded the train the after the boat ride and began our first day following the Trans-Canada Highway to Banff, Alberta Canada.
We were going to Banff, Alberta, Canada which is located in the Alberta’s Rockies. The Railroad and the Highway both travels along the Trans-Canadian Highway all the way to Banff. We also passed through Edmonton, Canada and made a short stop there.
Just before we reached Banff, we stop for a tour of Basin Hot Springs and enjoyed the many attractions here. There were many things to see and we took them all in.
Banff is a spectacular city and sits beneath the 4,600 ft. mountain located about 78 miles from Calgary and 36 miles east of Lake Louise. We took the Banff Gondola to the top of the mountain to view the entire area and it was well worth the journey up and down on the lift. Banff is above the Bow Falls and the Bow River.
After we spent the night in Banff, we went to see Lake Louise which is a stunning turquoise body of water with the snow covered mountains as a backdrop. We then visited the Columbia Ice Field and did so by riding the bus all the way to the surface of the glacier where we unloaded and spent lots of time viewing the sights.
While we in Jasper and Banff, we visited several shops which were more like museums than stores but it was fun to see.so many things we enjoyed.,
Many of the things we saw were not the usual things you might expect to see but experiences you can think about later because of the uniqueness of them. This is only a few of those.
There are so many mountains to see that it seems almost impossible to appreciate the majesty of the Canadian Rockies. Two of these are Mount Alberta in the upper Athabasca River Valley in Jasper National Park and Mt. Columbia. These are the tallest of the many but are most impressive.
We continued through the Canadian Rockies by bus and were amazed at the sight of the spectacular beauty which we viewed. We went from the Rockies to Jasper and on to Vancouver. We did not take the last part of the trip on to Victoria as we had been there previously but Norvel seemed to enjoy seeing it very much. We took our plane in Vancouver and flew back to San Antonio believing it was a trip well worth the expense.