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June 18, Tuesday
Visit Lake Minnewanka, Cave and Basin area, and (reluctantly) hike Tunnel Mountain.
The lake was very beautiful. There was a hike around the lake, which we followed until there was a sign saying that, after that point, bear spray required.
We thought, we're good, and turned around.
(Reminds me of the recommendation to wear jingle bells to try to warn the bears of human presence, but also you could tell that bears are around by the jingle bells in their poop...)
The place had a lot of chipmunks, which I guess, is the Canadian version of the squirrel.
Next, we visited the Cave and Basin Historical site. The cave exhibit was closed due to a Native American ceremony, but we had a chance to walk around and learn some about the history of the hot springs, which allow for some additional life forms (like garter snakes) that, without the thermal springs, could not survive the winter cold.
The water that was produced by the thermal springs smelled like sulfur.
(Was the devil nearby?)
:-o
Though the area of water output from the spring was not even one foot deep, I guess they had to clarify that visitors should not go swimming there.
The basin where the warmer waters would flow is behind us.
Our next visit was to get on the Roam bus for Tunnel Mountain. We had no idea what we'd find. The bus took us to a campground, where we got off, started to walk back, and then took a detour up a road.
We saw a moose and asked directions, but he was no help.
We wound up seeing some other hikers going up another trail, and we thought, how bad can this be?
It just went up and up. The thought bubble over our heads is
"Are we there yet???"
We did get to a point where we had a nice view of the other side of the mountain and the Bow river.
Eventually, we made it to the top.
Behind us is the town of Banff, with our hotel noted by the arrow. There were many people up there sitting on the rocks on their phones. I noted "OMG, what some people will do to get a good cell signal!!" One woman replied that, as she was on her phone, she was actually working. She gets the award for longest walk to work.
When we got back to town, first things first, FTM (feed the Merle). We had Korean food that was so spicy, though you can't tell from the pic, Merle's nose was running.
After we got back to the room, Merle spotted an elk across the river.
He was probably headed to the lodge.
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