Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada
July 2001
Our final day together was spent in Jasper. Some folks played golf, others went rafting, and others hung out or went for a hike.
I went with the white-water rafting trip on the Athabasca River. Unfortunately, there was no safe portage for my camera, so all I have are before and after shots. Here we are, looking like a crew of sewer workers.
The raft trip was great, as evidenced by the smiles here.
The sun came out for real on Saturday and treated us to some new views of the surroundings.
Here is the whole group assembled for about 20 pictures, taken by a sporting hotelee who was also a professional photographer. I'm hoping you know everyone's names by now! (Click on the image to get the full-sized original.)
Here I am, wearing the shirt made by my friends, John and Bonnie, after our last trip to Banff and Jasper about 15 years ago.
Liz, Roz, Debra, and Joe wanted their picture together.
Andrew wanted a picture of all the guys on the trip.
I asked Kara, Carla, and Sara to pose just for me.
Heading back to Banff in a shuttle, we were treated to clear skies and awesome views of the mountains we had heard so much about but rarely seen on our ride to Jasper.
Lisa had arranged for Sun Dog to take us, and the driver was nice enough to let us stop here and there for pictures, and he even took this one for us.
A frosted peak shot out of the bus window.
The Bird Glacier.
We stopped back and Bow Lake to see what it looked like in full daylight.
Debra and Roz knew each other from law school, and took planned this trip together from opposite ends of the country.
The Crow Foot Glacier used to have a third toe, which broke off in the 1800's.
We saw an elk at a picnic spot along the way, and stopped for a photo out the bus door.
Our driver, Lionel, was a wealth of information about the local geology, flora, and fauna in the park.
There was a spot of rain on the way to Banff, which created this beautiful rainbow.
We even saw a double-rainbow.
Lionel explained that this part of the Rockies is being slowly shoved together from both sides, creating these crumpled formations.
I thought the peaks were amazing.
This is the main ridge that overlooks the town of Banff.
We had dinner together at the Bistro Casis, and ordered tappas, which was excellent.
On our final evening together, we consolled ourselves with chocolate as we said a final "good-bye" in a Banff fudgery.