Monday June 14th, Johnston Canyon Campground, Banff National Park AB

Miles 136

The great weekend weather turned out to be a 5 minute wonder…..it was grey and windy this morning and the temperatures all day hovered around 9 degrees…..a 20 degree drop from yesterday! Felt disappointed with our journey today to Banff.

The day started extremely well for Ian, Peter had been online and found a company at Airdrie, just north of Calgary that stocked the tyre valves he had been looking for. So that was our first stop after saying goodbye to Lynne.

I think Ian just about kissed the sales lady when she produced just what he had been looking for and spent hours trying to find.

We followed 1A north to Canmore, the rain started and the cloud came right down over the mountains.  We had seen this area in the autumn last year, and it was just so beautiful with turquoise blue rivers and huge mountains…so guess we need to be grateful for that.

After a lunch stop we visited the supermarket and did a good stockup. The hail was coming down as we raced the trolley back to the van and unloaded in the pouring rain.

With the rain coming down and only early afternoon decided to wander around Banff shops for awhile. Typical tourist type place….over priced and lots of tacky souvenirs but good to stretch the legs.

Our plan was to come to Johnston Canyon, so when the rain eased and it looked a bit brighter we set off. Such a pretty drive and could see the snowy mountain tops as the clouds had lifted. Set up in camp, had a cuppa then coats and boots on and had a wonderful walk up the canyon for about 1 ½ hours to the falls.

They are very spectacular and the walkway clings to the canyon walls. It was a good bit of exercise that we badly needed. Lots of little critters scurrying around beside the track and strange birds. Have bought a bird book to help identify. Now know what the robin is but need to do some research on another grey bird that we saw, about a magpie size.

Lynne and Peter made an interesting comment yesterday, about when they were walking in the bush in NZ, it seemed to be very strange to them with no little critters….sort of seemed dead.

Ham steaks on the barbecue and salad for tea.

..Later, checked up in my bird book and decided that the grey bird we saw was a Townsend’s Solitaire…for what it is worth!