Rampart Creek Campground - Top 2 in the World!

We've just arrived in the town of Banff and it has welcomed us by being exceedingly cold and wet. Never mind, we had a stellar day yesterday which makes up for this.

We drove from a gorgeous campsite, Rampart Creek, the second best in the world according to Dave (after Yadboro Flat, Morton National Park, Aus). We were right on a beautiful river surrounded by towering mountains. One mountain had about ten small waterfalls dropping about 100 metres. It was incredibly peaceful.
'Our' chopper

The day began with a helicopter ride over the Cline Pass! We flew past three glaciers and were able to see lots of alpine lakes and also a waterfall. We were going nearly 200km per hour in the helicopter, but it felt almost as if we were hovering! Needless to say we took masses of photos, trying to capture as much of the vista as possible. The geography of the terrain was amazing. There were different types of mountains (some that looked like castles, some that looked like the teeth of predators), and even evidence of the glacial forces which created them etched into the sides of some.

Somewhere in the air above the Rockies.

Our ride was shared by a brother and sister from Red Deer, Alberta. They were great fun and even invited us back to their campsite to hang out for a bit. When they say that Canadians are nice, they meant these two. We were even sent on our way with two difficult-to-obtain Bud Lime Lights. Apparently Canadians are crazy for this beer, and it sells out within hours of hitting the stores!

We then crossed over the Bow Pass, and were able to walk up to a viewing point which afforded us an amazing vista of Peyto Lake and the glacier which sits above it. This was gorgeous - definitely one of the most beautiful places we have stopped thus far (right).

Our final destination for the day was Lake Louise. Dave and Mel decided to walk around the lake and then up to the Six Glacier Plains - starting the walk at 5pm!! Needless to say, we didn't have too much company on the way down.

This walk moved through several different types of vegetation and scenery before eventually arriving at the base of the glaciers. We were very moved by the imposing nature of the mountains and the glaciers themselves. We were even blessed to see a beautiful rainbow on the way up, after a light rain.

Doesn't get much better than this.

As we neared the end of our walk we heard several avalanches in the surrounding mountains (one sounded like a crack of thunder). Whilst standing adjacent to one of the glaciers we heard a massive crack as the ice below us (not directly of course!), shifted. It was a thrilling experience, but a little bit scary too!


A beautiful scene in the Rockies - not sure where, but somewhere along the Icefields Parkway.