2026 Canada Take Two

Plan trip

Days 18 and 19

July 10 – Banff and Wildlife tour

We headed into the Banff gondola early in the morning. Fantastic views and we did the walk to the look-out.

We split up and spent some nice time in Banff and headed home for an afternoon nap.

Wildlife tour began at 6pm and Kirsty arrived in her big bus, personalised for us thanks to Donna.

We were all quite impressed with the information Kirsty imparted, particularly about how the female bear can give birth to several cubs during hibernation (different fathers). I was in awe of The Boss (the alpha male). If he is the father of one of the cubs, he recognises its scent and leaves the mum and her cubs alone.

I have included a few of the photos – there are a zillion (hyperbole) but I don’t want to bombard readers with all of them.

Madonna: *What animal do you call that?* Spotted in the bushes on our wildlife tour.

This lake became popular once the monster was captured. A whole town is submerged under the lake.

The hoodoos –
tall, thin rock spires carved by millions of years of erosion.

A great night out. We came home and ate everything left to eat – a conglomeration of biscuits, carrot and cucumber sticks, avocado dip, hummus, and one chicken nugget each. All to bed ready for an early morning hike.

July 11 – our own wildlife tour

Five of us headed out early to Johnston Canyon. Our commitment paid off. First a coyote sighting and then a grizzly bear. What are the chances? Between 20 and 40 black bears and about 65 grizzly bears in Banff National Park (according to AI).

Wayne got the backside of a coyote. I didn’t get my phone out fast enough to take a photo – sorry team.

You really do run out of superlatives for such a beautiful place. Photos don’t do the scenery justice.

First of a few showers – because we were early, we avoided the crowds and could walk into the cave to see the waterfall up close.

Captured a photo of this bear as he emerged from his cave.

The water was spraying up at the top waterfall.

On our way back to the unit, another bear jam.

People had their binoculars and telescopic cameras to take photos of this black bear and her two cubs. Danny spotted the mother bear and this is a still from his video.

Returned to the unit to pack up and visited the town of Canmore (just down the road from where we were staying at Hervie Heights). We all decided that this would have been a better place to stay. Hindsight is a beautiful thing. Still, our unit was great for four couples… and we had a hot tub.

Visited the bakery where the boys continually lined up to purchase more items.