Day 76: Can You Have Too Much Scenic Beauty?
Jasper, AB through Lake Louise and Banff National Park to Calgary, AB
266.94 Miles | 5:27 Riding Time
It’s Tuesday, June 25, 2024, and it’s Day 76 of my cross country motorcycle trip.
Today was one of those rare days that will take some time to process. The mountains, lakes, glaciers, wildlife, waterfalls and road all seem to come together in harmony up here. It’s stunning, everywhere you look. You’d have to work pretty hard to take a bad picture.
The main road through the parks is RT 93, the Icefields Parkway, but looking at the map this morning, I noticed a little offshoot—93A. I did some searching, and found this blog post, and made the decision to take 93A. Thank you, Barb.
The first thing that greeted me on this road was a massive Elk with some impressive antlers. A couple cars and I stopped for a moment to admire, while he went about having his breakfast. Moving along, the road climbed up, and up, and the views of the mountains just got better and better. There was a lovely lake on the west side of the road about a mile north of Athabasca Falls, where I stopped, took some pictures, and chatted with the folks in the RV that I had been following for about 30 minutes.
Athabasca falls was beautiful. There falls had created a small canyon, and there were several holes and interesting rock formations made by the water rushing through. Took some more pictures, and headed on.
Next stop was Saskatchewan River Crossing, which had a gift shop and cafeteria-style restaurant—a sandwich for lunch. Then, on to Lake Louise with a few more scenic overlook stops along the way.
One of the “must-dos” was a stop at Lake Louise. It was gorgeous, and crowded. The road up to the lake was under some serious construction, as were the parking areas by the hotel. It’s a short walk to the lake, which is stunningly blue. Folks were taking pictures, renting canoes and taking short hikes. I have to say that after 75 days of being pretty-much on my own, and only have conversations with 1-2 others at a time, the crowd and activity made be feel a bit claustrophobic. It was beautiful, and I moved on pretty quickly.
From there, the ride through Banff and Canmore to Calgary was pretty and uneventful. I got to my hotel, found some dinner and fell asleep quickly. With all the stops and sightseeing, it was long day.
PS: You may have noticed that the lens on my action camera cracked. That’s what’s going on in the lower right corner. I bought the service plan, so I’ll be sending this one in to get repaired. In the meantime, I’ll be getting another camera.
