Oh Canada!

This is Joy, posting as Pat, takes to long to change signins....We arrived about 10pm last night in Banff.  We are getting internet from a local lodge, reaches us here in our rv, it's a bit spotty, but not bad.  I'm recovering from a cold, so I stayed in rv today.  Pat and B took a bus at the end of the campground into the small town of Banff and walked around.  They also took a canoe on the lake.   At 7pm, they went to the campground theatre to see a skit about the park.  They came back with useful info about wildflower spots in the park (I'm trying to take pics of wildflowers on the trip, but the places we've hit so far, it's been too early in season) and general info about history of park.  They have different skits every night, so we'll go again.

We have a nice campground spot on a ridge with views of mountains on both sides.  The mountains here are BIG - the largest we've seen on the trip.  They make the Grand Tetons seem small.  (an aside:  On drive out of Teton forest 2 days ago, Pat informs me the Tetons were discovered/named by French explorer, Teton means "breast" in French, which made reading the signs on the road great entertainment.  "The Big Breast Hotel", "The Big Breast General Store", etc.  Yes, I'm easily amused!  :)

When we arrived at the campground last night, the park ranger repeated the warnings we've heard at almost every campground so far...about the bears/wolves/coyotes.  With this addition:  2 grizzlies and a black bear made appearances in this campground last week.  Whoosh!  Hope we don't seem them up close!  We do have a ton of prairie dog holes throughout the campground.  Pepper thinks they are overgrown squirrels and tries to wait them out at their holes, not realizing they can escape out another hole!

The drive here took about 12 hours from Bozeman, Montana, where we stayed night in hotel.  We're getting a little sick of the driving and even debated skipping Canada.  I'm glad we came - the scenery is beautiful and worth the trouble.  I hope to actually get out and see it tomorrow!