Rock n'Roll in the Rockies but no moose

Arty shot with new camera!
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Having had our fill of rainy cities, we were looking forward to some mountain scenery and hoping the Canadian Rockies had not fallen victim the same hype as Vancouver. To get there we rose bright and early to catch a Greyhound, which took 13 hours, mostly because we stopped in every town along the way. Our destination was Banff, a pretty town in the middle of the national park. Even though it was still raining and cloudy, we caught glimpses of what the scenery might have in store for us, and we reckoned that for once, the guide might not be exaggerating.

Atop Sulphur Mountain
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Our first two days in Banff were wet and chilly, and we could do little but potter around during the day and veg out in front of our nice open log fire in the evening after eating home-made spag-bol and watching the Boston Celtics spank LA in the NBA finals. Luckily the forecast looked better for the next few days so we booked a car to explore the park and headed up to Jasper, another pretty town about 200 miles up the "Icefield Parkway", which is a road running through the mountains passing several glaciers along the way. The clouds were clearing and we were staggered by the beauty of the huge snow-covered mountains rising sheerly either side of the road.

Banff from Sulphur Mountain
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Monts had a field day with the new camera and we had to stop every five minutes for a new scenic vista, with or without lake, raging river, a bored-looking Phill, signs for crossing caribou or other relevant props. Four hours and 300 photos later we reached Jasper and settled into our cute cottage at Bear Lodge. Speaking of bears, the park is a haven for all sorts of bears, including the feared grizzly. Everywhere we saw signs and reminders of what to do if you should surpise a bear doing its thing in the woods, but we encountered none on our walks other than the stuffed (toy) versions compulsory in every shop along the high street, which was a disappointment in some ways and a relief in others. We were also told that we might encounter elk, the rapidly disappearing caribou and moose, but only the elk, lots of cheeky chipmunks and a large and frightened porcupine deigned to show their faces (or in the porcupine's case, a big prickly bottom).

Banff Town Centre
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With the sun out and everything sparkling and pretty, we did several scenic walks, mostly involving bright blue glacial lakes and of course, big mountains. We agreed that this scenery knocked the socks off the Southern Alps (sorry, New Zealand). At Lake Maligne we swapped walking for some canoeing and, once we had mastered our tendency to zig zag madly, we were able to admire the view without crashing into the ferry, although we have some way to go to achieve Hawaii Five-O levels. On the way back down towards Banff we checked out the Athabaska glacier, but were not allowed to walk on it, just in case we fell down a crevasse.

Bow River from Sulphur Mountain
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Back in Banff, the surrounding mountains had finally shrugged off their cloudy hats and we were able to enjoy the scenery with more walks, including the impossibly blue Lake Louise and a trip on the gondola to the top of Sulphur Mountain with its 360 degree panorama. In the evening we took advantage of the free meal voucher supplied by our hotel to order enough Mexican food to feed a small army and a couple of tasty Cabo Wabo tequilas. That night we were too stuffed to do anything but stagger back up the hill to our beds, but on our last night we decided to check out the local nightlife and discovered, to great excitement (if not ours, someone else's surely) that the ex-guitarrist from Guns n' Roses - answers with his name on the back of a postcard please - would be performing at "Wild Bill's", one of the local pubs.

Canoeing on Maligne Lake
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We were talked into the cover charge by the chap on the door, who told us how great it was going to be, found ourselves a good table and ordered some beers. After much setting up, a shaggy-haired bloke jumped up on stage. Ah, here he comes, we thought... but no, that was the support band, who did some head-shaking covers, and didn't seem to mind that there was practically no audience. At midnight they finished up and more people were arriving. Of course, we said, no self-respecting rocker goes on stage until midnight, he'll be on next. Twenty minutes later another shaggy-haired bloke and his band got on stage, but half an hour into that set, we realised that this was yet another support band. By one o'clock he still hadn't turned up, and we had to admit that we had less staying power than an old rocker who has probably lived on a staple diet of sex, drugs and alcohol for the last 25 years (allegedly - please don't sue us), so we gave up and went home. Unfortunately we couldn't persuade the doorman to refund our entry fee, but we're sure he was worth it, eventually.

Dozy dinner by the fire
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Our initial plans to spend a day in Calgary were abandoned as it didn't look very exciting, even in our over-effusive guidebook, and the hotels were predictably expensive and booked-up, so we hopped in the coach and headed straight to the airport and swinging Chicago.