LAKE LOUISE to BANFF

The cities of Jasper, Lake Louise and Banff are all in the Canadian Rockies.

• The Canadian and American Rockies are part of the same 4000-mile mountain system, the North American Cordillera, stretching from Alaska to Mexico.

• 
  Well, many say the American Cordillera has end points in Alaska and the Antarctic, and is 8300 miles long.
• The peak was Denali at 20,301 feet, but President Trump reversed the name back to Mount McKinley, even though he never visited this site.
• However, Mount Acondagua in South America rises to a peak of 22,841 feet, and is thus even taller.
• There is a lot of confusion here, for some say the Rocky Mountains extend for 3000 miles, from the northernmost part of British Columbia and Alberta down to New Mexico, and what is a cordillera anyway.
• Similarly, there is such a thing as the Continental Divide of the Americas.
• This too is somewhat complex.
• There is one long vertical one for North America, with assorter others, depending on where the water goes.

• South America has only one continental divide.

• 
  I will only address the Continental Divide of North America in the north-south direction.
• To quote Wikipedia.

The Continental Divide extends from the Bering Strait to the Strait of Magellan, and separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain into the Atlantic and Arctic Ocean, including those that drain into the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and Hudson Bay.    

• We passed back and forth over the North American Continent Divide several times today, because it defines the boundary between Alberta and British Columbia provinces, and happens to be between Lake Louis and Banff.

• More specifically, the Continental Divide runs through the mountains just west of Lake Louise, forming the boundary between Banff National Park and Yoho National Park.
• There is a commemorative marker at the Vermillion Pass where you can stand in both provinces.

• Snow Dome, on the border of Banff and Jasper National Parks, is a hydrological apex where water flows to the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic (via Hudson Bay) Oceans.

When we awoke, this was the sight of Lake Louise from our room.

A good breskfast.

Never had breakfast, or any snack, with so many different kinds of olives.

Then off from Lake Louise to Banff.

The Natural Bridge is located in Yoho National Park. 

Statue of prisoner in Canadian internment camp.

During World Woar II, 24,000 were sent to internment camps, most of them Japanese Canadians.  There were 24 camps, some in this region of Alberta.

If you like snow on tall mountains, you'll love driving from Lake Louise to Banff.

Typical scene on the road.

Banff.

Tomorrow, all around Banff, one of the truly fine boutique towns in the world.

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