summer 2009 Lake louise

We are now leaving calgary on our way to regina. Yesterday we had a great day we departed the chataue at 10am headed for six glaciers tea house it was a relativly mild up hill till the last little bit. the view was spectacular. I will have to uplaod pictures later. all the glacers have snow melt so there are random waterfalls off the hills everywhere. the other odd thing is the huge thundersound when a chunk of glacier comes tumbling down the side. it makes a huge clound of snow to go with the thunder. We stopped at the tea house and had a cherry green tea, a cheese sandwich a hummus sandwich, and a piece of chocolate cake. kinda fun getting all that in the back country. from the plain of six glaciers we went to the lake agnes tea house. it was a steap climb and the joe forgot quinns backpack so I went back and took an alternet route before meeting yp with quinn and joe again. We made it back to the chatoue at 8pm after getting a little rained on. not sure how far we went but it took all day. We have now left calgary and will stop likely somewhere aound medicin hat.

Summer 2009 - Lake Louise

The day ended with a bang so we may as well start there. We went into town for some water then drove up to moraine lake for a stole around the like. It was about 9pm about dusk up here so we walk down to a river area. One area was blocked said you must hike in groups of 4 due to the bears. On our way back Quinn and I went ahead to get in the car. Next thing you know Joe comes up quick and hops in some people in front of him just had seen a grizzly bear go by where our car was parked. So we looked started the car and backed up and looked above the parking area and you could kinda see his back. He strolled up to the cabin and crossed a bit of a ravean so we got a real good look at him, he was huge. so then joe drove up so we could tell the hotel front desk and there he was stolling down the walk way. Heading to were we had just been casually hiking. Insane.

Anyway other than that Joe and I got to relax while Quinn took a photograph excursion. he brought back 2 very nice pictures he took on his outting. Later in the day he did an art trip and painted a lovely picture of the lake and mountains and even painted a canoe it just hapens to be on top of the mountain instead of in the water. Oh well he had a great time. Tommorrow we are going to hike up to the six glacier tea house. We will see how that goes.

Summer 2009 Days 7 to 11

Lots of distance covered on this part of the Trip. We started in San Francisco. Had a great hotel near china town with a view of the Bay. We had to walk a couple blocks to hop on a Street Car. Had to do it like in the movies because it was so busy so the kids got a seat the rest of us had to hold on for dear life. We rode the car down to Fishermans warf. It was very noisy and went up and down the hills. At times it was interesting the driver putting on the diffrent breaks to slow down because of the steap slopes. Then there are the trucks parked on the side of the road that the driver tells the left or right side to watch out and you have to pull in or get bumped.

So we walked down fishermans warf and took in the old boats at the national park. We ate at a great place called The Plant. Rode some more old transprortaion cars. Amazing people use those things daily. We checked out Pier 39 and the sea lions. They get very pist at each other it was interesting watching them. Did I mention it was freeking cold. About 52 by the time we gave up and left. It was so windy it was crazy. From there we headed to Napa which turned out to be almost 100, I swear it was only an hour or so drive too. The temperture change is amazing. We stopped at a winery and took in the scenary.

From here we headed north and stopped at Crater Lake for the night. The next day we took in the lake. Its amazing it has no rivers in or out its all snow melt. Its so clear and amazingly beutiful. We didnt have time to take the boat cruise will have to come back and try that. The next odd thing we saw was in the middle of nowhere Idaho. There was an amuzement park with the oldes rickety looking roller coaster. It was an eaven odder site with a brand new steal one right next to it.

The next day we made it to Spokane then up to Canada thru Kootney National Park. We hadnt passed thru this park previously it was very nice driving thru a valley surounded by mountains.


We checked into the Chateau at Lake Louise this morning. We have a room with a balcony facing the amazing lake with the glaciers in the background. This place is awsome. They have kids activities through out that day so quinn did a 2 hour hike for kids tommorrow hes gonna try a photograph trip and an art trip with an eyeseyl and eveything.

Summer 2009 Day 5-6

We camped in the medows on the north entrance to the park. We didnt arive until real late. First thing the next moring we stopped at a visitor center and found out the valley was going to have a high of 101 that day. So we decided to spend the hotest part of the day in the meadows on the north east part of the park. The high here was in the 70s. We did a hike to soda springs which was interesting to see this type of thing outside of the yellowstone area.

From there we headed the the valley didnt get their until 5 so it wasnt too bad. We went up bridalfalls hike only a .5 mile nice and easy. We then headed to yosemite falls but got side tracked by a bear hanging in a tree near one of the turns so we stopped to check him out.
Briadal and Yosemite falls are huge falls the water is starting to tapor off but still impresive. Did the whole camping thing that night with a fire and everything.

The next day Joe Quinn and I took a one way bus ride up to Glacier Point. The views were amazing. The hike we did was the Panoramic trail it was an 8 mile hike from the top to the bottom with an elevation change of 3200 ft. It turned out to be quite a hike. The first 1.9 was a gradual down hill not too bad but it was a burn area so shade was limited. As we started going down we noticed the trail had to climb on the other side back up to that ridge. Yikes. The first falles illilouette falls was in a crevis the view of it hiking up was nice but once you got close it was a bit of a cliff to see it. We did get to stop at the pools at the top of the falls and cool off before the next 1.9 miles up hill. By the time we reached the 4 mile mark we were looking over the ridge at where we had started. From there it was back down hill to Nevada falls. Not too bad. Nevada falls was impressive allot of water. Again we rested near the pools of water. The next part of the hike is where it got interesting. it was all down hill via rocks made into steps, sorta. A very quick way to go down hill. We made it to vernal falls the last part of our journey. Again another impressive falls with tons of water. The desent from vernal falls was stairs again but next to the waterfall so it was very misty. Very cool stair stepping. The last mile although paved was steap down hill we took our time and ended up making the trip in a little under 7 hours. Not sure Id do that again any time soon. Now we are in San Francisco off to see the sites.

Summer 2009 Day 3-4

Made it into Sequia went thru the tunnel log with the car. We also went down to the meadows and did a hike around to an old cabin that was built in a fallen sequoia. From that hike we went to shermans tree the bigest tree in the world in volume and he is huge. It was some great walks but the mosquitos are killer. We camped in Kings Canyon that night and the next morning Irene, Joe, Quinn and I headed to Mist falls. It was a 9.2 mile round trip hike. Luckly the hike was only a little up hill the rest was very flat. The falls were very misting and refreshing. Amazing although we were in the mountains it was very hot.

July 2009 Day 1 - 2

First stop disneyland for Joes Birthday. Irene joined us and we had a great time at both parks. On the California adventure side Quinn was given driver of the day on Mulhullan Madness which ment he could go to the front all day as much as he wanted. He rode it 8 times in a row. Not a good pass to give to a little kid that requires an adult. Quinn also coninued his pin trading and ended the day with all mickey mouse pins. He doesnt add much variety. Onto Sequoia and Kings Canyon next