Camping At Big Bend National Park 2019 - Day 3, Part 3: Back At Camp

Picking up where I left off from our May camping trip at Big Bend National Park.

Back at camp and what to do for lunch?  We decided to forgo our pre-packaged, just-add-boiling-water meals and eat in the lodge's restaurant.

Just FYI:  the gift shop/lobby/restaurant area of the lodge had a very unpleasant odor - it wasn't a natural gas smell, nor was it a broken sewer main kind of smell - maybe if you blended those two together?  At any rate, we didn't ask and pressed on, because...food.  We quickly got used to the smell.

The food was good.  I had a turkey wrap and I think Todd had a burger.  After lunch we hung around the lodge area for a while following the shade as best we could.

Finally, we decided to go for a drive.

We started off on the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive, a 30-mile drive that would have led us down to the Rio Grande River.  I say would have because we didn't get to the river before we spotted smoke in the distance.  Then we spotted a lot of smoke in the distance.

This was May 22nd, the day the Castolon Fire jumped the Rio Grande and started burning toward the Castolon Historic District in the park.  The fire would burn 944 acres over 11 days, destroying several historic buildings in the process.  Of course we didn't know that at time - we just saw smoke and some passing emergency vehicles.

We reached the Castolon Visitor Center area, which was closed for the season and deserted, and pulled in to watch the growing smoke.  At that point we decided to turn around and go back.

Here's what that area looked like a short time later:

photo from nps.gov

Rocky Mountaineer Canada Trip 2019 - Day 7, Part 2: End Of The Line

Our 2 1/2 hour ride to the airport was uneventful, but others weren't so lucky based on the 10 or so cars we saw on the way that had spun out in the median.

The Banff National Park Administration Building

Crossing over the Bow River

Rocky Mountaineer Canada Trip 2019 - Day 7, Part 1

Snow!!!

Yesterday

Today

Rocky Mountaineer Canada Trip 2019 - Day 6, Part 2

Our first stop on the bus, sorry, motorcoach today was Natural Bridge, a rock formation over the Kicking Horse River caused by erosion.  This had once been a waterfall.

We got there at 3pm and before we got out we were specifically advised by our bus, sorry, motorcoach driver to stay on the designated paths.  He said every day he comes here he sees people climbing on the rocks for photos, and that about 4 people a year fall in.  He said if the fall didn't kill you, shock from the glacially cold "wrench water" combined with the swift current would finish you off.  It's called wrench water he said, because it'll tighten your nuts.

We got off the bus, fuck it, BUS and the first thing we saw were a couple posing for pictures on the edge of the rock formation.

Morons

Looking downstream (for a bobbing puffy red coat)

Rocky Mountaineer Canada Trip 2019 - Day 6, Part 1

I woke up at 4:30am for some reason, but was able to go back to sleep until 7:30.  I showered and volunteered to go down to the Chateau Deli to grab some breakfast to bring back to the room.  After meeting up with Mom, Jan, Janis and Mary Margaret in the lobby we all went together.

7:40am Lake Louise

8:30

9 o'clock and calmer water

Rocky Mountaineer Canada Trip 2019 - Day 5, Part 3

From the Athabasca Glacier to Lake Louise - back on the bus and driving along the Icefields Parkway.

Don't believe the monitor, we're heading into a supernova!

Mount Chephren, named after the 4th Dynasty Egyptian king Chephren, or Khafre.  Duh.
He built and is buried in the 2nd largest pyramid at Giza...

Rocky Mountaineer Canada Trip 2019 - Day 5, Part 2

Our next stop was an (early) included-in-the-tour buffet lunch at the Columbia Icefield Discovery Centre.  We arrived at 10:50am and filed into the upstairs restaurant.

The best thing I can say about it is that, as advertised, it was a lunch.

The vast majority of tourists we saw were Asian and while the food selection was not unusual, the flavoring of most dishes was designed to cater to their tastes.

Example: When you put potato salad on your plate you usually know how it will taste, with slight variations.  When you then take a bite of that potato salad and find that it has apparently been made with soy sauce and five-spice powder it's unexpected.  Not bad, but not the potato salad you were expecting and looking forward to.  (Also maybe not what you want to load up your plate with when you know you're looking at a long bus ride for the next couple of days, if you know what I mean.)

I sampled everything but stuck with the fried fish fingers and was fine.  Actually, the variety of little desserts were good too.  Everything else was kind of strange.  Looking at my notes I rated lunch a "Meh."

Driving in we passed the Columbia Icefield Skywalk which was included in our tour later in the day

First view of the Athabasca Glacier.  The glacier has lost half its volume over the last 125 years resulting in this "moonscape".

Rocky Mountaineer Canada Trip 2019 - Day 5, Part 1

Looks like I'll need to break this one down into 3 posts:

The Morning,
um...
Later The Same Morning,
and, let's see...
The Rest Of The Day.
I guess.  I don't know, I'll make it up as a I go along.

We were up at 5am and after getting ready met the rest of the group at the lodge at 6:00 for breakfast. We ate at Orso Trattoria and I had "Overnight Oats" which was (steel cut, I believe) oatmeal, banana, toasted coconut, house-made granola, chia seeds and dark chocolate.  It was served cold (on purpose) and was delicious.

Back at the room to see our luggage picked up at 7am, then back to the lodge to board the bus, sorry, motorcoach, at 8 o'clock.  At 8:30 we were off to sightsee along the scenic Icefields Parkway.

As we set out we slowed down to watch two young elk bulls sparring

This adult gentleman just sauntered past the bus