24-26 July: Leaving Montana, we headed north into Alberta and spent a couple of days exploring the southern part of Banff National Park. The town of Banff is a very attractive (and very busy) tourist destination in the Bow River valley, situated between high mountains of sharply tilted sedimentary rocks. We rode our bikes along the Spray River Trail on the west side of the majestic Mt. Rundle, which was in full view directly from our campsite. The next day we took one of the most popular short hikes in this area, to views of large waterfalls in Johnston Canyon. Continuing farther up the trail, we managed to leave a lot of the crowd behind as we hiked to the Ink Pots. Those are pools of water fed by upwelling spring water, which creates interesting patterns that are continually shifting in the sediment at the bottom of the pools.
