Back into British Columbia
Trip Start
Sep 23, 2010
1
120
366
Trip End
Jul 13, 2012
Where I stayed
Monarch Campsite
Field, British Columbia, Canada
Friday, July 8, 2011
Once in the park we found a campsite for the night. On arrival we found that the site was un-manned, so we had to drive 1.5km to the next village (Field Visitor Centre) to pay our park fee, (we were going to prebook our campsite for tomorrow night in Banff, but changed our mind when we found out that there was a $10.80 charge to reserve on top of the $32 for the campsite), and then register and pay the campsite fee in an envelope drop. Once we'd settled in, we cooked dinner and then made full use of the fire in the camp shelter to make Smores for dessert. After that we got back in our van, hid under the blanket to keep warm and settled in for the night.
9th July.
Up nice and early at 7.15am today as it was going to be a long and busy day. We drove a few kms up the road to the turn off for Emerald Lake and watched the Swifts catching their breakfast. On the way back to the road, we stopped at The Natural Bridge, which is rock that the river has eroded from below and all that remains is a gap at the top where it used to be connected to the other side. Whilst we were there, there were some idiots climbing on top of it and getting in our shots, so Cat had a word and pointed out how dangerous they were being. Back out on the main road we drove back past the campsite and up the windy hill to Takakkaw Falls. On the way up, we stopped to look at the Upper Spiral Tunnels which is one of a set of train tracks that goes round in a spiral inside the mountain to help go up and down the gradient. Once we had negociated the very sharp switch back (that big vehicles had to back up from one corner to the next) we reached the very impresive Takakkaw Falls, with the top end shooting out from the rocks. We then drove back down to the main road and drove out of Yoho National Park and back into Banff National Park stopping at the view point of the Lower Spiral Tunnels.
