Roadtrek Zion at Banff National Park!

We're at the Tunnel Mountain Village 2 campground in Banff. Village 1 was closed. It's near the end of September, September 25th actually, and a number of the campgrounds here are closed for the season. This campground stays open all winter. We had an option of going to another campground, 2 Jack Lakeside Campground. It's a bit more of a rustic campground, and it's good for RVs up to 27 feet, but we pulled in here largely because it has electricity or full service sites, and it was going to be cold, and we wanted to be able to use our electric heater. We had a great drive in through Revelstoke, Revelstoke Park, National Park, and then Yoho National Park, and you'll see some of the spectacular scenery. It's just gorgeous. We literally, every time we went around a corner, we went, oh my, it just kept getting better, and we were actually worried we were going to run out of space on our SD cards because we were filming so much, so bear with us if we show you a little bit more driving than we normally would. into most campsites. We came here primarily because it does have electrical hookups. It actually has full service and electrical hookups only. The site, I think, is normally designed for people with big rigs, and you'll see some of the photos. It's just a number of, you just get to park on the side of the road, and they have electrical hookups and fire pits. It's still nice, although it's a little bit more commercial feeling than I think most national parks probably are, it's still nice, especially when you look at all the scenery that surrounds us. Now, we came here knowing that it was going to get cold last night. We knew it was going to get down to roughly zero, but it got a little colder than the forecast. It was down to minus three, which is about as cold as we would like to be without having winterized. At minus three, it's hard to keep the van warm. You can. We have an electrical heater going because we are hooked up to electricity, and that was good until probably around midnight, and then it was having a hard time keeping up, and then the furnace came on, and the furnace came on regularly. So you can stay warm, but it's hard even though we had insulation in the windows and a blanket on the back door and a blanket on the side door. It's still cold once you're below freezing in a Zion. That's one of the challenges. Anyway, it's a great place here. We probably will not stay another night, although it looks like it's going to be a gorgeous sunny day. Two things. Mickey's actually hurt her ribs. She was leaning over something and hurt her upper ribs, and it's quite painful if she does any significant hiking, so we'll probably give that at least a day's rest, and we don't want to take another chance on it being even potentially colder tonight, so we'll probably head south, maybe down into the southern interior of British Columbia, where it'll still be cold but probably closer to three or four degrees at night, so no concerns about potentially freezing water lines, and frankly, just a little bit more comfortable. Anyway, today we hope to get out and do some nice walks at least and get some great videos that we'll share with you, and one thing that is really nice is we've got fresh snow in the mountains because it's so cool. You'll see all the mountain peaks with probably anywhere from five to ten centimeters of snow in them, which is just great. It really just looks gorgeous, and of course we've got the fall colors as well, so stay tuned and enjoy the rest of the trip with us. She's sleepy. Are you sleepy today? Probably didn't get much sleep because it was so cold. Right, Presh? This area is a little nicer than where we were, but we did come in late. Here you get a little bit of separation with the grade and the trees, so it makes it feel like you're a little bit more isolated than the spots that we're in. And the views are amazing. Castle Mountain in the backdrop. It's pretty dramatic and amazing. Lake Louise is certainly a very popular place, and luckily we sort of arrived late in the day, and there was plenty of parking, but I can imagine that it would be very busy earlier on in the day. In fact, a lot of people are leaving right now. Yeah, the parking lot was probably about 75 to 80% full, so remember, this is a Tuesday near the end of September, so we don't know what it would be like if you came here during the summer months. My guess would be that the best time to arrive would be at about 6 in the morning before they open. Otherwise, I suspect it would be very crowded. The park system here is very, very busy. I guess it's probably true for most national parks in Canada and in the U.S. that it gets very, very busy, regardless of what time of the year you go. It's amazing. Again, end of September, and some of the parking lots are, and it's a Tuesday, and the parking lots are full. So busy. So now we're heading back to Banff, and we're going to grab a bite to eat, and then go back to the campground and stay one night, and then tomorrow we're off... Back to British Columbia. Yeah, back to B.C. and somewhere new. And warmer. Somewhere warmer, so we don't have to worry about our tanks and pipes freezing. So we just left our camping spot at Tunnel Mountain Village 2 in Banff, and it's a cloudy day today. And Gordon was just saying that he didn't actually mind our spot, even though it was kind of a parking lot-like. Some of the other spots in the same area are actually quite a bit nicer. We just, we got in late and we got one of the worst ones, but they're all similar to that, but some do have a little bit more of a wilderness feel, but it's just such a nice area. You get mountain views everywhere. And it's actually very close to Banff. It's probably within walking distance to the town center, so that's kind of convenient as well. And now we're off for our... We didn't have any breakfast this morning, so we're off for morning coffee, teas, and some breakfast, and then we're going to head south. So we stopped at the Wildflower Bakery and Cafe in Banff, and oh, wow, I had a chocolate croissant and I just devoured it, it was so good. And Gordon had a breakfast panini, and I'm having their soy latte, and everything's really delicious. I really enjoyed the breakfast panini, but I didn't devour it, I ate it in a respectful manner. It was good. You can devour and be respectful at the same time. Now we're turning off of Highway 1, the Trans-Canada Highway, to Highway 93 South, I believe. Radium Hot Springs and Cranbrook, and we'll decide where we end up staying.