May 15, 2010

Lake Louise – Day 2

Day 15 of trip.

Today was a layover day.  Had planned to do some hiking but trails are still snowbound.  We did some car touring instead.

First off back to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake to get better pictures (morning, full sun, sun at our back).

 

 

Lake Louise

 

 

 

 

 

Note tourist in green jacket on the left.

 

 

 

 

 

Moraine Lake

 

 

 

Then we drove west back on the Trans-Canada highway and back into British Columbia.  Sounds impressive but it is less than eight miles.  

First stop was a ‘view’ of one of the Spiral Tunnels.  Some may be familiar with a piece of railroad engineering called the Tehachapie Loop.  It is a place on the rail line in the mountains east of Bakersfield.  To lessen the grade the tracks go around a small hill and cross over themselves at a higher elevation thus making the climb easier and the descent safer.  Same concept as switchbacks on a trail but without the sharp angles.  The Spiral Tunnels accomplish the same thing but with a couple of large differences.   Turn the Tehachapie Loop inside out.  Instead of going around the outside of a mountain go inside it.  Now do it again in another tunnel.  That is the Spiral Tunnels.  A tunnel that curves around more than 270 degrees inside a mountain and exits above where it went in.  Take the tracks across the canyon and do the same thing in another mountain.  Changed a 4.5 percent grade (horrific in railroad terms) to a 2.2 percent grade (no sweat in railroad terms).  As with construction of many tunnels, crews started working on both ends of both tunnels at the same time.  When they met in the middle (inside the mountain) the separate ends were within 5 centimeters of being exactly on on both tunnels.  I have always wondered how they could do that.

 

Lower Spiral Tunnel

Train from west enters tunnel where shadow is in lower right quad and exits higher up at shadow on upper left.  This repeats in mountain across canyon.

 

On to Natural Bridge.  This is a place where the river found easier going under the rock rather than eroding it down.

 

 

River dropping down under bridge (on right).

 

 

 

Natural Bridge from down stream

 

Note the color of the water.  This is common in many of the rivers and streams in this area.  The color comes from suspended rock powder made by the glaciers.  Other terms are ‘Glacial Silt’ and ‘Glacial Flour’.

This is the view down stream from the bridge over the river.  Postcardable I think.

On up the mountain road to Emerald Lake.  Pretty, quiet, peaceful.  Could imagine spending a few days just sitting and looking.  That is probably why there is a small (but still posh and upscale) resort here.  Don’t know if this resort was built by the railroad but the feeling (and the prices) is the same as the larger hotels in Banff and Lake Louise.  Just much smaller and more relaxed.

 

 

Emerald Lake.

 

 

 

Other than the overall beauty of the place the notable landmark for us was the mountain on the left above.

 

 

Michael’s Peak

 

 

 

In all our travels last year and so far this year we had not seen a bear in the wild.  Today we saw TWO.   OK, so the first was dead on the side of the road but it was a bear in the wild.  The second bear was definitely alive and less than 50 yards away.  If he stayed there he could have become (rail)road kill also.

First of many we hope.

There are lots of these guys around.

We are staying in a campground devoted to hard sided vehicles (RV’s, trailers, vans, etc.).  No tent camping allowed.  Here is the entrance to the tent campground which will open in a couple of weeks.

Yes, that is a seven foot high electric fence.  It completely encircles the campground.  This whole area is a prime corridor for wildlife movement including bears.  The fence keeps campers and wildlife apart.