A walk to the Vermillion Lakes in Banff

 I recently spent a wonderful weekend in Banff National Park in Alberta.  Three of us from my local walking club did a nine hour road trip together to the Canadian Volkssport convention.  You may have read my posts about doing my 10 km walks.  This is what it's all about!  I will be writing an upcoming post (but don't hold your breath!) about Volkssport and how it has changed my life and there will be more posts about the convention coming up.  In the meantime if you want to read more information about it click here. 

Vermillion Lakes are a series of three lakes located west of the Banff townsite.  Archeological  evidence shows that there was human activity around this lake as far back as 10,800 years!

The weather was absolutely amazing - we were so LUCKY!  Everyone at the convention was overwhelmed at how beautiful Banff was - yes I do live in an amazingly beautiful country.

The first full day of the convention my friend June and I did an 11 km afternoon walk to the Vermillion Lakes and back.  I had been advised not to do this walk (I was going to do the 5 km version of it) alone as there were a lot of bears around.  The upper levels of Banff still had a lot of snow so the bears were at lower levels looking for food after their long hibernation.  Luckily June agreed to accompany me and I don't think she regretted it!!! 

We walked along the Bow river and then along a forested path and emerged onto a road that meandered beside the lakes.  

I don't need words to describe the beauty of our walk so I will shut up now and let you enjoy it. But keep a look out for bears.and especially keep an eye out for that very aggressive mama elk they say is around as well....

 

We walked out and back on this road - definitely not a shabby view..

Starting to head back

Back through the forest

I hope you enjoyed taking the walk with us - it was a beauty.  But there are more of these to come....there is no such thing as a boring walk in Banff!!!