We arrived at Glacier National Park in the early afternoon so we drove around the park a bit and picked an easy hike before checking into our room.

Avalanche Lake Trail is a quick 4 mile round trip that meanders up and down a little bit before ending at the lake which is fed by several small waterfalls.

The weather turned rainy and cold on us and our primary hike had no open parking.

So moving on to plan B we decided to just go from one end of the Going-To-The-Sun-Highway to the other and hopefully get in some sights and maybe a little walk to a falls.

Funny how doing nothing seems to generate lots and lots of pictures.

The Granite Park Chalet can be reached by several trails. From Logan Pass it's 14 miles round trip. From The Loop Trail it's 8 miles round trip. We opted for The Loop Trail since we wanted to do some other things that day and were not sure we could do the 14 miles and still have enough umph left.

Well you know what they say about best laid plans. Loop Trail may be only 4 miles but it's 4 miles of 2300 foot elevation gain. Then 4 miles down. The hike is worth it however despite the gasping lungs and stubbed toes. Once at the Chalet you are rewarded with beautiful vistas.

We left Glacier and drove up into Alberta to Banff where we stayed the night before starting on the Icefields Parkway that runs through both Banff and Jasper parks.

Since we were going to stay in Hinton on the outskirts of Jasper we figured we would explore the southern portion today and the northern sections tomorrow.

After consulting our map we decided to do a little hike to Bow Glacier and then do some sightseeing while driving up to Jasper.

Today we headed south into Jasper National Park and did some nice touristing.

First stop was Maligne Canyon (pronounced mah-leen). This is a spectacular canyon with beautiful aqua water rushing down toward Maligne Lake. We turned back after crossing the 5th bridge but you can go several more miles.

The second stop was Athabasca Falls. It's a short walk with more magnificent falls and rushing water. Again that incredible aqua color.

Naturally we did a number of other stops along the Icefields Parkway but for the sake of brevity I will not post the dozens of shots of trees, paths, streams, rivers and mountains. However my restraint does not mean I won't include at least some of the shots of the great horned sheep that are everywhere in the park.

Our destination was Elk Island which is about an hour outside Edmonton.

It's a wildlife refuge that boasts of wood bison, plains bison (I didn't know there were different kinds), elk, lynx, moose and other wildlife.

All we saw were buffalo and a bird I can not identify.

Since it was 45 degrees with rain and a wind chill of 30 if we didn't see it from the truck it just wasn't seen.

Drumheller is south of Edmonton and claims to be the Dinosaur Capital of the World. It is home to the worlds largest dinosaur, The Royal Tyrrell Museum, Atlas Coal Mine, Willow Creek HooDoos, Badlands and The Little Church. In short, a tourists dream.

Although we took no pictures inside the museum it has the best palaeontology displays we have ever seen. Some of the displays were very unique and we saw more types of dinosaurs here than any place else.

This is now a National Historic Site but until 1979 when the last Atlas Mine closed the area was a boom for coal miners.

The tippler building has been restored and the tour takes you up into the building where the coal was received and sorted.

Construction is still on-going but much is open to view including the washroom used by the miners after their shifts, the office, and a miner's home. Future plans include tours inside the mine by 2010.

I love Devils Tower so since we are heading south anyway we decided to make another visit. This time the sun was shining and the tower looks completely different than on our last visit. It was also hosting a good number of rock climbers.

The area is so peaceful and varied. There is this great rock rising from the plains, surrounded by a small pine forest which makes for pleasant walking, and then the prairie dog town on the road in always give you a smile. Don't worry, I've narrowed down the 300 prairie dog shots to just a few for your viewing pleasure.

The last time we came through South Dakota we did Wind Cave, so this time we decided to visit Jewel Cave, the second largest cave in the world but with new areas being discovered all the time it might just break into first. The calcite crystals that form so much of it make for very colorful pictures.

After our cave tour we drove through Custer State Park. This is a beautiful area which we want to explore further on another trip, but we did get some nice shots of pronghorns and turkeys. No buffalo this time.