Part Three - Revelstoke BC to Banff Ab - P.S. Map shows down to Waterton, this post ends at Banff.

Leaving Revelstoke, a little mist had me worried about another day of being soggy, but it cleared up and dried off. They're building a big bridge, pretty impressive piece of work...

Here's some scale. This is the leftmost pillar in the previous pic (yeah - the small one). at it's base is a doorway...

Big countryside. Rivers, steep valleys, stark mountainsides. Beautiful...

OK, this takes some explaining. The trains you see are actually the front and back of the same train. To get over the pass, two spiral tunnels were built, loops buried deep into the hillsides. You're looking at the entrance and exit of the lower spiral, it's about a mile long. The upper tunnel is actually behind me in this shot, on the other side of the highway. The extra length provided by the tunnels allows the track pitch to be shallower, to prevent runaway trains.

The sheer scale makes you feel small...

Riding in the dry!!!

Took a little detour to a place called Emerald Lake (be patient, it's coming). The road follows a wild river down it's vally. The road was fun, and we stopped to see this interesting feature...

The river ends here...

And gets spit out on this end...

Emerald Lake. Fed by four or five glacial drainages, its brilliant green and murky with finely ground suspended silt

You can just see a glacier's nose peeking out...

The red rental canoes really stand out...

Colors...

Back rolling towards Banff, scenery EVERYWHERE...

Wildlife crossings. Great idea.

Getting close...

Got in, got a hotel, got some food, did some exploring. It was Sunday, the town was pretty quiet. We slept well.