Berries, Bears and Banff

We arrived in Banff to hike and the berries are just beginning to ripen so that means it is officially Bear season.  Many of the trails were off limits unless you were travelling in groups of four and have bear spray and bear bells.  Thanks to Amazon, we were prepared and excited to hike!

We saw lots of animals and fortunately the grizzly bear was from the car not on one of our hikes.  If we saw this guy on the hike it would not be pretty!

Johnson Lake was a beautiful hike at dusk and this cute black bear was just around the corner from where we hiked.

We saw a few mountain goats, elk and of course mule deer.

Unfortunately the photos from some of our hikes are a bit hazy as we had to deal with smoky skies from the nearby fires.  It made for some difficult hiking at times but we were able to get in some great hikes and see a lot of this beautiful area.  The hoodoos and the bow river are better in person than the photos show as the mountains in the background are a bit hazy from the smoke.

The Johnson canyon although crowded with tourist is a breathtaking site as well!

Sundance Canyon was pretty too but talk about mosquitos!  It was like a cloud following you down the trail and funny thing there were very few people on this trail – could be the mosquitos or the mile bike ride to get to the trailhead that was all uphill!

We have enjoyed Banff but are hoping to get away from the smoke as we head north to Jasper on Wednesday.