Day 12! But first, we have to tell you about something very special that happened on day 11 while we were finding a place to sleep. We came across a herd of elk! We were so surprised by the sounds the babies made as they ran back and forth around the adults legs.

Today we spent most of the day in Banff preparing for the next leg of our journey, which meant checking out books at the Banff Public Library to find some interesting hikes, as well as doing a little grocery shopping. It was nice to have some down time and relax with a warm drink and some sweet treats at a coffee shop. (I'm getting quite good at the Starbucks thing now: I ordered a tall London Fog, sweet, with lots of foam :P )

Caitlyn also found a list of "free or low cost things to do in Banff" at the library, and we decided to take in a nice warm meal and friendly conversation at the Banff Park Church with some very tasty beef chili! It was interesting to hear from the expats living and working in Banff.

Then we made our way up the Icefields Parkway to find a campsite for the night. We skipped a lot of the interesting stuff we did in Banff last year, but even so, we still came across something we hadn't expected: a black bear grazing on dandelions along the side of the parkway! And also a very cute raven following me around as I took photos; I'm looking forward to making friends with the ravens in Whitehorse! (And don't worry: one of the things we bought during our shopping trip in Banff was bear spray :) )

We had hoped to camp at Mosquitto Creek, which had nice campsites right up to the rushing water, but it was chock full, so we went a little further to the Waterfowl Lakes campground, which is beautiful, and has a gorgeous view of the mountains and our favourite Mistaya River. It's going to rain tonight, so we made sure we're well prepared with a tarp protecting our tent.

That's all for tonight! Good night, friends!