While we were in Yellowstone the persistent smoke from the wildfires seemed minimal, which raised our hopes a little. That was until today's drive to our pit stop for the night in Montana. The smoke has in fact gotten worse. The elevation of Yellowstone made it less of an issue there.

While this looks like sunset, it was actually late afternoon. I assume the sun broke through cloud in the distance and lit up the smoke on the horizon. Pretty and depressing at the same time.

Upon arriving at our hotel for the night, ash was falling from the sky and had almost coated the other cars in the parking lot. Regardless, we're going to truck on as per the plan for the time being since we don't really have a viable alternative at this point that wouldn't be costly (due to non-refundable accommodation bookings) or take us miles off route.

Incidentally, I happened to take this photo of the moon last night in Yellowstone while trying to capture a larger shot that didn't end up working out.

And here's the moon tonight as seen from Missoula through all the smoke in the air. Yeah.

Nice sunny day, except for the smoke.

Today we hit our first road closure caused by the wildfires. Somewhere in those hills it's all happening right now. Fortunately for us it wasn't our problem - we had to turn here anyway.

And this is what we turned into - Glacier National Park. The wildfire causing that road closure is within the boundary of the park, but in an area we're not intending to visit.

Glacier National Park encompasses over a million acres, includes parts of two mountain ranges (both sub-ranges of the Rocky Mountains), over 130 named lakes, more than 1,000 different species of plants, and hundreds of species of animals. Phew! This here is Lake McDonald where we're camping for the night - the largest in the park and completed shrouded in smoke.

This is Going-to-the-Sun Road - the only road that crosses the park and one I've been looking forward to driving since first learning of it given how narrow and winding it becomes as it heads deeper into the park. We'll be doing it all tomorrow, instead just driving a small portion of it today en route to a hike we wanted to do.

And this is that hike - a five-mile round-trip through massive cedar trees that make it quite dark on the forest floor. One of those hundreds of animals that inhabit the park include bears - both black and grizzly. As such, we armed ourselves with a big can of bear spray (as recommended), which is essentially glorified mace that is intended to be fired at the bear in case it gets pissed off with you being on its turf. The instructions said to give it a test spray upon purchasing to be sure it works. Well after we parked the car here, I gave it a quick blast. However, I don't think I accounted for the slight breeze which seemed to blow it back at us, and within ten seconds we were coughing and sneezing hehe. After walking away we were passed by a group of about 12 people walking the opposite way, including a few kids, and upon passing our car they too all started coughing and sneezing uncontrollably hahaha! Suffice it to say, the bear spray seems to work good ;)

Anyway, the trail follows Avalanche Creek here - one of the more picturesque creeks I've come across!

We were rummaging around in the trees for about 45 minutes, but didn't come across any bears (or anything else for that matter). Probably a good thing - spray or no spray.

And this is where the trail ended - Avalanche Lake, also rather picturesque albeit a little empty at this time of year. Spot the waterfalls on the side of the mountain in the distance that feed the lake. This is but one of countless trails through the park, most of which lead to something that will be ruined by all the smoke in the air, so this is all we tackled for today.

After getting the obligatory photos of ourselves we headed back with bear spray at the ready, and resisting the urge to spray some more for the tourists to walk through.

After a night of on-and-off rain, we awoke this morning to find the car absolutely filthy, but a clear blue sky in what feels like the first time in forever! It seems the rain literally absorbed the smoke from the sky and deposited it all over the ground (and our car). Filthy car or not, we'll take it!

Unfortunately the sun didn't stick around for long before the sky clouded over, but at least we can see more than 100 yards in front of us now! This is Lake McDonald again - recall my shot of it from yesterday when it was shrouded in smoke.

This is Going-to-the-Sun Road, the only road that passes through Glacier National Park, and today we followed it all the way through with its awesome vistas.

Going-to-the-Sun Road is 53 miles (85km) in length, and gets very narrow and winding (my favourite) as it passes through and over the mountains. The shot in the middle is a good example of that - not a good spot to miss a corner hehe, but the views are pretty damn impressive!

On the other side of the mountains we passed through an area that was a raging inferno only a matter of days ago. This fire is now completely out, but the hiking trails in this area are still closed, which just happens to be an area I had wanted to explore. While this fire may be out, countless others are still raging, so it may only be a matter of time before we're buried in smoke again.

Wild Goose Island in the middle of Saint Mary Lake - the second largest in the park. Bit of film trivia: the opening scene of the 1980 Stanley Kubrick movie The Shining was shot here. Here's Johnny!

From there we drove out the other side of the park, and north a short way for our second visit of the trip to Canada!

Our second trip to Canada of the trip, and my second trip to Calgary. The city is home to over a million people but it feels a lot smaller. We started the day wandering down Stephen Avenue - a major pedestrian mall downtown which is full of boutiques, cafes and pubs.

Winners.

Loser, walking down the street yelling obscenities.

The Calgary Tower, which I went up seven years ago. At 627 feet (191m) high, it was the tallest structure in the city upon its completion in 1968 but has long since been overtaken.

This here is The Bow - currently the tallest office tower in the city at 774 feet (236m). That wire head out front is a creepy public art installation standing 40 feet (12m) tall.

And this here is the Bow River as it passes Prince's Island Park. Last time I was here I saw a woman taking her parrot for a walk hehe - true story :)

While walking around today we noticed a definite change in the air. I know we're quite a way north here but the air is cooling, the leaves are starting to lose their deep greens, and it feels like autumn is in the air. After three winters in New York, we're looking forward to a Texas 'winter'!

The Calgary Stampede is an annual rodeo, exhibition and festival held here every July.

The ten-day event, which bills itself as "The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth", attracts over a million visitors per year and features one of the world's largest rodeos as well as parades, concerts, agricultural competitions, and all sorts of other goodies.

For the other 355 days of the year, the stampede grounds sit empty, apart from the occasional tourist who wanders in for a nosey.

Looking south towards the downtown Calgary skyline. It's a little light on must-see tourist attractions, but seems like yet another nice Canadian city. Tomorrow we head deep into the Canadian Rockies for a few days - one of my most favourite spots on the planet :)

Drive barely an hour west of Calgary and you're right in the heart of the Canadian Rocky Mountains!

Our port of fun for the next few days is the town of Banff here, and the surrounding area of Banff National Park. Banff is a resort town and one of Canada's most popular tourist destinations, known for its mountainous surroundings and hot springs. I was here for my 26th birthday a little over seven years ago, and the place really made an impression on me!

We spent the day in and around Banff, checking out some of the places I remember from last time and finding a few new ones. I mentioned Bow River in Calgary, well here it is flowing through Banff.

Two Jack Lake - one of several lakes in the area.

And one of the three Vermillion Lakes, with Mount Rundle in the background.

This is the view of Bow River and the valley across the street from our campground. Pretty bloody nice!

After a night and a morning of pissing rain, this here was the only sunshine we got all day. The weather forecast had predicted it though, and so I had the perfect destination in mind. The drive there involved passing through Kootenay National Park which sits adjacent to Banff National Park where we're camping.

Kootenay, and for that matter the whole area, is full of vistas such as this around every corner, which makes it slow-going when trying to get somewhere :)

Anyway, we spent the day soaking in Radium Hot Springs, surrounded by towering cliffs. The hot springs complex here opened in the 1920s, and at some point in the 1960s a fuel tanker happened to crash on the road at the bottom of the cliff there and spewed its load everywhere hehe - that would have been a sight.

Today started out nice enough, but the weather forecast knew better and it very quickly turned to crap again. I had this same problem when I was here at the start of June seven years ago. It seems if you want nice, clear, sunny weather here, come in July or don't come at all.

We got in a couple more must-see Banff sights before deciding to leave a day early due to the weather and start making our way towards Vancouver. This is Lake Louise, overlooked by Chateau Lake Louise on its eastern shore. Kristina wasn't able to get us any discounted accommodation here, but I did stay here for my 26th birthday last time :)

And this is one of the most stunning lakes I've ever seen - Moraine Lake, in the Valley of the Ten Peaks. Like most of the lakes around here, Moraine is a glacial lake, i.e. it is fed by meltwater from nearby glaciers. The glaciers grind the rock beneath them into a fine powder called rock flour. Meltwaters wash this powder into the lake, and the resultant silty water absorbs all colours of incoming light except this turquoise blue that reflects back out. Nice!

So that's Banff National Park (and surrounds) in a nutshell. Absolutely breathtaking, but seriously - come here in July only. Our decision to leave early was soon justified when it started to snow quite heavily as we were heading out, and back down towards sea level. The west coast awaits!