Day 337 July 7 2015 Waterfowl Campground Banff Alberta

Day 337  July 7 2015   Waterfowl Campground Banff Alberta

We drove from Radium Springs to the Waterfowl Campground in Banff National Park.  We stopped at several lookout points to enjoy the scenery.  We stopped for lunch at one of the waterfalls and then went exploring the area.  The next stop was for a short hike into the Paint Pots which are springs that bring ochre to the surface and is where the Indians and pioneers used to gather the ochre to make paint.  We had planned on staying in the Lake Louise campground but it was full and there was really not much that we wanted to see there so we proceeded up the road towards Jasper.  We stopped to get a few pictures of the crowfoot glacier and then found an un-serviced but nice campground at Waterfowl Lake.  At the campground the kids and I went for a walk to Upper Lake which judging from the temperature of the water must be feed from the melt water of the surrounding mountains.  I told the kids that I would pay a quarter to the one that could stay in the water to their knees the longest.  After a while I decided that might not be the best idea that I ever had and told them I would give both of them a quarter if they got out and called it a draw.  I then told them I would pay 2 dollars if they submerged in the water thinking that neither would accept the challenge after standing in the cold water.  I was wrong and they both had a dunk in the ice cold water so I am now 4 dollars and 50 cents poorer.  In the evening we spent the time around the campfire roasting marshmallows, reading and me getting humiliated at connect 4 by David.