Canada — Banff National Park

The best way to approach the Rocky Mountains is from the east, where they appear on the horizon and capture your interest as they steadily rise and expand until they extend from as far as you can see to the left and right, their craggy peaks growing larger and larger until finally you're driving up into them and they rise all around you.

The mountain air was clean and dry. Enjoying good weather, with blue skies, little white clouds, and agreeable temperatures, we drove around and admired the mountains. These are the Rocky Mountains, same range as in Colorado, but the huge advantage here is that you're in narrow valleys within the mountain range, so you have mountains and peaks all around you, some forested, but many craggy with bare rock, and all of them rising way up.

Both Jasper and Banff Parks have wildlife, and all the tourists enjoy seeing bears, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, elk, moose, or caribou up close. The easiest way to spot them when driving around is to wait for a traffic jam: If a dozen cars are stopped in front of you, look around to see what they're looking at. We saw goats, sheep, and caribou that way.

The town of Banff is a ritzy place. Lots of hotels and lodges, fancy shops with designer clothing, and good restaurants. I seriously considered making a reservation at the Restaurant Beaujolais for their Table d'Hote Dinner (three courses at a fixed price of $69 Canadian, that's $65.50 US). You get to choose each course, and I had my eye on the Tasting of Pacific Salmon Three Ways for the first course, although the Cruisse de Grenouille Croquantes (Crispy Frog's Legs) sounded intriguing. For a second course, perhaps the Lobster Bisque en Croute, or the Alaskan Crab Crepe, or (if feeling very daring) the Alberta Wild Boar Civet (whatever that is), with black cherries, choux rouge and creamy polenta with sage butter. And for the third course, the Brome Lake Duck Breast and Leg Confit with maple-nut chutney, or maybe the Rack of Lamb Provencale au Jus. Oh, my head swam with the glory of it all!

As it happened, I was distracted by the restaurant at the top of the gondola lift, where their two-course dinner was a more affordable $28. I had their Curry Soup (delicious, almost as good as the Cambodian restaurant on University in St. Paul) and Beef Rendang (luscious -- the equal, in my estimation, of the Peninsula in Minneapolis).

It began with the gondola ride, a swift eight minutes up 2,500 feet, and at the top, the incredible 360 degree view of all the mountain peaks so close at hand. Then a relaxed meal at the restaurant, the ride down the mountain, and, to cap it off, a soak in the adjacent hot mineral spring pool. The water is 40 Canadian degrees, which is 104 US degrees. No one is swimming laps at that temperature — everyone is just relaxed and blissed out. This pool is a great leveler — no matter what country you're from or how much money you've got, each of us is just a human in a bathing suit enjoying the same water.

So, if you should find yourself in Banff one day and want to give yourself a treat, I recommend any of these establishments. Dinner, $69 or $28. Gondola ride, $25. Hot springs pool, $10. The mountain views — priceless.

Lake Louise is ritziest of all. The town consists almost exclusively of fancy lodges and hotels. The grand hotel is situated on the edge of the turquoise lake facing the incredible mountain and glacier. Its history dates back to the first railroads, when it was built as a resort to lure the wealthy to enjoy the scenery in style and comfort. After walking a bit on the trail around Lake Louise, I stopped in the hotel and had a bowl of soup and glass of beer in the pub ($20). It was delicious, but I thought it overpriced, so I stole several of their paper napkins. Next time I want to have dinner in the hotel's main dining room.

Jasper, by contrast, was much more family oriented, with lots of fast food joints, although, aftrer poking around a bit, I found tasty and innovative dinners at Dangerous Dave's and at Fiddle River, with entrees around $20.

In both parks we heard foreign languages spoken — French of course, since this is a bi-lingual country, but others too, such as German. We chatted with a woman from Holland, and saw tourists of color, or from the Orient, or wearing Islamic clothing. The beauty and splendor of these parks draw people from far, far away. (Have you been here yet?)

Next time I want to drive the Glacier Highway between Jasper and Lake Louise and tour the glaciers in the special glaciermobile. That is, if the glaciers are still around, next time I visit. (The Crowfoot Glacier, for example, has already lost one of its toes, and the other two are melting pretty fast.)