Johnston Falls

The hike to Johnston Falls sure was crowded but it was a nice little hike with suspended catwalks along the river carved stone walls.  The rangers would not tell us how to get to the secret cave and rock.  We would have to find it on our own which proved to be a tough task.  After some searching, we finally found the cave on the side of a deep gorge and a muddy, slippery hike down to the water's edge.  

It proved worth the search and the hike as the cave gave us a superb perspective for our cameras.  There was also a cave behind the waterfall which gave us a unique view and a challenging camera shot.  Later I climbed back up and shot the overhead shot.

While down near the water I had reached into my fanny back to take a panoramic shot with my iPhone.  I was not a happy camper when I discovered it was not there.  My first inclination was that I lost it on the  trail, then I re-traced the hike in my mind.  I did not use it on the hike, my Nikon was on duty that day.   My panic subsided as my last memory was standing on the medial strip on Banff Ave, phone in hand talking to and searching for my sister and her crew  So, either Barbara had it or it was in the car.  Brother in law Paul found it in the car after we became separated on the return hike, a much longer story.   I dodged a bullet.

Oh yeah, on the way back to Banff, we saw the only bear I would see during our stay a couple of miles from Johnston Falls trailhead.  I was stoked to get great shots of the large male grizzly as he foraged for berries and bugs in the open fields completely oblivious to the half a dozen cars pulled up along side of the road gawking with glee.