Hello everyone,
It was another gloomy day today here in Banff, but we made the best of it and it ended up being great. First of all, we drove to the nearby town of Canmore. Usually it is surrounded by dramatic Rocky Mountain peaks like Banff, but not today. Today it was surrounded by clouds! We are going to try again tomorrow on our way to Calgary. But, we still enjoyed a walk here along the Bow River and a couple of creeks, seeing elk and lots of residential areas. Then we sat and had a coffee and a bagel in the main street and people (and dog!) watched. The town was named in 1884 and in 1886 a coal mine was started up here. It shut in 1979, and the town went through a tough period as many of its residents were affected by job losses. In 1988 Calgary and Canmore joint hosted the Winter Olympics, and this revived the town as it put it on the map for tourists and enticed more Canadians to live there. It was a cute little town, perhaps tomorrow we will be able to see the mountains surrounding it too.
On the way back we did a looped scenic drive past Two Jack Lake and Lake Minnewanka. Near Two Jack Lake we saw a group of Bighorn Sheep which we hadn't yet seen, so that was cool. Lake Minnewanka was partially defrosted and it was interesting seeing little boats driving through icy water and creating waves that washed ice ashore, like a giant Slurpee! On the way back to Banff we also drove around the Vermilion Lakes area which was nice too.
Upon returning to Banff, we bit the bullet and headed back to the Banff Gondola to ascend 2281m above Banff. The gondola first opened in 1959 after the popularity of a teahouse built on the summit in 1940 grew. The weather was really cloudy today but we had prepaid for it with our Columbia Icefield ticket a couple of months back, so we decided to head up anyway. In the end, it was worth having driven here yesterday to switch our tickets to today. We somehow managed to score the only 10-15 minute patch of sun/bright sky for the day. We enjoyed views the whole way up the mountain and then at the top as well. There was a great boardwalk around 600m long that we walked, and it was covered in snow quite a bit of the way. We had fun stepping in it and pushing it off the edge as it was so new and fluffy. At the end of the boardwalk was a weather station that was in use from 1903 to the mid 1930s. The man who operated it hiked the mountain more than 1000 times! After we returned back to the gondola building we sat inside and shared a ginger beer, and a huge cloud came over and it started to snow!! The view did not reappear after this and we couldn't believe our luck that we had been able to see it. We kept having a laugh too at the fact that we could hear the train horns all the way up here. It's a requirement in Canada that the cross country trains have to sound their horn four times when passing through towns such as Banff. They even do this after midnight, I know this as they keep waking me up! Apparently it's for safety. We were laughing because we aren't sure why it needs to be so loud that people up at 2200m high mountain need to know the train is coming!
Once back down, the really friendly server from Perth that had helped change our tickets yesterday said she was happy for us we had swapped our tickets over. She had told us yesterday she had recently arrived here to live and work, and she was so friendly that we gifted her our bear spray as we will have to throw it out once we fly out of Calgary in a couple of days anyway. She was stoked as she hadn't had time to buy any yet and we had saved her $55!
Now we are having a rest in the room. Soon we will head out for dinner and are then seeing a movie at the Banff Cinemas. Unbelievably as it's Tuesday the tickets were only $9 Australian, which will mean it's the cheapest movie we've seen in years! I would not have expected that in Banff of all places.
We have really enjoyed it here and have made the best of the first poor weather we have really experienced on our trip. We've been lucky that it only seemed to rain at night while we slept or just lightly and not for long while we walked around. Banff is a really beautiful town, but I have to say I think I did enjoy Jasper more. It was more wild with less crowds and more animals. However, both have their charms and I'm really glad we visited both. I'm really sad to leave Banff as the weather we had really fed in to the Swiss chalet town sort of vibe it has, I loved it. Tomorrow we drive to Calgary and drop our car off.
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
It was another gloomy day today here in Banff, but we made the best of it and it ended up being great. First of all, we drove to the nearby town of Canmore. Usually it is surrounded by dramatic Rocky Mountain peaks like Banff, but not today. Today it was surrounded by clouds! We are going to try again tomorrow on our way to Calgary. But, we still enjoyed a walk here along the Bow River and a couple of creeks, seeing elk and lots of residential areas. Then we sat and had a coffee and a bagel in the main street and people (and dog!) watched. The town was named in 1884 and in 1886 a coal mine was started up here. It shut in 1979, and the town went through a tough period as many of its residents were affected by job losses. In 1988 Calgary and Canmore joint hosted the Winter Olympics, and this revived the town as it put it on the map for tourists and enticed more Canadians to live there. It was a cute little town, perhaps tomorrow we will be able to see the mountains surrounding it too.
On the way back we did a looped scenic drive past Two Jack Lake and Lake Minnewanka. Near Two Jack Lake we saw a group of Bighorn Sheep which we hadn't yet seen, so that was cool. Lake Minnewanka was partially defrosted and it was interesting seeing little boats driving through icy water and creating waves that washed ice ashore, like a giant Slurpee! On the way back to Banff we also drove around the Vermilion Lakes area which was nice too.
Upon returning to Banff, we bit the bullet and headed back to the Banff Gondola to ascend 2281m above Banff. The gondola first opened in 1959 after the popularity of a teahouse built on the summit in 1940 grew. The weather was really cloudy today but we had prepaid for it with our Columbia Icefield ticket a couple of months back, so we decided to head up anyway. In the end, it was worth having driven here yesterday to switch our tickets to today. We somehow managed to score the only 10-15 minute patch of sun/bright sky for the day. We enjoyed views the whole way up the mountain and then at the top as well. There was a great boardwalk around 600m long that we walked, and it was covered in snow quite a bit of the way. We had fun stepping in it and pushing it off the edge as it was so new and fluffy. At the end of the boardwalk was a weather station that was in use from 1903 to the mid 1930s. The man who operated it hiked the mountain more than 1000 times! After we returned back to the gondola building we sat inside and shared a ginger beer, and a huge cloud came over and it started to snow!! The view did not reappear after this and we couldn't believe our luck that we had been able to see it. We kept having a laugh too at the fact that we could hear the train horns all the way up here. It's a requirement in Canada that the cross country trains have to sound their horn four times when passing through towns such as Banff. They even do this after midnight, I know this as they keep waking me up! Apparently it's for safety. We were laughing because we aren't sure why it needs to be so loud that people up at 2200m high mountain need to know the train is coming!
Once back down, the really friendly server from Perth that had helped change our tickets yesterday said she was happy for us we had swapped our tickets over. She had told us yesterday she had recently arrived here to live and work, and she was so friendly that we gifted her our bear spray as we will have to throw it out once we fly out of Calgary in a couple of days anyway. She was stoked as she hadn't had time to buy any yet and we had saved her $55!
Now we are having a rest in the room. Soon we will head out for dinner and are then seeing a movie at the Banff Cinemas. Unbelievably as it's Tuesday the tickets were only $9 Australian, which will mean it's the cheapest movie we've seen in years! I would not have expected that in Banff of all places.
We have really enjoyed it here and have made the best of the first poor weather we have really experienced on our trip. We've been lucky that it only seemed to rain at night while we slept or just lightly and not for long while we walked around. Banff is a really beautiful town, but I have to say I think I did enjoy Jasper more. It was more wild with less crowds and more animals. However, both have their charms and I'm really glad we visited both. I'm really sad to leave Banff as the weather we had really fed in to the Swiss chalet town sort of vibe it has, I loved it. Tomorrow we drive to Calgary and drop our car off.
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
OMG. Everything looks so beautiful. What great memories you’re going to have.
ReplyDeleteIt really is fantastic, Jane! We were very sad to leave.
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