Banff, Alberta

 

Drove the truck from Cochrane where the RV park is to Banff, about an hour drive. The weather was partly cloudy with some occasional sunshine, about 60 degrees on the drive. The entire town of Banff is located in the National Park, so the highway funnels you to a Ranger station where you get to pay your entry fees. The temp dropped about 10 degrees as we headed up the mountains inside the park.
The town of Banff was really nice. The main street has many hotels, shops, restaurants, bars, and a lot of tourist traffic. Parking was hard to find, but we found our way into a nice parking lot behind a museum that was almost empty and not too far of a walk.

The Canadian Rockies are fantastic, the pictures do not do them justice. Snow covered peaks with some glaciers mixed in everywhere you look. We walked up and down the main street, bought a few shirts etc, and then stopped into a local brewhouse for a couple of pints of local brew and some nachos. The bartender was born and raised in Banff, and played goalie for one of the hockey clubs in town.

After lunch we headed for a couple of the tourist traps. First we walked to the Cave and Basin part of the N.P. It was ok, a short walk in the cave to a pool of sulphuric bubbling water, and then a basin that was originally used as a hot spring, but then somebody realized there were microscopic snails in the basin that exist nowhere else on earth- now, it is a science project. Honestly, we would not have gotten into it even if allowed, but the science lesson from the park ranger was interesting.
The thing that continually blows you away is that in the 1870's, some guy found this place in the middle of a bunch of 10,000 foot mountains. Hard enough with drones, planes and satellite imagery, unimaginable on foot with a pack horse.

Next we headed for the gondola that goes to the top of Sulphur Mountain. What a nice ride up to the top, then there was a really well done boardwalk that went over to the next mountain top. Ended up walking up and down the mountain for quite a while- working off the nachos.

We finally finished up in Banff and drove up the road for about 45 minutes to Lake Louise. We found the hotel, and the visitors center. The nice girl from New Zealand at the desk pointed us to the Outpost Pub for dinner. A tiny local spot in the back of a local hotel. We had Poutine for an apetizer, (fries, brown gravy, and cheese curds) it is a Canadian specialty that the bartender said you had to try when in Canada. We then had a few local brews, Nancy had wine, and settled on a salad to try to make up for the Poutine. Was a great dinner- we enjoyed the pub, the people, and the fare.