Banff, Alberta

Today we were able to get up at a leisurely pace as we were staying for a couple of nights.  The weather has been great – although the forecast was calling for rain – we’ve only had a few drops here and there.

After roasting a few marshmallows for an after breakfast treat, (I know, I’m going soft in my old age), we headed off in the direction of Sulphur Springs Mountain to take a gondola ride and hike.  We saw some amazing storms happening in the mountains, but where we were was bright and sunny.

The ride of the gondola was about 10 minutes and our ears popped like crazy!  At the top we had an incredible view of the Rockies and Bow River, another turquoise body of water.  We hiked up to the weather station that Norman Bethune Sanson maintained for a number of years and along the way saw tonnes of chipmunks, squirrels an big horned mountain sheep.  There were also beautiful and tame birds  -Whiskey Jacks that loved to come and feed from the tourists.

Later on in the day we went for a boat ride on Lake Minniwanka.  It’s the largest lake in the national park – but was actually 3 separate lakes that were merged into one through some dams in the area.  We were able to enjoy some great views of the mountains, water, and all kinds of nature.  Our tour guide Tanya was great and shared lots of different stories about the spirits who lived in the mountains along with the lake monster – if you were fishing and didn’t make peace with the spirits, the lake monster would circle around your boat to create large waves and then pull you into the water by your feet.

Tanya was originally from Ontario but came to Banff for a vacation and has never returned.  It’s interesting as we’ve met a number of people who are not locals but just love the park so much – they now call it home.

We returned to our campsite for a nice relaxing evening around the campfire.  There was a chill in the air, but Oliver – the firemaster – did a great job keeping us warm.  After a healthy dinner, we were back to the S’Mores and our final bits of chocolate and gramham crackers.  There’s a quiet time curfew in place so all fires and conversations have to be out by 11:00.  The warden came around to enforce this curfew so it actually encouraged us to get to bed and have a good’s night rest.