Sunday in Banff – We woke up to clouds and fog on Sunday morning but we had a tour to go on so we had an early breakfast and went to the lobby to wait for our pick up. Our driver for the day Julien picked us up along with another couple from South Korea who had been on the train with us out of Vancouver and had also been on several of our other tours. He then went to a hotel in downtown Banff to pick up 6 people from New Zealand who had also been on our tour bus from Lake Louise to Banff yesterday.
Julien drove us through Banff and showed us where the original Banff hot springs were. It’s now a tourist attraction from a historical perspective but the springs there are closed because of an endangered variety of snail that live there. We went to see Bow falls which was quite pretty and had a good view of the falls.
Bow Falls
Bow Falls
Bow Falls
We then headed to the Banff Gondola where we took the Gondola to the top of Sulphur Mountain. The bottom of the Gondola is very close to where our hotel is, and it is also the site of the new hot springs that were relocated to protect the snails. The Gondola ride to the top was fairly short and the mountain was very cloud covered. When we got to the top of the Gondola we then walked the rest of the way to the top. The views on one side were fine but the side towards town and our hotel were completely cloud covered. We took lots of pictures, had a coffee at the highest starbucks in Canada and then rejoined our van.
At the top of Sulphur Mountain after taking the Gondola up
At the top of Sulphur Mountain after taking the Gondola up
At the top of Sulphur Mountain after taking the Gondola up
At the top of Sulphur Mountain after taking the Gondola up
At the top of Sulphur Mountain after taking the Gondola up
We then went down the street where all of the original Banff families as well as lots of wealthy people from the area live. The houses were beautiful and quite expensive because they were on the river. We found out that you can not buy a house in Banff unless you live here full time. This is to keep the cost of housing in check and not allow it to all be bought up by investors. We also learned that when you buy a home here, you only lease the land because it’s part of the national park so you can get an 80 year lease on the land.
We drove up Tunnel Mountain Drive to the Bow Valley overlook and past the Banff Art center where lots of internationally known artists, actors, musicians etc… have come to speak and study. We also were shown the trail head for Tunnel Mountain – more on this later.
We went to see some rock formations called the HooDoos which were pretty cool
HooDoos
We then went to Two Jack Lake and Lake Minnewanka via a scenic drive. Both lakes were very pretty and we stopped to walk a bit and get some pictures. On the way back to Banff proper we saw a black bear eating along the side of the road.
Two Jack Lake
Two Jack Lake
Lake Minnewanka
Lake Minnewanka and the Red Chairs there
Next stop was the HooDoos – a rock formation that the Stony People believe catch evil spirits. They are very cool rock formations on the side of a cliff way above town.
After that we headed back into town and got dropped off at our hotel. We went into Banff, and had some lunch at The Tavern which was recommended by our tour guide. They were on a wait so we ran over and got a Park Pass for the rental car that we were going to pick up later since we are in the national park. We had a fantastic pizza for lunch, then went and picked up our car at the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel. This was the same owner as the hotels that we stayed at in Jasper and Lake Louise. It’s a beautiful, huge old hotel, we didn’t go inside but it was quite spectacular from the outside and sits on a hill overlooking the river and town.
Once we had our car we went back to the hotel to get ready for a hike up tunnel mountain. We started at the trail head near the Banff center which our guide from the morning recommended. It was about a 45 minute hike up a very steep mountain. The views along the way and at the top were really beautiful! But we had reservations for dinner and we had earned a nice dinner with that hike so we headed down after getting a few pictures at the top.
Pictures from the top of Tunnel Mountaiin
Pictures from the top of Tunnel Mountaiin
Red chairs at the top of Tunnel Mountain
Highest point on Tunnel Mountain
View from Tunnel Mountain
We had dinner at an Italian restaurant in town called LaTerraza and it was really good. We had appetizers (prosciutto and melon and a Caprese Salad) then dinner was Lobster Linguini and the Chef’s special Roselinni which was sort of like Lasagna, with ham inside, rolled up to look like roses. Conrad really enjoyed that. Then we had excellent Tiramisu and Gelato for Dessert.