20240907 Saturday, September 7, 2024- Banff National Park, Lake Louise
We slept like babies in the wonderful beds and perfect climate control at the Calgary Fairmont, and had nice breakfast in the restaurant. They had a set menu to chose from but the portions were hearty and the food was excellent quality.
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We boarded the coach outside the hotel and were pleasantly surprised they had hired a coach that was probably able to seat 80 passengers, so we were able to spread out across the coach and there was plenty of leg room.
There were a few interesting public art works on our drive out of Calgary. One of the main industries is Oil and Gas, which provides ample public art funding. Because of the severity of the winters, there are many overhead enclosed walkways interconnecting building blocks within downtown Calgary called the Plus 15 because they are 15' above the street level.
The drive north out of Calgary took us past the 1988 Winter Olympics ski jump site. The towers and ramps remain standing as a monument to the event, although they are not used for ski jumping any longer. The surrounding area is still host to other winter sports.
It took a bit longer to climb out of the prairie than it took for the airplane to swoop in. We were a bit surprised at how much traffic was on the Trans-Canadian Highway heading into the Rockies, but it was a weekend and the locals love to head out to their favorite neighborhood national park whenever they can. As we edged past the prairies, forest began closing in on the highway as it wound along the path of the Bow River. In the foothills of the Rockies, there are some of the oldest and largest concrete plants in the country.
The Canadian Rockies are quite an impressive sight. They are also geologically quite dissimilar in appearance from our Cascade range. These Rockies look like metamorphic sedimentary rock that has been fractured and tipped up on end like giant ship prows. The colors are primarily grey with hints of brown in places.
We made a brief stop in Canmore, where a set of three adjacent mountain peaks are referred to as the 3 Sisters.
Once we crossed over into the Banff National Park, there were wildlife overhead passes which were specifically designed to carry herds of migratory animals and preserve wildlife corridors. These are said to have successfully reduced large animal collisions by over 80%.
Banff is Canada’s first National Park. The area was largely developed by the Canadian Pacific Railroad. Canada built a transcontinental rail system like the US built, and it was faced by all the same challenges.
We drove right past Banff initially and continued to head north to Lake Louise, which is further north in the Banff National Park.
We made a lunch stop at Lake Louise Village, which had a much wider variety of food vendors than the Lake Louise Lodge on the shores of Lake Louise. We opted to grab some ready made sandwiches and a bag of chips from a grocery after seeing a very long line at the deli sandwich shop.
We briefly toured the Visitor Center which pretty much just had an information counter manned by National Park rangers and a handful of exhibits.
The drive to Lake Louise Lodge was pretty brief. The lake itself is not huge, but it has a striking aquamarine color and is surrounded by pristine wilderness and towering mountains. The lake shore closest to the parking area was very crowded with people taking photos. It is said this is the most photographed spot in all of Canada. We caught sight of a couple of First Nations couples dressed in ceremonial costumes amongst the crowds of tourists.
From Lake Louise, we headed up another glacial valley to Moraine Lake. This is the location of another private lodge, and while the road is closed to general traffic, guests of the Lake Moraine Lodge and some commercial groups like ours are allowed access. This made the lake shore much less crowded. The lake itself has a deeper turquoise color and is much less busy with kayaks and canoes. There is a huge rock pile at the outlet of the moraine which creates a convenient view point.
The bus then took us into the city of Banff proper. The city has streets that are designated as pedestrian only during some periods of the day and week, and although the main road Banff Avenue was once like this, the local residents complained about all the traffic being routed through residential areas that they ended up relenting and opening it up to full time vehicular traffic.
We drove across the Bow river and visited Bow Falls, which was near the historic Banff Hot Springs Hotel, which is now a Fairmont Hotel property. It was built by a Canadian Pacific Railroad tycoon and has long stood as an example of one of the finest resort hotels on the continent. Our guide said she could tell people on their post cruise tours from Vancouver to Calgary that she could put them on rafts just below Bow Falls and she could then pick them up in downtown Calgary. These falls are more like a class 12 rapids as they tumble over a stretch rather than dropping straight down vertically.
It was with disappointment that we learned that we were not staying in the grand Fairmont Banff Hot Springs hotel, but instead were driven back into Banff proper and checked into the Fox Hotel on the Northern end of town. Viking did provide us with free 3 day local transit passes which would allow us to ride the local buses anywhere in the Banff tourist area so that was nice.
The hotel is rustic in comparison with the Fairmont in Calgary, but mostly with respect to the decor being timber lodge oriented and the rooms all being accessed by outdoors walkways rather an indoor halls. The rooms are laid out for long term use with kitchenettes complete with sinks, microwaves and refrigerators. They are well appointed, clean and meticulously maintained. We should be comfortable enough tonight as well.
After dropping off our gear in the hotel room, we headed off on the local bus to see the Banff Gondola and Hot Springs. The Gondola rides were $89 per person, and we would have had to wait more than an hour to go up, so we passed on that and walked to the Hot Springs instead. There is an outdoors hot spring that has been channeled into a brick lined chase where you can sample the sulfur rich warm water. The temperature is a little more than warm bathwater. There is a public bath house where you can pay to bathe in the hot spring waters in a double kidney shaped pool. We were content to observe from above and put our hands in the outdoors example.
We rode one bus back into downtown and switched to a different line to go to the Banff Hot Springs Hotel so we could walk around and get a few pictures, since we just drove past it in our coach earlier.
Then we rode the bus back into town and had dinner at the 3 Bears Brewery, which features their own hand crafted beers, and pub fare including pizzas, burgers, salads and appetizers. We had some cheesy waffle fries with pickled red onion relish for starters and an Elk and Kale pizza which was quite good. The Elk sausage on the pizza had just a hint of liver flavor which complimented the singed kale and melty cheeses. Their IPA was better than their Pilsner, but both were enjoyable. We ended up getting seated at the bar.
The bartender was working like the Tasmanian Devil- a whirlwind of constant activity, but somehow she managed to get our order, keep us well supplied and even manage a bit of chat. We were surprised to learn she was from the UK, but had spent some time in New Zealand as well. Ironically, as we were finishing up, a young couple got sat next to us and it turned out they were also from the UK. Small world. They had just arrived and were a bit jet lagged. We gave them our transit passes which were good for 3 days since we were leaving first thing in the morning, and they were staying a week.
We’ll have to set the alarms to get us up bright and early for tomorrow. Our luggage has to be outside our rooms at 6am, and we’re headed off to board the Rocky Mountaineer shortly thereafter.
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