Waking up we were eager to get out of big city Calgary and get back into nature. Today we were headed to one of Canada’s most famous national parks, Banff. The weather had gotten much warmer in the few days that we spent in Calgary and we hoped that it translated to warmer weather in the mountains as well.
Driving into Banff is similar to driving into the Rocky Mountains in the USA. Driving in you are on flat farm and pastureland and you start to see the mountains in the distance. They start off small at first but as you get closer they get bigger and bigger. Soon enough you are craning your neck upwards to be able to see the tops. It’s pretty spectacular.
Canadian vs USA National Parks
Before getting into our time in the parks themselves here are a few things we noticed about the park system itself. The first difference about this park compared to a national park in the USA is Canada’s main road (Canada Route 1) runs directly through it. When you enter park boundaries on the highway there is a section for thru traffic and a tollgate to get a park pass. These then merge right away after. The second is that Banff is not only the parks name but the towns name as well. Yes, a town, smack dab in the middle of the park. You can own your own home here if you want. There are hotels, grocery stores, a ski resort, restaurants and everything else a normal mountain town has. We had bought a Canadian National Parks Pass (Similar to our USA National Parks Pass) but never really knew if we had to show it or not. We did just to be safe though. After some research we found that the town predated the park but why make the town part of the park instead of right next to it. We couldn’t figure that one out. Anyway….on to the good stuff!
Once we entered the town we were not sure which way to go. It was the start of the summer high season and to say that it was crowded was an understatement. Banff almost looked like Aspen or Vail in Colorado. Beautiful, high-end shops downtown surrounded by high peaked mountains. I’m not sure if we expected a sleepy mountain town with some hiking paths or what but we did not expect this. It was about lunchtime and we were hungry and looking for an out of the way spot to park Bubbles. We found an area called Cave & Basin National Historic Site, parked and had lunch. We then got out and decided to give the area a look. While from the outside it didn’t look like much once we got inside we discovered that we were in the very first National Historic Site in the entire country.
Cave & Basin National Historic Site
Cave & Basin turned out to be the location for a hot spring located in a cave accessible (at first anyway) through a hole in the earth. First Nations people (as Native Americans are called in Canada) used the site for sacred rituals. Later as European people discovered the area they built hot spring pools. As the area became more popular the government decided that this space needed to be saved from mass development and as such became Canada’s 1st National Park. We walked into and saw the springs then took a hike down the Bow River. It was here we had our 1st animal encounter.
We were walking down the path, which was sandwiched between the river and a marsh area. Then out of the marsh walked two cow elk. If you have never seen an elk before just imagine a deer on steroids who had constantly been going to the gym. These animals were roughly 9’ tall and full of muscle. Julie and I were not quite sure what to do. We were used to deer. If you walk towards a deer they generally run away. These animals just stared at us. We were 3 miles into the hike and less than a mile back from our starting point. We didn’t exactly want to turn around but didn’t really want to get gored or trampled either. After a few minutes I started to walk towards the elks asking them (politely of course) to please move it along so that we could pass. No luck. I shuffled along a bit closer hoping that they would move but no luck. Then at the very last second before I was about to call it quits they finally trudged back into the marsh. Whew. We then finished the hike but not before seeing a sign that it was mating season for the elk and that approaching them was “extremely dangerous”. Julie & I lived to see another day. We then made the way to our government campground for the night and settled in.
Town of Banff, Alberta
We woke up the next day ready to see what Banff had to offer. In looking at maps the day before we discovered that unlike a park in the USA that generally have a main road and hiking trails that lead off of that, Banff just had hiking trails everywhere off of one of they’re many roads. As this was the case (and parking in town was extremely limited for a large vehicle) we decided to hike the 2 miles. This turned out to be a great decision as the mountain views from just outside of our campground were amazing. It was almost as if we were in a painting. It was that beautiful!
We made our way into town and the craziest thing happened. We started to hear languages. Not just English and French which are normally heard in Canada but every language under the sun. We heard German, Spanish, Russian as well as multiple Asian languages that we had no idea how to translate. We knew Banff was a popular, well-known place but had no idea that people would fly from other continents to come here. We wandered the town a bit popping into a few stores before we started to get hungry.
We stepped into the Park Distillery Restaurant & Bar and sat down for a good lunch. We found out that they distilled almost everything themselves to make a tasty cocktail. More importantly though in keeping with the “Banff World Theme” was that almost every bartender and server in Banff restaurants was Australian. We found out that our Aussie server loved to hike in the summer and ski in the winter so Banff was the place for him. He said that most were younger and would come for the summer or winter season. (Eventually we would find that every server in touristy western Canadian towns came from Australia, Quebec or Europe). We did end up having a good meal at the Park Distillery Restaurant and left happy customers.
From the restaurant we walked to the Banff National Park Headquarters building. This place looked like a castle with a tiered English style garden behind it with waterfalls built into it. As this was unlike anything we had seen in a national park or otherwise before, Julie & I wandered in. We went up a few levels before finding a bench to sit and take it all in. We had a great vantage point for people watching as people were milling around everywhere. Birds were chirping, the sun was shining…it was a pretty good day!
Banff Springs Fairmont Hotel
Next up we were heading to Banff’s most famous building, the Banff Springs Fairmont Hotel. This hotel would be the equivalent of one of the National Parks Lodges in the USA although this hotel was about 100 times fancier. The building, like the Banff National Park Headquarters building was in a castle style as well. The current building was built in the 1920’s as one of the Canadian Pacific Railways great hotels. They needed a reason for people to ride the rails and this hotel was it. It was, and still is stunning to say the least.
We first checked out their huge main lobby stopping by their small snack & bakery for a coffee. We then walked around the property trying to find their lounge. We ended up finding out that it was shut down due to a television conference taking over much of the hotel. We did find that they had a small, almost hidden wine bar on the property called “Grapes”. Julie and I sat down; each had a glass of wine and looked out the window at the stunning view. We were on the 3rd floor and the hotel was built on a cliff of sorts overlooking the river below. We made that glass of wine last as long as possible so that we could enjoy the view that it came with.
From the Fairmont we hiked back through the town and back up to our campsite. We stopped again to get another glimpse of the incredible mountain views just outside of our campground before heading back to Bubbles and making dinner.
Next up…World Famous Lake Louise & Jasper National Park
