Visiting Banff, Days 3-5

 In my previous post, I detailed our first 2 days of our trip. Now I'll detail the next 3.

Sunday, Day 3

On Sunday morning, we drove into Banff from Canmore where we were staying (about 20 minutes), waiting for a train as we drove out of town. Trains are very prevalent in this area but they were not usually a problem although we did have to wait several times for a train to pass. We drove to the Church of Jesus Christ meetinghouse in Banff which is a smaller building, dedicated in the early 1970's. The services started at 10am and we enjoyed talking to other visitors as we waited. One visitor was a man from Tooele who is related to members of our church here. We sang "O Canada" for our opening hymn which I had never sung before and thoroughly enjoyed. It's refreshingly religious. We heard from a couple that used to be senior service missionaries in the branch. They live in Calgary and would come up several times a week to help; I believe they were in charge of the ESL program. A lot of people from other countries come to work at Banff and want to learn English. We sang "America, the Beautiful" for our closing song, as a nod to all the visitors from the United States. Both the opening and closing prayers were given by people visiting from Utah. After church, two of Scott's former students who married each other came to say hi.

After church, we drove on the Trans-Canadian Ice Field highway which took us to a viewpoint of Peyto Lake. The main viewpoint was pretty crowded (lots of tour buses) but we were able to find a spot off to the left that someone had told us about at church that allowed us to see the lake from a much less crowded area, although it was a little tricky to find the right trail. If you have noticed a theme of Banff, it's that the main things to do are to view lakes surrounded by mountains. It's all beautiful. After the lake we drove back and spent the rest of the day at the condo.

Monday, Day 4

Early on Monday, we drove to the parking lot for Sulfur Mountain which is near Banff and then hiked to the top where the gondola goes. We were there by about 7:45am and there were very few cars in the parking lot. Later in the day, it was full and they were turning people away. One thing we're good at is waking up early so this definitely played to our advantage. There is a gondola that will take you both up and down for a varying price. The day we went (peak season), the price each way for each of us was $51. So it would have cost a total of $204 (Canadian) to get us up and down. We had already decided to hike up the path which was about 3.5 miles each way with an elevation gain of 2000 feet over the 3.5 miles. The trail was mostly shady when we did it and it was relatively cool so it was definitely doable. The temperature was probably about 50 degrees when we started but rose to about 75-80 degrees by the time we finished, 6 hours later. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get to the top and about 2 hours to come down. We spent the rest of the time admiring the view and exploring the top which had quite a lot of people milling around. We also enjoyed seeing some mountain goats. 

The other advantage of starting early is that there were very few hikers on the way up but quite a few more on the way down. It was pretty tiring and after the hike we drove back to Canmore to rest and get some sunscreen that had been forgotten, as well as eat some more.

This was an elk or moose in someone's yard on the way to Sulfur Mountain

We saw mountain goats on top

This is the view from the top. The river you see is the Bow River which runs through the town of Banff.

Later in the day, we went back into town to the Banff Canoe Club on the Bow River and rented a canoe for about $64. It was very enjoyable and definitely worth it. After the canoe ride, we left our car there in the free canoe parking and walked up to the free gardens in town. Parking is hard to come by in Banff so you have to keep that in mind before you leave a good parking spot. There is a nice trail along the river that leads into town.

We saw a heron along the shore:

The gardens are not large but they're lovely especially in the early evening when it was a little cooler. We would not have enjoyed them as much if we had gone right after our hike like we originally planned because of the heat.

Tuesday, Day 5

Day 5 was our big adventure day where we visited Moraine Lake and Lake Louise. We found out on Sunday evening that no private vehicles are allowed on the road to Moraine Lake and all the shuttle seats seemed to be sold out. So we ended up reserving e-bikes online to ride there. We got to the bike shop at 8am in the town of Lake Louise when the shop opened. The shop was Wilson Mountain Sports and they were very friendly. They provided a helmet and lock with the e-bike. It cost about $200 for two bikes for 8 hours.

Lake Louise is about an hour away from Canmore. We were able to park by the bike shop for free with our bike rental. The ride is about 14km one way with some elevation gain. It's a little nerve-wracking at the beginning because you're going up a steep hill with a lot of traffic and very little shoulder. After you make the turn-off to Moraine Lake, there is less traffic but there are still quite a few buses on the road and not much shoulder. And you're still mostly going uphill on the way there. I was nervous about the ride which was longer than I'm used to and I was afraid the e-bike would be a little large for me. However, it all worked out and I was grateful. The e-bike gave me enough power assist to get up the hills, although I wouldn't have minded a softer seat! There's no way I could have made it on a regular bike though--I'm just not a strong enough bicyclist. On our way back, we saw a couple walking their regular bikes to Moraine Lake--that would have been me.

Starting at 8am meant it was cooler (about 50 degrees) and there was less traffic. It was really quite pleasant and we could smell a significant pine scent as we rode through the dense forest on the road. The lake was quite beautiful. We walked the trail that goes next to the lake. You can rent a canoe on the lake.

This is the end of the trail that goes next to the lake. You can see the water coming off the mountain feeding into the lake.

The lake is more blue than Lake Louise because there's less "rock flour" going into the lake.

The ride down from Moraine Lake went pretty fast. It took about 1.5 hours to ride to the lake and less than an hour to get down since it was mostly downhill. I had to put on my brakes for part of the time because I was going 45km per hour which seemed a little fast to me. We rode over to Lake Louise and then walked on the trail that goes along that lake. By the way, Lake Louise is named for the 4th daughter of Queen Victoria. The mountain above the lake is named for Queen Victoria. There were a lot of people there and a lot of construction noise for part of the trail.

The snow-capped mountain behind Lake Louise is named for Queen Victoria.

We walked about halfway down the trail next to the lake but I was feeling quite tired and it was getting pretty warm, so we headed back for the bike shop and turned in the bikes at 2pm. We headed back for Calgary for our overnight stay there before leaving on Wednesday morning for Utah.

It was a fun trip! We were trying to decide what to do for our anniversary and I said something about someday going to Banff. Scott said, Ok! Let's spend our children's inheritance. He bought the airplane tickets so then we had to go. And I'm glad we did.