Friday 21st April – Lake Louise To Banff

We awoke to the familiar sound of dogs barking and howling.  Hang on a minute – what dogs?!  Looking outside we found ourselves parked in the set-up area for dog sled teams with three separate sleds being set up outside.  Now that was something I’d never imagined doing on this trip – I’ll keep that in mind for the future…

We drove up the hill to Lake Louise, again completely whited out and iced over. Here is a postcard image of what it looks like in Summer:

There were signs around the border of the lake warning of thin ice and avalanche risk, but this didn’t seem to be stopping many people from venturing across the surface, including Simon and Stu!

Beautiful Lake Louise in the snow

Okay, so I had to go on the ice a bit to get this photo....

.... but I didn't stick around when it got this busy!

It took some persuasion, but eventually the masses of other idiots safely going onto the ice convinced Jo and I to join in.  But it meant that I could get better pictures so it was all in the best interests of the blog! When an entire coach-load of tourists arrived and walked onto the ice en-masse it was time for us to leave – none of us fancied getting hypothermia saving people from a frozen lake. 

The drive into Banff was along a main highway for the first time in what seemed like weeks but this also made it quick.  Si and Jo popped into the visitors’ centre, who were very helpful as usual in tipping us off about a tourist attraction we could see for free on our Canada Pass. However, it was important to get a prime RV site tonight for what was suddenly Jo and Stu’s last night with us.  So, we went and checked into camp ground getting a spot with a fire pit to enjoy later.  Spot ‘bagged’ (and clearly marked as such) we followed the VC’s tip and drove up to the Cave and Basin Springs site, which is the birth place of Canada’s National Parks. This is because, after the discovery of the springs by Railway workers in 1883, they drew the attention of both tourists and private entrepreneurs. Wanting to preserve the springs for the public, the government set aside a land reserve here in 1885 and two years later the springs became the main focus point of the first National Park, Rocky Mountains Park, now known as Banff National Park. 

Another point of interest for me is the fact that there is a totally isolated species of snail here – The Banff Springs Snail – not found anywhere else in the world (perhaps unsurprisingly from the name!). But worryingly, it’s range has now shrunk even further from nine to only seven of the thermal springs on this mountain.   

The internal cave that formed up to 5000 years ago was pretty, if a little eggy-smelling, but that’s to be expected from rocks releasing hydrogen sulphide (right). From there, we walked through the museum and saw another thermal pool outside.

We had two more things to check off the Bailey’s ‘to do’ list on their last full day – take a dip in a hot spring and take a ride in a gondola.  The clouds were starting to lift so the gondola was looking like an improving prospect.  Then, I noticed an excellent dinner deal they were doing! It would usually be CAD49 each just for the return gondola ride but we managed to book a table at the Sky Bistro at the top of the mountain for 6pm for only CAD65 each.  This included the gondola tickets, plus a two-course dinner each from an amazing menu. 

The booking gave us just enough time to go for a dip in the hot springs first.  However, we had overheard a lady earlier today slating the springs – saying that she had walked away from the queue as the staff couldn’t explain why the springs just looked like a normal outdoor swimming pool.  Luckily, you get the opportunity to view the attraction before the turnstiles and when we got there we all felt disappointed.  Instead of the romantic, outdoor, rock springs with a view we had hoped for, it did indeed just look like an outdoor pool at a campsite with steam coming off it.  Plus, it was packed.  With teenagers.  Everyone was just standing in groups or seated around the edge talking.  There was no room to swim or even lie back and float.  I guess you must be practical – a public swimming pool needs to be clean and hygienic, but an outside chlorinated pool heated by a thermal spring is a whole different ball-game to actually having a soak in some natural mineral springs!  The group discussion was brief – this wasn’t what we had signed up for and there was unanimous agreement we could skip the swim. We felt for Jo as she was particularly looking forward to a dip, but even she conceded it wasn’t what she had in mind. 

Instead, we had time for a brief perusal around the shops in Banff, where I invested in yet more North Face apparel and the Baileys found the Banff Harley Davidson shop to spend the rest of their time and money on!

The Baileys in the gondola

We all made an effort to glam up for our meal before adding layers over the top for warmth and heading to the gondola.  Our luck was in again – the clouds were a lot thinner and as the evening progressed the weather just got better and better to add to the already stunning views. At the top there was a viewing platform and unsurprisingly, some red chairs! 

The view from the peak across Banff town and the Bow River

It got pretty steep!

Spot the RV.....

Snow-capped mountains and iced-over Lake Minnewanka (Hey, I didn't name it....)

Our delicious wine, label snapped for future requests!

Then it was time for our reservation in the Sky Bistro.  We had amazing service from our very friendly waiter who was also the sommelier. He clearly didn’t agree with our selection of wine so brought us over his recommendation saying not to worry that it was a more expensive bottle as he would only charge us the price of the one we ordered.  It was delicious, as was the food. 

The Baileys tucking into their mussels for starter, Si with a meat-board and my amazing crab doughnuts (genius idea)

You can see that we didn’t have a window seat but the views were still spectacular from where we were.  The next pleasant surprise was when the bill came – our waiter had missed lots off so being the honest souls that we are, we told him!  He was clearly taken aback that we’d shot ourselves in the foot like that, so he added a little, but still didn’t include everything.  We would just have to tolerate being given some free stuff!

We kept an eye on the time to be able to take in more of the views before the last gondolas down at 830pm. We ended up re-taking all of our photos from earlier in the evening as the view had totally changed with the approach of sunset:

 

We made it down on one of the last gondolas, picked up the RV and headed for town to ‘Wild Bills’ saloon.  Luckily, tonight’s ice hockey match had gone to added time so we got a chance to watch the end before a live band came on at 930pm. 

Jo and Stu are the blurry couple in the middle just under the drummer!

It was great for people watching.  Just like we had witnessed in the US, it seems customary that young people here are taught to dance, as cowboys whirled their partners around the floor and the girls appeared confident that they were going to be caught when they stuck a hand out!  Of course, this isn’t true for everyone – there were some totally clueless drunks stomping around the dance-floor who were equally entertaining! I also appreciated a group of ladies sporting matching T-shirts emblazoned ‘WE ARE WHAT HAPPENS IN BANFF’ – they were constantly either lighting up the dance floor or standing on tables, good work girls! During one of the band’s breaks we got the opportunity to introduce the Baileys to the splendour of shuffle-board that we had learnt about at that fateful night in Florabama. Thankfully, the night was not destined to end in the same manner.  

The Baileys understandably didn’t want their last night to end, so we stayed and enjoyed the madness until 1am.  There was a slight issue when we had to turf another RV off our patch on our return to the camp site, but they were thankfully very understanding.  They probably found it hard to understand why we weren’t enjoying our camp fire spot when they were in short supply – no last night camp fire after all but a great night nonetheless.