Con't Banff and Lake Louise--June 14

I apologize, I think I did some repeat, but that's what happens when you can't do this every night and you try to use your notes. Plus I found out that we did not see a grizzly but we saw a cinnamon brown bear but it sure was pretty.



The first thing we did was go up the Banff Gondola. It goes up Sulphur Mountain in 8 min. it is the first and only bi-cable gondola in Canada and was built it 1958. The cars are fully glass enclosed and seat four to six and you climb 2,292 ft to an elevation of 7,486 ft. After you get to that point their is a skywalk that is slightly more than 6 tenths of a mile that leads up to the Cosmic Ray Station Historic Site and the Sanson's Peak Meterorological Station. That was a good hike up and down stairs. Fantastic sight once you arrived. Then we went on to the campground--Spring Creek RV Park.

We left in our tour bus on the 15th in the rain for our tour of Banff and Lake Louise. He circled Banff and the Bow Valley that it sits in and went around Tunnel Mtn. which gets its name because it was originally surveyed as the site for a railway tunnel which was decided against. He drove to a site on the mountain where we could see the Hoodoos--they were pillars of glacial till that were cemented together with dissolving limestone over 20,000 years ago and obviously the limestone has dissolved and just left the pillars standing. We went past the Banff Springs Hotel (Marvin and Dee went back and ate dinner there that evening) which dates back to building of the Trans-continental Railway in the late 1800's. They were having an International Film Festival (very well known, I hear). You can't build more than 3 stories tall in town; therefore, the Rimrock Hotel built two more going down. Also you can only live in Banff if you own a business or are employed by one. The federal government owns all the land because it is Banff National Park so you can only lease the land that your house is on for 30 years then it has to be renewed. He also drove us around some of the nice residential streets--one named Buffalo and one house had a full sized buffalo statue in their drive and another had a head at their front. We went thru the gate of the Federal Administration Building into the Cascade of Time Gardens. There are large trees and walkways interspersed among the flower beds. They plant 50,000 plants every year and they were in the process that day. He then drove us around to the Bow Falls--beautiful. These falls were also in a couple of movies but the only one I can remember for sure was "The River of No Return" with Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe. The last A.M. stop was at the Cave and Basin National Historic Site. It was the site of the first hot springs that were discovered by two miners and they thought they could make some money off of it but when the government found out about it they took it over. This was the beginning of their National Parks System. He took us downtown and turned us loose for lunch and shopping.

After lunch we went to Lake Louise. It was a good drive so some caught a nap but we did get to see 2 young ram big horn sheep right along side the road and a young elk behind a fence. About midway between Banff and Lake Louise is Castle Mountain which used to be named Mt. Eisenhower but has reverted to its original name now.