Banff, Alberta --- Around Town

We started the morning off with a quick stop at the Cascade Gardens.  The spot has potential, but we are here too early in the season – all the cascade pools were empty and most of the flower beds had only just been planted.  Instead of leaving the van parked at the gardens for the morning, I attempted to find a spot closer to town.  But Saturday in Banff can be frustrating if you are driving a 22-foot van and all the public parking spaces are closed off because of festivals, bike-a-thons, and various other civic activities.  Our town map indicated that there was a great RV parking lot near the bridge, but when we got there it had been barricaded off for this car show – look at all the prime parking spaces they are taking up! 

We did manage to find parking a few blocks away and headed to the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies for a tour of some historic homes in town.  I was a bit disappointed in the tour, actually – the tour was very brief, just 30 minutes, and both homes were a little more recent (1930’s-50’s décor) and decorated with fewer antiques than I’d imagined.  The Whyte house was interesting because Catharine and Peter had both been painters and the parks service still uses the studio area for artists in residence.

We then went to the equally unexciting Banff Park Museum.  Back in the early days of the park, visitors came here hoping to see wildlife without having to work too hard to do so.  The park created a Natural History (read: taxidermy) museum where visitors could view wildlife specimens up close.  There used to be a zoo so that people could see the bears without putting on their hiking boots.  Although the zoo has since shut down, the taxidermy museum has been preserved much as it was back then and some of the 100-year-old stuffed animals are showing their age.

We saved the best stop for last – the imposing Fairmont Banff Springs hotel.   It sits on a hill with some of the best views of Bow Valley.  The historic hotel was built in 1888 and at the time was the world’s largest hotel.  According to our guidebook rooms start at $439/night – we’ll take the $30 campground, thank you very much.

Most of the hotel is accessible to tourists.  They have a few antique items and photos on display (Marilyn Monroe played golf here once, apparently).  Originally we had contemplated hitting the hotel spa, but we quickly torpedoed that idea once we saw the prices – $179 for a 50-minute “relaxation” massage.  At that price, I doubt I’d be able to relax at all – with tip that’s like a week’s worth of campground fees!  We wandered off in the direction of the hotel bar, but were lured out on to the patio by the sounds of bagpipe music being played.  It was sort of relaxing (as relaxing as bagpipe music gets, anyway) and at least the view was lovely. 

Turns out there was a wedding reception at the hotel that afternoon, which was why the piper was piping.  We snuck a peek at the reception hall before leaving the hotel – very elegant. 

The sun came out just long enough for us to head north of town to hike near Lake Minnewanka.

The map made it out to be a nice leisurely stroll along the lakeside.  As we started the hike and it kept gaining altitude through a thick forest we thought maybe we’d taken the wrong trail.  But then we came around a bend to a clearing and realized that the trail actually was going along the lake – but it was about 250 feet above the shoreline.