Jul 27, 2014

Thumbnail is a shot of the back side of the Fairmont Banff Springs Chateau because the sun wasn't shining on the front, but it was all impressive. 

 

We fuelled up first thing on our way to the bottom of Sulphur Mountain for a Gondola ride and kept tripping over the 'Free Banff Parade' with all the cadets from surrounding districts marching. Not sure what they were freed from or when but they looked impresive.

 

On our way to the Gondola we spotted some people out for a serious ride by the look of the supplies they carried. This is an old camping tradition throughout the Rockies. Nice.

 

Parking was at a premium again with cars parked in precarious positions a big distance from the gondola departure site. We found this camper parked in the middle of 2 spots so decided to help ourselves to the leftover space.

 

The Gondola ride was awesome and there was a huge climb up and down stairs once we got to the top to observe more mountains around an observation site. Beautiful and a bit much to take in really. This is overlooking Banff and surrounding country and mountains. Awesome.

 

And this is in the other direction from which we came yesterday. You can see the Trans Canada Highway which we didn't take and to the right of that is the 1A route we did. We checked out some of the highway today and it does give a 'BIG' view of everything around.

 

And this is a work shot of a train we estimate approximately 2 - 2.5 km long snaking it's way through the valley and the reason they are vaguely visible is because they are double decker containers. Awesome.

 

And a shot of the Fairmont Banff Springs from the summit.

 

We headed back to the hotel to ditch the merino long johns so we didn't expire then grabbed some lunch in Banff before we headed off again and this is a shot in Banff Avenue the main drag and it was hopping today. Also very pretty and no end of shops open if that is what interests you.

 

And a shot of Castle Mountain which we also spotted yesterday. We came back past here today to check out the Johnston Canyon and again we were grateful we were on the bikes and could squeeze into a tiny spot in the carpark instead of having to park hundreds of metres away on the road. Incredible.

 

We headed up to check out the Lower and Upper Falls in the Canyon with what seemed hundreds of other frustrating people who didn't understand about single file walking or blocking a thoroughfare or expecting the world to stop so they could take a photo. I waited and was patient on the way up but on the way back I was totally snookered and heading for an ice-cream and I wasn't stopping for anyone or anything. This is a shot of the Lower Falls.

 

And this is a shot of the Upper Falls! Are you joking? I climbed up and down for 2.6 km and I mean up and down on the way to and from and this is all I get????