Banff Days 1 & 2 (August 1-3)

So we woke up in Canmore, Alberta. Brian and I had one bedroom, Kurt and Katy had the other, all four girls were sleeping in the den, and the two boys were sprawled in the living room. Not luxury, but oh so sheltered.

Canmore is only about 10 minutes from Banff (the town) which is just one small speck in Banff (the national park). It is packed with ski condo complexes that are quite a bit cheaper than the rentals in the actual national park. The financial reward was worth what we were losing in convenience.

We decided to start our explorations by heading to Lake Louise, because we’d heard so much about it. Lake Louise (the town) is the home of the gorgeous Lake Louise (the lake), and it’s about an hour from Canmore. 

First we had to enter the national park, and there were long, long lines to buy entry tickets. A certain unnamed friend of ours accidentally got in the wrong lane, the lane for people who already have passes. As he cruised forward in the wrong direction, we sat at an absolute standstill in line, watching him go and wondering what was going to happen next.

He pulled over to the side to contemplate the situation while we moved up maybe 2 or 3 car-lengths. Then he decided to go for it, turned sideways and drove across the lanes to get to the correct lane, and nosed his way in between two cars close to the ticket booth. Only someone who learned to drive in Chicago has those kind of skills. Meanwhile, we were way back in line and probably got our ticket about half an hour after he did.

So we got our ticket and continued on to Lake Louise (the town), which was about 40 minutes away. First we hit the visitor center, where, if some of us had actually read the placards, we could have learned about the way the Canadian Rockies were formed or about how Banff was the mountain climbing capital of the world in the 1940s because the Canadian Pacific Railway made it possible for people to get there. Then we ate lunch at a picnic table outside the center, near the glacial river that runs through town. 

Once we had proper sustenance (yet another ham and cheese sandwich, applesauce, pudding and granola bar) we started on the way to Lake Louise (the lake). We’d been warned that parking was very scarce, and that perhaps we should take the hour hike to the lake itself before we went hiking. 

Let’s be honest. Has anything I’ve written in the past 5 years led you to believe that I am a hardy enough hiker to hike an hour to get to the trailhead where we are going to hike? Nope, didn’t think so.

We decided to take our chances and hope for some parking by the hotel on the lake. What we didn’t anticipate was that people started parking about ¾ of a mile away from the actual parking lot, and that the rest of us suckers just kept idling on the road, creeping forward, in the hopes of a parking spot of our own. Somehow we managed to find a spot for each of our two vans, and we set out to explore the lake.

Well. Lake Louise was worth the crazy parking lot. It is absolutely gorgeous, a teal color that glows in the sunlight amid mountain peaks and thick glaciers (we had trouble capturing that color on camera). And there were about 30,000 other people enjoying the same view, taking the same pictures and presumably parked in the same chaos.

Our group chose to hike the Agnes Lake trail, about 4 miles round trip in a steady uphill climb. The trail was mostly moderate switchbacks through forest, with a couple of stunning views of Lake Louise. Partway up we hit Mirror Lake, and eventually we got to the tea house that sits beside Lake Agnes. It is such a lovely, picturesque place to sit and enjoy a pot of tea and whatever fabulous bread or pie they are offering that day.

The woman taking our order rather brusquely informed us that all the water for tea comes from the lake (though it is boiled, of course). Also, she and the other employees live near the tea house, and their job description includes carrying up supplies and carrying out trash whenever they go into town. She didn’t seem very happy about it all, though she seemed to enjoy having someone to complain to. Though I’d have to say, if I were an employee who lived without running water, and my restroom options were limited to the two pit toilets I had occasion to visit while at the tea house, I would be a little cranky too. After we drank our tea we watched a hiker swim across the lake, and we had second thoughts about how clean the water might be.

Like Lake Louise (the town) and the parking lot and Lake Louise (the lake) and the trail up to Lake Agnes, it seemed like everyone else had had the same idea to get some tea at the tea house. The crowds did not keep us from enjoying the views though; what a beautiful place.

On the way down, we passed a few families from other countries who demonstrated that we might have different cultures, backgrounds, and languages, but siblings all pick on each other, and all parents get annoyed with their whiny children. Also, parents of all cultures think that a hike with their children sounds idyllic until they actually get more than 20 yards in. You don’t have to understand the words to know exactly what they are saying.

On that note, we decided to order pizza for the combined six children while the adults went out to eat. The guys were hoping to try buffalo burgers, but the closest they found was elk burgers. The verdict was that elk is tough and not preferable to beef. Shocking, I know, since elk burgers are so obviously preferred the world over. But it was about 9:30 when our food came and we weren’t feeling too picky anymore, so it was all good.

The next day we put out all the lunch stuff again, and a glum group of offspring made another round of sandwiches to pack so we could go out for the day again.

Our first stop was Cave & Basin in Banff, where we could see a cave and a pool of sulfurous water that was sacred to the native population who first lived there. Eventually fortune-seekers found their way to the Banff area and exploited the resources, pushing the first nations off the land. Then developers saw dollar (loonie?) signs because the “healing” waters made for great tourist destinations. The native population, of course, loses out in this scenario, as it so often does.

In the end the government started to protect the land as a natural resource, and it was the beginning of the national parks system in Canada. Also, during World War I, German, Ukrainian, and Austrian men were interned in rather primitive camps, along with conscientious objectors. Women and children were not placed there, but some went along anyway because they had nowhere else to turn. Oddly this turned into a somewhat patriotic moment for my family. One of my kids in particular has been convinced that Canada has always been a nicer, kinder place to be—after all, the U.S. put all their native peoples into reservations, enslaved Africans, and put Japanese people in internment camps during World War II. Here she was disabused of the notion that Canada had a spotless history, superior to her own native land.

Lunch brought mixed reactions. Brian, for example, could (and does) eat a ham and cheese sandwich pretty much every day of his life. Packing up lunch to eat on the road is not a difficult thing for him at all. In fact, I have even written a poem about his love for both me and his ham sandwich. Someday I may share it with you.

The rest of us, on the other hand, have difficulty choking down sandwich after sandwich. Though you’d think after reading about internment camps we’d be grateful to have a full lunch. We are very fickle people. So we bribed the kids with ice cream later in the day.

Next up was the visitor’s center in Banff, where—after waiting in line quite a while because there were so many people—Katy asked the kind man at the desk for some hiking suggestions. He pitched the idea of hiking Sunshine Meadows—you go to Sunshine Village and get on a shuttle, and they take you to the trailhead. He also suggested Sulphur Mountain, which is a long hike but can be cut in half if you take the gondola down. Unfortunately this place would be crawling with people. It turns out there is a reason that Banff has been packed to the gills with people. Today (Monday) is a civic holiday, and it’s the busiest long weekend of the year. Huh. Suggestion to travelers: Take time to read the holiday calendar of the place you are hoping to visit.

While Katy was getting hiking info, some of us wandered over to the Roots store across the street. There Allison found what she didn't know she needed--what would have been the perfect thing to wear at Yellowstone. It was like a sweatshirt for your whole body. I think she was getting ready to beg me to buy it, but then we saw the price tag--$123--and she didn't say any more.

Sunshine Meadows sounded like a nice hike, especially since it reminded the MarioKart players among us of Moo Moo Meadows, so we decided to go there after the ice cream stop. We dutifully drove to the parking lot, and Katy went in to sign us up for the shuttle. That’s where she found out that the “fee” the man at the visitor’s center mentioned was actually $27 round trip for each of us. Well. We’d been debating a trip up a mountain on a chair lift, but it was something like $19 per person. Suddenly that sounded like a bargain.

So we got back in the car and went to Norquay Village, where we took the chairlift up to a peak. It was starting to get hazy with upcoming rain, so it wasn’t the view it could’ve been, but it was still a breathtaking overlook of both the town of Banff, the glacial river winding through the park, and the peaks surrounding. An added bonus was that we ran into a herd of mountain goats on the way up.

It was early evening, but we had one more thing on our agenda. We wanted to go to Banff Upper Hot Springs. We figured that dinner time might be a good time to go, since other people would be busy getting dinner. While that may have been true, there were still a lot of people at the springs. And the Banff springs pool is not very big. It was a larger version of getting into a tightly packed hot tub full of strangers, most wearing slightly less swimwear than you might prefer. Seats on the benches were in high demand, and if you weren’t on a bench you couldn’t put your arms in the cooler air and were in danger of heat stroke. So, while we came out of it with relaxed muscles, it wasn’t quite the experience we’d been hoping for.

Ah, the trials and hardships we experience in our traveling. Honestly, I don’t know how we survive the deprivation. I am sure you all feel very sorry for us. We accept your offers of consolation.