Going West

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After an uneventful flight from Toronto to Calgary we picked up our rental vehicle, a Lincoln Towncar, and set out for Banff.

Although the area around Calgary is suburbs and farms, much like home, there is still a subtle difference. It is hard to put your finger on exactly what it is - the roll of the hills is gentler, the colour of the of the foliage is a little yellower. The rivers are all the cool aqua blue I thought only existed in the shallows of the ocean in the Carribean. We later discovered that melting glaciers feed the rivers and create the beautiful blue-green colour. (I had a bath in the evening and was astonished to see the same tinge in water only a foot deep in the tub).

But soon enough, a huge difference appears - the outline of the Rockie Mountains on the horizon, painted in shadows of blue and grey.

We took a secondary highway through the foothills to better enjoy the views and found an old mission along the way.

We arrived in Banff and checked into our hotel with several hours of daylight left. So, we decided to explore the Tunnel Mountain trail. On the way there, we pulled into a lookout to take photos of one of the best-known icons of Alberta - the Banff Springs hotel. The huge structure dominates the landscape and is visible from almost every scenic view point in the area.

The Tunnel Mountain trail follows the route of Bow River along the edge of the mountain, to the Hoodoos - natural rock columns. Looking down on the Hoodoos, across the valley below, we saw rafters floating down the blue-green Bow river as it doubled back on itself. In the distance was the Banff Springs hotel, now dwarfed by mountains surrounding it.

Beside the hotel is a gondala of tiny cars climbing almost vertically to the top of Sulpher Mountain. That was our next destination.

We boarded a car large enough for only 4 people and started upwards at a gradual pace. We looked down through the trees at more adventurous tourists ascending by foot on a winding trail. As it neared the peak, it appear the gondola would run directly into the rock wall in front of it.

The lookout at the top of the gondala offered an incredible view of the city of Banff below as well as panoromics of all the surrounding mountains. Mark and I continued to climb by following the boardwalk of stairs to the "Cosmic Ray Station", a weather monitoring station from the 1920s. The tiny building a the very peak of the mountain, where the workers lived and worked is preserved as a museum.

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Comments

[Bee]

Amazing
Wow...your first blog on the trip and I am really wishing I were there.....it looks so beautiful.....I would have loved to have had a bath in the blue tranquil waters.......keep em coming Jesse.....we love this! Be safe.....Bee

[steve bambrough]

hoodoos
hi guys , what exactly are the hoodoos and what is it named after ?

[Ru]

The view
Wow! What great views! Your shot of the Hoodoos (WTF?) is amazing! Sounds like you're having a good time so far!

[Jesse McGee]

What's a Hoodoo?
Hoodoos are these strange rock formations caused by erosion creating gullies then rain and wind disolving everything that wasn't protected. These pillars remain because they had "umbrellas" of sod or hard rock.