Advertisement
Published: June 25th 2022
Edit Blog Post
First stop this morning is the Three Sisters Lookout overlooking Canmore and the surrounding Bow River valley. It sits below the trio of spectacular peaks of the same name which dominate the town’s skyline.
Next stop is the Canmore Nordic Centre. This seems to be heavily populated with athletic looking fitness fanatics - hikers, mountain bikers, and Nordic skiers in training. I’m suddenly feeling more than a bit inadequate. Signs tell us that we need to get a Park Pass if we want to do any of the hikes beyond here, but when we try to buy one the lady behind the counter tells us that they’re free "at the moment". She then quickly adds that some of the hiking trails are closed; it seems that there are a few none too friendly grizzly bears on the prowl out there, and a couple of them charged at some hikers a few days ago. She doesn’t tell us if the hikers managed to escape, and we decide it might be better not to ask. Making passes free as a way of discouraging would-be hikers from becoming bear food doesn’t feel like a great strategy, but what would I know. Park lady
suggests that we buy some bear spray, but we all reckon it might be better if we just stuck to trails where the bears aren’t. She’s then a bit vague on exactly which these are. Hmmm. We’re quite keen to finish the day with all our limbs intact so we decide to pass on the bear spray and stay in the car.
We were keen to hike the Grassi Lakes Trail, but it definitely is closed, so we drive up the road past the Lakes instead. The views are spectacular. There’s no shortage of mountain goats hanging around near the road. These guys are ridiculously agile; they don’t seem to have any trouble at all running up near vertical rock faces. That said it’s a slow crawl to get past them - getting out of the way of moving vehicles doesn't appear to be their strong suit.
The main street of Canmore is closed to cars and is wall to wall tourist traps - cafes, restaurants, fancy clothing stores and gift shops. I wander into some of the many studios displaying the works of local landscape and wildlife photographers. How exactly do these guys manage to get pin
sharp extreme closeups of bears catching salmon, and all without getting themselves eaten…. well I assume they don’t get themselves eaten. I’m starting to feel inadequate yet again. Canmore doesn’t feel like it’s doing a lot for my self esteem.
Emma and I take a late afternoon stroll up along Policeman’s Creek which flows through the middle of town, and then back down the banks of the Bow River. We wander across the now disused but still very cute Canmore Engine Bridge across the River. We read that it was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1891 to service a local coal mine. I hope there aren’t any grizzlies out here, although that said they surely couldn’t be much more dangerous than the mountain bikers that are constantly threatening to mow us down.
Emma says we should get a beaver tail and take it back for Issy. Huh? That sounds a bit cruel. Anyway I’m not sure we’ve seen too many beavers, and I wouldn’t know how to catch one if we had. It seems I might have this a bit wrong; a beaver tail is apparently a local delicacy of a pastry in the shape of
a beaver’s tail, with a sweet topping….
Advertisement
Tot: 0.102s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 14; qc: 26; dbt: 0.0799s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Dancing Dave
David Hooper
Canmore
Real WOW value in Canmore. What can I say but WOW?