September 5, 2018

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Wednesday Sep 5

Another glorious day today! Low hanging fog in the Radium Hot Springs valley cleared as we got ready to go towards Banff again, this time to go for our gondola ride. Guess what, no crowds today, the long weekend is over and it appears as if most people have gone. No line-up for the gondola and we got to the top by 10:30. Although the sky was mostly blue, there was still this smokey haze between mountains, but not discernible to the nose here. There were more steps to the summit than we thought, but Geoff and Ferdy made it in good time to take the obligatory photos to show we were there. After a Starbucks coffee we headed back down to get on with the rest of the day.

In the past, neither Marion nor Ferdy ever missed out on seeing wildlife on the Minnewanka Loop, particularly elk and bighorn sheep, but today we did not see any. We did stop at the day use area for our lunch and some nice shots.

Next up was the Banff Springs Lodge for specialty coffee on the patio in the blazing sun. What a great day! Today was also farmers’ market day in Banff and after strolling around for a while, Geoff went for a walk along the Bow River while the rest of us checked out the Whyte Museum and some of the many shops along Banff Avenue.

We made our way back to Radium via the Bow Valley Parkway but did not see any wildlife until we got back in Radium where we were held up on the road by a whole herd of bighorn sheep.

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Photos

Bighorn sheep in Radium Hot Springs
Looks like a group of young males prancing to make an impression.