Banff, the Burgess Shale and the Icefields Parkway

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May 26
Hotel: Fairmont Banff Springs
Today the plan was to pick up our rental car and explore the area around Banff. We had arranged a one-way rental from Avis to drop off in Calgary the following Saturday. That ended up being pretty pricy; a one-way rental that was 1 day too short to be counted as a weekly; also picking up from a neighborhood Avis station. Nome of the coupons/AWD I tried really brought the price down any! There was also the issue of parking; the Fairmonts in Banff and Lake Louise charge ~$30-$35 per night for parking! Luckily I had read on Flyertalk just before leaving that there were places to park nearby for free. In Banff you can park along the road leading away from the hotel. In Lake Louise there is a public parking lot a few minutes walk away from the hotel.

We caught the bus into town; route 4 runs from the Fairmont hotel every 20 minutes or so and is $2. We had to do laundry today as well, we had found a coin-op laundry right next to Avis. The book had also mentioned Melissa's as the place to go for breakfast; this was also nearby (well, everything is close in Banff). So in 10 minutes we had already dropped off our laundry, gotten car keys and were sitting down for breakfast. I had the huge Swiss apple pancake; delicious covered in cinnamon with tart apple chunks inside. Our waitress also gave us lots of good info about things to do and see in the area. After breakfast we headed to the Banff Tourist Information center to purchase our Park pass. Banff is in the Banff National Park and you officially need the park pass, we bought ours for 4 days and it is good at any Canadian national park. For a few $$ more we could have bought one valid for a whole year! We went to the Safeway to pickup some sandwiches and snacks for lunch, then drove out to the Banff gondola. The gondola station is up past the Rimrock hotel and near the Hotsprings. For $28 the gondola whips you up over 2000 ft to the top of Sulphur mountain, with gorgeous views all around. You can also hike up but we noticed the trail was still covered in deep snow in some places. The top gondola station is situated on a ridge with sharp dropoffs on either side. There is a trail and walkway across to another mountain peak; we decided not to go over there after seeing the tourbus-load of people heading back to get on the gondola; we managed to get in ahead of them line for the ride back down.

After the gondola, we drove over to Lake Minnewanka and Johnson Lake. Along the lakes we came across a herd of bighorn sheep just grazing along the side of the road. I guess they're alot more used to people here. At Johnson Lake we had a picnic lunch then spent an hour or so on an easy walk around the lake. Nothing spectacular, but peaceful and quiet. After here we headed to the Hoodoos on Tunnel Mountain road. Hoodoos are formed from uneven erosion; they often look like fairy castles or mushrooms (Cappadocia in Turkey is an example). The ones here were pretty small in comparison though. We came around to Surprise Corner, which offers a stunning view across the valley to the Banff Springs hotel. We were back just in time to pick up our laundry; then headed to dinner at the Bison Restaurant.

May 27
Hotel: Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise
Today we were planning to head up to Lake Louise for two nights. We ran into Alan again at checkout, he was heading up to Lake Louise today as well on his tour. The concierge at the Fairmont had provided us with great prepared trip itineraries, they had called out all the sites by km along the way. We planned to head up the Bow Valley Parkway (1A), which runs up east of the Trans-Canada highway. There are a few places to stop along the way, one of them Johnson canyon has a trail up to some waterfalls. We got to the waterfall turnoff around 9:30AM; the walk up is about 3kms and took two hours. Some of the path was on catwalks hanging out over the canyon below. Most of the canyon was still in deep shadow and had lots of snow on the southern side. The waterfalls were pretty nice. The lower one had hollowed out a grotto in the rock; there is a side trail down where you can view the water from inside the grotto. We returned to the parking lot at 11:30; by now it was nearly full of RVs and other hikers.

Checkin at the Fairmont wasn't until 3:00 so we decided to head over to Yoho park and Emerald Lake which was back across the Kicking Horse pass in British Colombia. The drive over was alot quicker than I expected.. the train had taken a few hrs but only took us about 30 minutes from Lake Louise village. We stopped at the natural bridge carved by the Kicking Horse river, then over to Emerald Lake. The lake lived up to its name which was a gorgeous blue color. Yoho Park is home of the Burgess Shale, a treasure trove of 500-million year old bizzare fossils; I'd heard the name before but hadn't realized it was here. We had lunch at the lodge here on the lake, then back over to Lake Louise where it was time to checkin. This time we were upgraded from a Lakeview Deluxe to a huge Lakeview Jr. Suite. We opened the windows to get a view of the lake, only to find out it was still frozen! They say the lake doesn't thaw until the first week in June, then still takes another month or so to turn the gorgeous blue color seen in most photos. We were just in time to catch the afternoon tea in the lounge overlooking the lake. At $39 each it was overpriced.. it came with champagne, teapot, and usual finger sandwiches, scones, and pastries. Overall we didn't think it was very good, at least not for the price. The view was gorgeous, but the huge windows and the blazing sun meant it was boiling hot inside even though it was still quite chilly outdoors.

May 28
Hotel: Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise
Out plan for today was to drive up the Icefields Parkway to the Colombia Icefield. We got an early start and woke up at 6:30 as we wanted to beat the tourbuses to the Icefield center; we've heard its best to get there before 10AM when the tourbuses start arriving. As it was there were 15 tourbuses at the hotel yesterday! Breakfast buffet at the hotel was pricey and we ended up buying croissants/sandwiches/etc at the little deli in the hotel. We were on the road by 7:40 after stopping for gas. The Icefields Parkway (Hwy 93) runs for 235km from Lake Louise up to Jasper through some of the most gorgeous mountain scenery you will ever see. The road follows a huge glacial U-shaped valley between towering mountain peaks, most were still topped with snow and glaciers. The whole area is encompassed by the Banff and Jasper national parks. We had gotten another route itinerary from the Fairmont in Banff for this section as well, it called out various sights along the way with their km marker. We were in a hurry to reach the Icefields center though so planned to drive up there really fast then take it more leisurely along the way back. It was still very early so we were the only ones on the road. We did make a stop at the Bow Pass/Peyto lake overlook. We pulled into the lower parking lot, where snow had been pushed up 6' or more by snowplows. The main trail up to the overlook was 'closed', but they said to use the spring trail; which apparently followed the route up to the upper parking lot but this had not been plowed. The trail was a slippy, icy trough through the snow. We tried walking up a bit, but it was too icy. When I tried walking on the snow next to the trail; I fell through nearly up to my waist! We gave up after 5 minutes and decided to save this bit for later. We passed several campgrounds and picnic spots, most were still closed. Several lakes we passed by were also still frozen like Lake Louise.

Finally arrived at the Icefields Centre around 9:40. The Centre is just about halfway between Lake Louise and Jasper. Luckily no tourbuses yet in sight! We were just in time for the next snocoach departure at 10AM. The snocoaches are specially built 6WD buses that go out onto the Athabasca glacier. We lucked out again, it was gorgeously clear and sunny day. Apparently the weather had been really crappy the previous few days, it had even snowed the day before! There was one tourgroup that had arrived by then, a busload of young Aussies on a Contiki tour. The glacier has retreated quite abit since the 1800s, the terminal moraine from that period is right behind the parking lot. We all boarded a regular bus which drove us up halfway along the lateral moraine then to the staging area where we all boarded the snocoach. You could tell this place must get busy as there were 8 other snocoaches sitting there. There was an old snocoach here that had been used up until the 1980s.. basically it a 1950's bus that had been converted to have tank tracks underneath. The glacier does grow during the winter but then melts further during the summer so it is a losing battle. The glacier is spawned by the huge Colombia Icefield, which is 120 square miles and feeds other several glaciers. The whole area receives about 25 feet of snow a year. The snocoaches drive out onto the glacier to a graded area where you can get out and walk around for 30 minutes or so. The Aussies all hopped out and started throwing snowballs at each other. I have been on glaciers before in New Zealand (Franz Josef) but this is the first time I had driven onto one.

After we arrived back at the Centre we headed off again to the north. We weren't planning on driving all the way to Jasper, just up to the next major sight, some waterfalls. After that we turned around and retraced our steps back towards Lake Louise. We stopped at Mistaya Canyon for lunch; this is a short walk off the highway where the river has carved a bunch of twisty passages and potholes through the shale rock; from the bridge above the river looking down it's hard to see the bottom. Several other people had the same idea and were sitting down on the rocks eating sandwiches. A great spot! We stopped at a few other places along the way back before arriving back at the Peyto lake overlook. We decided to give the trail one more try.. it was quite hard going all the way to the top but the sun had melted some of the ice so at least we had better footing. Scrambling up to the overlook, only to find out the lake was still frozen as well. Normally this lake is the gorgeous turquoise blue only glacier meltwaters have. But the vista was still worthwhile, the valley drops out below you here. We headed back down the normal trail to the parking lot which actually ended up being easier!

We still had some energy after arriving back at the hotel and decided to drive over to Moraine Lake, the road had just opened a few days before. The road is closed in the winter and used as a ski trail. The drive along was nice, and we arrive at the lake only to find it frozen and very low. I guess August is the best time to come here if you want to see the lakes in their full glory! We walked out onto what is normally the lake bottom before heading back to the hotel for dinner.

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Photos

Bighorn Sheep
Lake Minnewanka

Frozen Lake Louise
Actually refroze both nights we were here!

Moose & Squirrel!
Banff streets are named after animals

Comments

[Connie gabrielli]

Thanks for the great info!
We are leaving this thursday for a road trip to Banff. Your blog was very helpful in planning our time there. Thank you.