30-Apr
I had earlier booked for the taxi from next day morning onwards, but I decided to take it in evening itself to spare another ride again in the morning from the hotel to airport. Thankfully, the taxi was available. I had booked an "Intermediate SUV" category - Rav4 or similar. I was offered some choice of cars in that category, but I decided to chose a Ford Edge.
For the night stay, I had booked a 2-queen bed room in Hotel Applause by Clique, which is very close to the Calgary airport. Since this was the first time i would be driving in canada, I didn't want to drive in the evening/night all the way to Banff.
Thankfully, we had choice of at least one vegetarian Indian dish in the "Tonic" restaurant in the same hotel itself and we hit the bed after a decent dinner.
1-May
In the morning, we had breakfast in the same restaurant. It was a very nice breakfast with options of excellent omelette or oat meal served right at the table. ( Breakfast was included in my booking )
We headed out to Banff after breakfast. Google maps always shows a different route through 2 other highway interchanges. Instead I decided to take the AB-2 south ( Deerfoot trail NE but in south direction ) and then take exit to join the AB-1 west or the Trans Canada Highway. This route is maybe slower by 5-10 mins because it takes you through the Calgary city with traffic lights, but it's just so easy because I just need to keep going straight on this road.
Hardly any traffic on the road and the road starts getting more and more scenic
On the way, before we enter the Banff national park , we have to show the park pass receipt. I had already purchased this online and taken a print out, so I had to just show this person manning the entry checkpoint to the park. This park pass cost me total of 42 CAD for both entry and exit.
After almost close to 2 hour drive, we see an exit to Banff Avenue which we have to take to reach Banff.
I had booked our stay in Hotel Ptarmigan Inn which is on the Banff Avenue itself. I had booked a Superior queen room here. The parking is available in the basement, however the checkin time was after 4 pm. Hence, we left all the bags in the car itself.
The plan that day was the Gondola ride in Banff. I had already booked a ticket online for the four of us with an entry time of 2 pm. We had been warned by some websites that it would be difficult to get parking near the Gondola entrance, so not wanting to take the risk we decided we will take the Roam bus transit.
Very interestingly, the hotel had complementary bus passes for 2 main routes ( Route-1 and Route-2 ) for all of us, so we didn't have to pay to travel in the bus. Buses appear at every stop every 20 minutes except around 2-3 pm where there is a large break.
We boarded the Route-1 bus from the Elk street bus station and got down at the last stop at the Gondola Base. Note that there's no Uber allowed in Banff but there's a local Banff taxi. However, the Roam bus transit is so good that I don't see a real reason to use another form of commute.
As shown below, the Gondola takes us from the Base to the summit of the Sulphur mountain.
The base is at 5000 ft above sea level and the peak of the sulphur mountain which is almost 7500 ft above sea level - the duration is around 8 minutes in the Gondola.
At the Gondola Base :
The Gondola has large windows that offers us a full 360 degree view. I could also take my mobile out of the window to take some awesome pics. The view from the Gondola is of the Mount Rundle and Bow valley right opposite.
On the way up, we get to also see exquisite tall pine trees and other coniferous trees below us. we also saw a couple hiking up the mountain on the foot.
After we reach the summit, we first enjoy the views around. There are also very nice information boards that shows the names of the mountains so we can directly relate to what we see. From top, we can also spot the iconic Fairmont Springs hotel that looks like a stone castle.
We then started the Banff Boardwalk or the skywalk. This is almost a one Km walk that takes us to another peak - the Sanson's peak.
we get phenomenal views of the Sundance range on the left during the walk. we stopped during the middle to take some great pics of each of us. Here's Niranjan posing with great mountain drop in background.
At the Sanson's peak is a cabin that houses the now defunct Meterological observatory which was an important scientific observatory in the past.
Again , the 360 deg views at this point are also mesmerizing.
There was a slightly longer queue to board the Gondola ride back to the base and after a brief wait we made it back to the base. At the base, we realized again that this was the larger lunch break and again we ended up waiting longer for the Roam-1 bus transit to appear at the base.
we then went back to the hotel and completed the checkin at around 4 pm.
The best part of the hotel location was that both the IGA , a grocery store on Elk street and Indian Curry house, the Indian restaurant were both very close by. we bought water bottles as well as some fruits from the grocery store. we also had pretty decent Indian food in the "Indian Curry house" restaurant. Banff has restaurants from nearly every corner of the world , so for someone more adventurous, there are so many options to chose from.
After dinner, we roamed around Banff avenue in the evening/night. It was very picturesque. we saw girls' teams play soccer in the Banff Community school playground right next to Banff Avenue with the Cascade mountain and Mount Rundle visible right from the street.
Niranjan also took the moon picture from my Samsung S23 Ultra.
2-May
In the morning we went to the Banff Visitor center on Banff Avenue just to confirm that the road till glacier was fine to drive, whether there was any slow etc. The lady at the counter also was very helpful and she marked out key places to explore on a great map.
Our plan was reach upto Athabasca glacier which is a good 130 Km away and also do all the important lake viewpoints or trails on this route. This would consume the entire day, but worth given that we had only one day to make most of. Most important is to ensure you tank up because the only gas station is almost 2 hours away.
we have to get back again on the Trans Canada Highway to head towards Lake Louise.
The first destination was the famous Lake Louise. Lake Louise is the MOST picturesque lake, creates reflections of the mountains but that happens after the lake has thawed completely and it.
However, we were in shoulder season and the lake was still frozen and it's still equally beautiful !
It's another great experience to walk on a frozen lake ! The tricky or scary part was there was no real guideline on how far we can go onto the frozen lake , we just went upto the point were the footmarks in snow stopped. Nachiket commented that people just followed others and it's all about who went a little more further !
After Lake Louise, we continue back on the Trans Canadian highway for a little distance and then we have to take a right exit on the 93 which then goes all the way to Jasper. The trans canada highway heads towards the Kamloops/Vancouver.
Note that the 93 is a smaller width road with no divider and you will now face opposing traffic.
The first picture stop just by the side of the road was the Bow lake viewpoint.
we then continued and we took a small left to go towards the Peyto lake/Bow summit. First, we have to park at the parking lot and then we have to hike a small trail upto the viewpoint. It was not an easy trail for us considering this was completely in snow and with a gradient up and down hill.
It took us around 30 minutes to hike up the hill by being very careful not to sink into snow or slip. I saw most folks walk up easily, while some had snow cleats around their shoes.
Finally we reach the Peyto lake / Bow Summit viewing platform which offers stunning views.
On the way back - the tricky snow trail again
The next picture stop next to the road was the Waterfowl lakes viewpoint.
In this lake we could see the upper crust of frozen slab and below the crystal clear water. Also tried throwing some stones big and small and wondering whether they would land or break the sheet of ice.
we continued driving and we then come to the Sasketchwan river crossing. Just before that some cars had stopped on the side and Nachiket told me that was because of a grizzly bear sighting in the forest on the right. On the bridge itself we had to evade some wild mountain goats. So, yes, some tryst with wild life !
The only gas station with some restaurant/grocery is after this crossing on the right side. The 93 is called the icefields parkway from this point onwards. We also see the Mount wilson on the right.
we continue forward and now the road gets really winding and steeper gradient. we get this Big Bend where the road really curves and there's also a viewpoint offering great views of the mountains.
After this, finally we reached the Athabasca glacier viewpoint. There is a visitor center and a huge parking lot , but the center was closed at this time of year.
Columbia icefield is the largest icefield in Canadian Rockies and is a combination of six glaciers. Athabasca is the most accessible glacier from the highway and this glacier is at the edge of this vast icefield.
Both these were closed during our time, so we just had to hike the route.
After some distance in rocky soil, we get to walk on snow. there were multiple parallel shoe marks and we decided to go on one of them. we had a brief scary moment when Nachiket's leg sunk in snow till almost upper thigh and he couldn't get himself out. I had to hold his back and pull him out. Niranjan also had a similar experience but lesser, knee deep.
we reached some distance away from the "Toe of the Glacier" and decided to turn back because we also wanted to cover one more place on way back and it would take us another 2.5 hours on way back. Took some photo pics with glacier in background.
we headed back and stopped at the only gas station rest stop before the crossing. we tried to see if we could have good in the only restaurant but we found it was too costly. So, we just ate the ready to eat stuff by using the hot water which was in the thermos flask. The idea to carry the maggi ready-to-eat from India and thermos flask really helped !
On the way back , we have to cross the Lake Loise and midway before Banff, we decided to visit the Johnson canyon and lower falls.
This is a MUST see attraction. Johnston creek is a tributary of the Bow river and before it joins the river, it flows through a large canyon with many waterfalls along the way and extremely scenic deep ridges alongside.
A well constructed trail with safety rails and bridges follows next to this canyon
This leads first to the Lower falls and then to the Upper falls. we decided to visit the Lower falls only. There's a small cave like entrance and you get very close that water droplets fall on you, it's very refreshing and enthralling !
After this we got back on the Trans Canadian highway and reached our hotel after filling the gas in Banff in preparation for next day drive back.
In the evening, we again had food in our favourite Indian curry house restaurant and called it a day after another nice walk on the Banff Avenue.
3-May
Drove back to Calgary from Banff.
Just before the airport, again filled the gas at a nearby gas station , nearly brushed another car when doing a tricky left and then an immediate right to the exit , which elicited a honk from the driver.
Returned the rental car to Alamo desk and then boarded the flight to Vancouver after downing good Subway sandwiches in the airport.
The awesome canadian rockies were visible from the aircraft reminding us of the great time we had at Banff !
Truly a whirlwind 1.5 days in Banff and we tried to cover as much as we could. However, folks come from all around the world and spend like a month in Banff - with multitude of natural attractions, trails and extremely cool mountain-town feeling, this is really a must visit star attraction in Canada.
No comments:
Post a Comment