It seems that after an early morning rise, we tend to have a slow start the following day. Typically, I am the one holding us up, because I am trying to finish my blog post from the previous day or sort through and upload dozens of photos to Facebook. But today was not one of those late start days and I didn't have time to write my post until tonight. It is currently 10:00 pm and I am now two days behind. So I'll focus on yesterday for now.
We were up and out the door around 11:00 am for our first foray into Banff Town. I knew we had a full day planned to see Johnston Canyon, Lake Louise and Moraine Lake the following day, so I had a few things I hoped to accomplish on this more laid-back day.
Our first stop was Lake Minnewanka, but there was no parking available, so we left and headed into town. We drove around for a while again, looking for parking with no luck until Joe checked his phone and discovered we could park at the Train Station for free. Success! There was plenty of parking, and it was just a 10-minute walk into town. Banff is primarily one main drag with restaurants and shops. There is another street with mostly hotels. We walked to the visitor center and purchased a day bus pass for the transit system in Banff, called Roam.
offering free admission to many of its parks and museums. As a result, we didn't have to pay for the entrance to the museum. This was a good thing since we only spent about 15 minutes there. This museum was the first museum in Western Canada, and primarily it contained hundreds of stuffed birds and other animals from around the area. There were also insects. In fact, the total number of specimens is 5000. The founder of the museum was a naturalist and meteorologist. Although this museum was number 2 on a list of things to do while visiting Banff on the Parks Canada website, all of the vintage taxidermy was not really our cup of tea, so we quickly moved on.
Number 1 on the list from Parks Canada was the Cave and Basin National Historic Site. We took the Roam to the site, which was not too far outside of town. Back in 1883, three Canadian Pacific Railway workers came across a cave and a basin with hot water bubbling up. The indigenous people had known about and used these thermal waters for 10,000 years, but these three men decided to use the springs to make a profit. Eventually, this became the first national park. There was a lot of history and some fun interactive exhibits. The cave and basin were pretty smelly since the waters came from Sulfur Mountain. That should be all the explanation you need.
We hopped on the Roam again, but this time we made a transfer to a different route and went back to Lake Minnewanka for a one-hour boat ride. It briefly started to rain while we waited for our tour, but eventually, the sun came out, and we saw several rainbows over the water. Lake Minnewanka, like all of the lakes in Banff, is surrounded by mountains. It is the deepest lake and even has a flooded settlement underneath it from the third dam that was built on the lake.
By the time we finished the tour and waited for the Roam to pick us up, it was after 7:00 pm. I had hoped to drive to Emerald Lake, but it was over an hour away, and it was just too late. With so many people visiting Banff, everything just took longer, so we put off Emerald Lake and made a plan to possibly go the next day.
We had eaten a late lunch at Melissa's Missteak, and weren't really ready for dinner, so we walked around the shops and eventually headed back to the apartment, where the boys ate their leftover pizza from Red Rock Pizza. It ended up being another late night, and we had an early call time for Hop On Banff in the morning. Thus, the reason for this late entry.
It seems like so long ago that we finished up the day, but it was really only 24 hours ago. I will post about our final day in Banff in the morning. For now, I need to get some rest!
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