Exploring Banff - Day 3

Saturday, September 16th

Woke to a chilly -1C.  Yeah the skies are clear for our adventure today. It dropped to -2C in Banff when we past through to the Gondola at 8:15 am. There were already 3 tour buses there! Anyways it only took about a 10 minute wait for us to be loaded. Out of the 6 gondolas we have taken this summer, this one is the strangest. When the car comes down from the mountain into the roundabout, it comes off the drive cable. The attendants unload the passengers and then manually push the car to the loading area and then push the car back onto the drive cable. Certainly a lot of manual labour. Pros, people with disabilities, walkers, wheelchairs etc. have more time to be loaded. Cons, the attendants better have "some muscle".There's just as many Aussies working here as in Whistler.

Took about 8 minutes to ride up to the top. Temp at top was -10C. Good thing we brought hats, gloves and I wore my long underwear! (Ray says Michelin Tire Woman).  The views were absolutely stunning ... not a cloud to be seen. One definitely feels like you are at the top of the world. Lots of new snow though.

Ray's pics

Boardwalk down and up again to the hillside across from the viewing platform.

Way to many stairs for Ray to handle.

He only walked down as far as this to get the picture of the building.

View looking down at the town of Banff.

Yup they had snow last night. Look, a Christmas tree.

PIcture of the Banff Springs Hotel coming back down on the Gondola.

Here is a video I took with my phone while Ray was busy with his camera and tripod.

We were going to have something to eat up at the top, but nothing other than the coffee shop was open yet. So, back down the gondola by 10:00 am and off to find breakfast. We chose the Juniper Bistro at the Juniper Hotel, located on the way to the Mt. Norquay (the ski hill here in Banff). It's Trip Advisor's #1 choice. Boy are the people right. Fantastic view with fantastic food. We managed to hit their weekend brunch. I ordered the Smoked Salmon Benny and Ray the Juniper Benny with rabbit. They were very "refined dishes" that you could taste all of the ingredients separately. Delicious. The best benny I've ever eaten.

SALMON BENNY citrus biscuit, house smoked wild salmon, medium-poached eggs, hollandaise, lemon crème fraiche, & pickled shallots served w/ brown butter hash 18 

Smoked Salmon Benny

JUNIPER BENNY bannock, bufalo mozzarella, braised rabbit, medium-poached eggs, hollandaise & juniper berry glaze served w/ brown butter hash 17
Ray thoroughly enjoyed his as well. Here is our view from the bistro. Looking at the Vermillion Lakes that we toured yesterday.

The bistro display included a birch bark and spruce resin original canoe on display ... not much freeboard.

Inside view of the canoe.

We continued up the road to the ski hill to see the views. Most of the ski runs were on the side of the mountain, not visible on the drive up. There were about 25 Nordic Skiers working their way up the road on roller skis. I am sure some of the ones in the very front were training for the Olympics and they were miles ahead (literally) of the pack. One of the viewpoints we stopped at showed a great view of the Vermilion Lakes  and across that is the Cave and Basin Historic Site's marshes, we saw yesterday.

Mt Norquay

Back down we took a swing through town for Ray to get a better picture of the street and mountain with the sun shining.

Banff Avenue

On the way back up Tunnel Mountain Road we stopped to get some better pictures as well.

The top of Bow River Falls, the rock underneath the water looked really cool all carved out channels.

 Here is the video that Ray took of the falls.

Banff Springs Hotel with the Bow River Falls.

Fall Colours

Back home by noon, and after Freya had her walk, Ray laid down for a couple of hours in preparation for our next adventure today. which is the Lake Minnewanka Boat Cruise at 3 pm this afternoon.

Picture of Mt. Rundel from one of Freya's many walks (the one below is from the first walk this morning). Love the texture of the rock. I've been driving Ray and Freya up to the top road of the campsite at the trail entrance so he only needs to walk downhill back to the campsite. Sure makes it easier on him, and both Ray and Freya like walking on the trails. We are on the 300 road and there are 5 more roads of campsites up to the top above us! This is a huge place.

We were kinda worried at 1:45 pm when a bunch of clouds rolled in, hoping it would not affect the pictures on the cruise but headed out and found it to be fine. The Banff National Park people run the operation and we all loaded up by 3 pm. (40 people per boat approx.) What a beautiful lake. Both Ray and I enjoyed the ride and the commentary on the area. The pictures were all taken with Ray's phone ... no memory card in his Canon as he took it out to download this mornings pictures. lol. He got some great shots though.

Lake Minnewanka is a glacial lake located in the eastern area of Banff National Park in Canada, about five kilometres northeast of the Banff townsite. It is 21 km long and about 1km wide at it's widest point (Wikipedia)

Lots of boat rentals.

Silly kids. It is only 12C outside and the lake remains at 3C all year long.

Looks like cement poured down the mountain, all done by glaciers.

The cruise was well worth the money. We both loved the scenery. The colour of the lake was stunning. Here is a video that Ray took.

After the cruise, we took a short side trip over the dam and down through 2 Jack Lake area. Stopped for a picture of the Cascade Falls at 300m or 984 feet.

Into town for a quick bite of Sushi and home to Freya for the rest of the day. The sushi place delivered your food via a train ... very cute.

A very long day but so worth it. This has been the only day in 4 where it has not been very cloudy and drizzily so we had to make the most of it before heading to Calgary tomorrow. Hopefully our satellite TV system gets fixed on Monday. We have really been missing watching the news and a few programs before bed. Have not had TV since we left August 26th from my Dad's in Surrey. I am going into withdrawal!!!