We finally woke up in the mountains! We enjoyed the prairie and all the stops along the trip thus far, but the mountains are what we came to Canada for. Just the smell outside the van in Three Sisters Campground the first morning was enough to get me very excited.
It was a foggy morning. A few breaks in the fog brought quick glimpses of mountain peaks as we left the area known as Dead Man's Flats where the campground was located. We passed on through Canmore, hoping to come back in a day or two as it is very close to Banff. We didn't have a place in mind to stay the next few nights. The goal was to check out the area today and figure out where we wanted to set up camp for the next couple of nights.
The exit off Hwy 1 showed a left turn to Banff or a right to climb Mt. Norquay. This looked like a road I would want to climb on the road bike so we made the right to scope it out. The fog was burning off as we emerged from the trees and found some spectacular views of Banff with Mt. Rundle and Sundance Peak towering just behind town. We found a nice spot to sit and enjoy this great view. Canada's National Parks have at least one pair of red chairs in the best viewpoints of each park. The red chairs are usually in the most popular places and the site where most people want to get photos. We had heard about them before the trip and hoped to get into a pair for a few minutes at some point during our time in the land of the maple leaf. Wouldn't you know that this nice overlook had a pair of red chairs and there was nobody around this early in the morning. Score!
As we sat in the red chairs, we could see clouds moving through the valley from the west. They moved quickly and soon the rumble of thunder reached to our ears. We sat in the chairs until the rain arrived, then drove the rest of the way up the mountain. It did look like a good climb, one I hoped to tackle in the coming days. The rain continued as we descended back down Mt. Norquay and headed into Banff. It was a full-on downpour as we reached town. We tried to wait it out, but the downpour continued for well over an hour and showed no signs of stopping. We couldn't even really get oriented in town because we couldn't see much through the pouring rain. We finally found a place with wi-fi and looked up the weather. It looked like it would rain most of the day, so we began searching for things to do on a rainy day. After a few minutes, we discovered the Cave and Basin National Historic Site, which has a cave with hot springs inside.
After a long walk in the rain from the parking lot, we reached the Cave and Basin. There is a museum as you enter, then you get to walk through the small cave to the hot springs. There is a large hot spring pool inside the cave, with another pool located outside above the cave. There are a total of nine hot springs on the site. These springs are unique as they are home to the tiny Banff Springs Snail. These snails may not look like much, but they are pretty special as they are found nowhere else in the world. The snails have adapted to the harsh environment of the hot springs where the temperature is high, oxygen levels are low and sulphur levels are high. They were discovered in 1926 and were noted to live in all nine hot springs at that time. Now they are only found in five of the springs. We saw plenty of the snails at the hot spring above the cave.
The rain was down to a drizzle by the time we got out of the cave. There were some nice displays about the Canadian national parks outside of the library and some beautiful landscaping. We read all the displays and watched their info videos. What I got out of it was this: The glaciers are melting and by coming to visit you contributed to killing them. Canada holds nothing back.
Just outside of the downtown area is a large waterfall on the Bow River called Bow Falls. We stopped by hoping for a hike, but it was not what we were hoping for. The falls were great, but the trail was more like a greenway along the river. It was a wide, graded path covered in wood chips. Most of the people using the trail were carrying shopping bags on their way from town back to the nearby hotels and resorts. Nearby, we also were able to walk out to an overlook where a small group of hoodoos stood near the river.
After a bit more driving around town, we headed up to Lake Minnewanka. This was another area I wanted to road ride through, and we hoped to find a place to camp here. It was very beautiful drive and lake. The campgrounds were full or closed, so we had to head back to Banff to find somewhere to stay.
We found the Banff National Park Visitor Centre in town. They had lots of info on trails and camping. There were computers set up so you could book your own site online, which was great because the line to book with a ranger was crazy long. We went through the whole booking process only to find that we missed the online booking period for the day by about 15 minutes. One campground in town had some sites available right now, but the ranger said they fill quickly in the afternoons so there was no guarantee we would get a site. We were able to get some bear spray while at the centre. It was more expensive than at home, which I expected in an area like Banff. We also had to take a 10-minute training class with a ranger. Once we learned not to shoot ourselves with the spray (duh), we headed over to the Tunnel Mountain Campground. The line was backed up a very long way outside the gate. It took us over an hour to get to the registration shack. Thankfully, the wait paid off with a site for the next two nights. The campground did not fill up, but it got close which is crazy because it has over 800 sites. I thought it was crazy that you had to pay $7 for a permit if you wanted to have a campfire. That seems expensive when you are also paying for a site that is pretty high in price and have to buy expensive wood. Our fire permits at home are free. Guess I'm spoiled. We did not get a fire permit as we didn't think we would be awake long enough each evening to justify $7 per night and definitely would be exploring each morning instead of sitting next to a fire pit.
We had enough time left in the afternoon to go scope out some of the mountain bike trails located just across the street from the campground. They were almost fully dry despite the heavy rain earlier in the day. The first trails were wide and quite easy. We stopped a few times to check out the views over the Bow River and watch some elk down below. The main trail connects Banff to Canmore. We started down that, then realized it was quite a few miles over there and we were running short on daylight. We took a side trail that was some true singletrack. It went into a dark forest and was barely a foot wide in places. It was a super fun trail, but both of us felt like it was a good place to run into a grizzly. I was happy to end that trail and see civilization again, but at the same time I really wanted to be back in that tight forest. It was a beautiful piece of trail for sure.
We wandered around some other boring trails before finally seeing some fun singletrack. We didn't know where we were and just kept following the trail. You can't get too lost here as there are major roads on three sides of this trail system and a big river on the fourth side boxing you in. The trail finally dumped us out at the river, way down the side of the mountain from where we had started. Shannon was getting tired and it was getting dark. We attempted to ride the river bank down to the road next to Bow Falls where we planned to climb the road back to the campground. After several minutes of difficult riding that quickly became difficult hiking, we could see way down the river and the road was nowhere in sight. We walked back through the woods to the trail and started climbing back out. It was a long, tough climb with a lot of steep pitches that forced Shannon to dismount. Those sections had me at my limit so I know she was not enjoying life at that moment. Finally, we saw the road and were able to hop out onto a parallel bike path, arriving back at the campground just as full darkness arrived. What a first day in Banff.
Day 2 in Banff started overcast and raining yet again. With the mountain bike trails wet again, we decided to go exploring further away, hopefully finding a place where it wasn't raining. We drove Hwy 1 further west through Banff National Park and into Yoho National Park. This area is full of National Parks, many touching borders so it is almost as if the mountains are one giant park.We exited the highway after crossing into British Columbia, taking Yoho Valley Rd deeper into the park. There is a huge spiraling portion of railroad track where Yoho Valley Rd turns off Hwy 1. The pitch on this mountain was so steep that train wrecks were frequent back in the day. A spiral tunnel design was created to deal with the gradient, which involved two tunnels, both of which can be seen from different viewpoints. The tracks snake up the mountainside, then go into the mountain where the grade is steepest, spiraling within the mountain before re-emerging above the steep area. I was a bit surprised at the difference between Canadian National Parks and U.S. National Parks. In the U.S. the only stores, campgrounds, museums and things like that you find inside a national park are run by the National Park System. In Canada, however, there are many private businesses like ski resorts, campgrounds, restaurants, railroads and touring groups. Maybe it has to do with when the parks were designated. Some of these private business are pretty old.
Yoho Valley Rd has plenty of excitement, including some super sharp and steep switchbacks that are just one lane wide. Cascades and dense forests line the road as you keep climbing. The road finally ends at Takakkaw Falls. To say these falls are spectacular is an understatement. In fact, the word Takakkaw means "It is magnificent," in Cree. The water comes from the summer melting of the Daly Glacier located just beyond the top of the cliff on the mountain. Beyond the glacier is the Waputik Icefield, which is where the snow falls and forms the glacier. This waterfall is the second highest in Canada with a total drop of 1,224 ft. Yes, 1,224 vertical feet. Not a typo. My jaw was on the ground as we hiked up to the falls. I could have stared at it all day long. The main drop of the falls that you can see from the bottom is an astounding 833 ft. Unreal.
Once I finally got my mouth to close again, we decided to hike to three other waterfalls located along a popular trail leaving from the Takakkaw Falls parking lot. Most people get on the Iceline Trail to hike to the Twin Falls Tea House National Historic Site at the Twin Falls Chalet. This mountain chalet and restaurant is hike-in only. It's a three hour hike one-way to reach the chalet. The distance was a bit more than what we wanted for an early morning hike when we had a lot more planned for the day, though we do wish we could have made it to Twin Falls which is near the chalet. The trail started off fairly flat with nice views of Takakkaw Falls as you moved through the valley. Then it began to climb, so slightly at first you didn't really realize it. The forest was beautiful. It was the kind of forest I had always wanted to be in. Moss covered almost the entire forest floor, with mushrooms springing up near the bottoms of the thick pine trees. We hiked along a glacier-fed stream that flowed milky-white with shades of blue due to the thick concentration of minerals produced by the moving glacier. All of the waterfalls and streams in this area are glacier-fed and all have a rich white and/or blue color. The stones along the stream banks were multi-colored and scarred by the movement of the glacier.
After 1.7 miles there are two quick side trails take you to Angel's Staircase and Lace Falls. The uphill becomes a true climb after those side trails. It was only 1.2 more miles to Laughing Falls, but it was a tough 1.2. Shannon was getting tired just in time for us to round a corner and see a wall of a climb in front of us. If we weren't so close I think she would have turned back right there. I could see her motivation drain out like somebody squeezing water out of a sponge. After some persuading, she climbed that steep pitch and it turned out to be the end of the hard stuff before we reached Laughing Falls. She was happy she continued on, especially when we got that long downhill most of the way back. It had been drizzling most of the morning, but the sun began to peak out occasionally as we neared the van.
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