Not being a skier anymore, my time is my own when family and friends head out to the ski slopes of Northern Canada, I have a great sense of freedom because, although I quite like ski resorts, for most of the day I am happy I don’t have to deal with the cold, the height and the twists and turns of mountain ski runs.
So in February of 2024, while the rest of the gang got ready to hit the ski slopes of ‘Sunshine Banff’, I got myself rugged up and jumped on the Gondola for a twenty minute ride down the Sunshine Mountain where hopefully a shuttle bus would take me into the town of Banff, a good 15 Kms away. I managed to convince a bus driver who was heading back to Banff to give me a ride. He explained he would be stopping at the IGA store (Not Brewster’s Bus Station) and I decided there was no point arguing about my Banff destination. As it turned out it was closer to the centre of town and so it was a lucky break for me as it was just down the road from the town’s Visitor Centre
The Visitor Centre building is just to the right of the Church in the image to the left. It was very well staffed as there were lots of folk around to take my questions. My first request was to pinpoint where the Brewsters Bus Station was on the map because if I couldn’t locate that, I was in real trouble for getting back to my bed on top of Sunshine Mountain. I was given various maps and advices but I decided I needed to sit down in a coffee shop and go over the maps to ensure I could find my bus ride home. As it turned out, the route to Brewsters took me past the Catholic Church, the Police Station and the Railway station before I was able to be confident of catching a bus home.
The photo above is a view down the main street of Banff. The shop on the right here must have been an example of local Canadian humour. I was able to find the Brewster’s Bus depot and gain some reassurance that there was a shuttle going back to Sunshine at 1.30pm. I decided to kill time until then by going for a walk along the Bow River that ran around the town of Banff and there was mention on the map of a few museums down past the local hospital that also sat on the banks of this important River.
The walk down the bank of the River Bow was very pleasant. I came across my first Totem Pole behind the hospital. Over the river, the mountains rose tall into the sky, no doubt part of the range that continued on up to the Peaks around the Sunshine Ski resort.
Where the Bow River turned left, around the town of Banff there was a Wooden stockade that housed the Buffalo Nations Museum on the other bank of the Bow. Beneath the image of the museum below there is an extract from the establishment’s Web-Site that gives some insights into the presentations in the Museum.
Journey into the extraordinary heritage of the First Nations People heritage of the Nations People of the Northern Plains and Canadian and Canadian Rockies, at the Buffalo Nations Museum. Experience a time……when native people followed the great buffalo herds, moving their camp seasonally, hauling their tipis and equipment by travois.
Return to the days……when the horse first arrived on the Plains, and when Europeans found a culture rich in elaborate ceremonies, dances, songs, and legends associated with the spirit world and the cycles of nature. (from Buffalo Nations Museum webpage.)
By the time I reached the Recreation grounds opposite the Buffalo fort, it was time to head back to the Bus station for a ride home. The walk along the Bow-river had given me further ideas for exploring Banff on the morrow…I could see a bridge further along that could be my first target for the next morning. The ‘snow-men’ on the left in the council park were my first encounter with snow-men during my time in Banff.
DAY 2 IN BANFF
I followed the same routine as the previous day…I sponged a free ride down to Banff from a friendly bus driver who again delivered me to the IGA store. I decided that better option for today was to get to the Recreation Park at the end of Banff avenue and then I would be able to start off afresh rather than following the river again to the Buffalo Museum.
It was a beautiful day in Banff with the Sun shining and the skies staying blue and clear of snow clouds. The photos below show the main street of Banff and the mountains that are the huge backdrop of the town.
I was on the other side of the main road when I noticed the building (image on right) on the other side of Banff St. It marked one edge of the Council’s Recreation area which had been the end of yesterday’s walk. The sign on the building read ‘Mountains of Change’. The website of this exhibition states its purpose…”Welcome to Canada’s mountain national parks – a landscape in transition because of climate change.“
“The earth’s climate is getting warmer, and climate change is transforming the Canadian landscape in profound ways. In this science-based exhibit, you will discover how climate change affects our mountain national parks, how Parks Canada is responding, and how parks and healthy ecosystems can offer “natural solutions” to climate change.“
Directly ahead of me was a bridge across the Bow which was built in 1923. Along both sides of this bridge are sited six Indian Heads.
Over the road from the Bow Bridge was a very large building that no doubt has some function in the maintenance of the 4 acres of gardens and parkland that I ciuld see lay around it. This park was built in the 1930s and features a series of gardens terraced into the slopes that run down to the front fence. There are a number of gazebos and water features that make it a very attractive place for families to picnic. It is free to enter and plants bloom here from June unto September.
When I was in the Tourist Info office the previous day, one of the activities suggested by the staff as a good destination for a picturesque walk was to the Bow Falls. It was suggested to me that the falls might be frozen but they were well worth a look. It was a very disappointing walk in only one way and that was because I failed to distinguish the falls from the background environment! The image to the left taken in the summer comes from Wikipedia so they are clearly a small set of river falls and must have been frozen over the day I was looking.
So I set off along the path that took me beside the river and passed another of the pedestrian bridges that crossed the Bow (Above). The view from this forest walk beside river wasn’t that impressive so I decided to cut back and head along the road that had the ‘important’ title of Bow Falls Road. I decidfed that if it claims to be the Bow Falls Road, there was no way I was going to miss my target of the morning. What I didn’t realise was that there was no way I was going to miss the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel that I had never heard or ever seen before in my life. This grand hotel appeared above the tree line and rather than turning left to the Falls Car Park, I kept going to have a good look at the façade of this apparently very famous hotel. When I came to the gateway of the hotel, I was a little disappointed by the sign that made it clear that only guests or their visitors were allowed to enter but passing strangers like myself were definitely not welcome and would be prosecuted. I decided to move onto the property for a few metres to improve the quality of my photo but luckily there was no response by alert guards or their guard dogs to my minor trespassing.
I turned back to the earlier road that apparently took me down to a car park that I was confident would give me great views of the Bow River. On my arrival at the start of the car-park, I noticed a sign that pointed back up the river towards town so I immediately decided that this would be my return route. It wasn’t far from this sign that I expected to gain a first look at the Bow River falls. Looking back at the photos I took, there is a chance that maybe I had photographed the locale of the falls but perhaps on the day I was there, too much snow might have been covering them (below).
Despite my disappointment at not seeing any actual ‘Falls’, there were a lot of informative posters around providing information to the interested public. If I was in the wrong spot to see the falls, the poster on the right confirms if you look closely, that I was in the general area for anyone hoping to gaze upon the Bow Falls themselves…there must have been a lot of piled up snow and ice on the river to impede my view.
I wasn’t overly disappointed that I failed to find my final target given that it was both a lovely day and a lovely walk through the Banff National Park.
Behind me when I stood on the bridge that took winter golfers to their course, I noticed a very picturesque coffee house/ restaurant on the side of the hill with the Fairmont hotel behind it. If anybody had a good view of the falls, customers of these two places would have been best placed to spot it
It was a lovely walk back along the river as the first section consisted of stairs that took me up to the top of the rock faces that looked down on the river. I eventually found my way back to the first bridge that swooped across the Bow River and presented signs for the way back to the main street.
It had been an interesting morning in Banff town but I knew if I didn’t speed up, I would miss the 1.30pm shuttle back up to Sunshine mountain.
FOGTRAVEL 