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Day 94 - Banff Town

I wanted to scramble up the highest mountain near Banff town-- the ever-present Mount Rundle, but the 1550 meter (5000 foot) ascent was daunting. So I didn't do it. I stopped in the information center to get trail conditions for all the possible routes on my list then took a stroll around the town. Big climbs would have to wait for another day. 

A walk to the Cave and Basin, a hot spring cave and spring that was the original natural site preserved by Banff Park during its formation in 1870-something was underwhelming since the cave was closed on Mondays. The inside of the Banff Springs hotel was fancy and clean and charming and the falls below the hotel were scenic and calming. 


Next stop was the hot springs-- more like a hot pool-- but relaxing and luxurious non the less. I hung around for nearly two hours. 


Lake Minnewanka is the largest of the lakes at Banff. A quick stroll around the front of the lake provided great views of surrounding peaks, but the highlight was surely watching a lost baby mountain goat running wildly in search of his parents while his parents ran the other direction in search of him. My pointing directions didn't seem to help. He's over there!


A drive up to the Banff ski resort area put me high enough up a mountain side I could quickly climb to Indian Squaw peak.  This hike through a forest was the longest of my hikes, putting me over the ten mile-day mark. On the roadway down I stopped at a grassy overlook of Banff town for the best vista of the day. 



Although waiting at that grassy overlook for the sun to go down would've been spectacular, I wanted to get farther north up the road, so I drove 30 km north to Castle Mountain campground, enjoying the colorful scenary and the castle peaks as the sun finally set on a long, relaxing, tourist day. 








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