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We purchased this trip as a package from Fresh Tracks
Canada. Of course, it cost more than it would have doing it
all ourselves but they were great to work with, tried to meet our needs
and we had full input on selecting activities. Since we had no
experience in this part of the world, it seemed a good idea to let some
experts guide us. We definitely stayed in a higher class of
accommodation than we would usually choose! Overall, it was a
good
experience and we were glad to have done it this way.
Thursday July 30:
 Katie made us yummy "pick your toppings"
BLT's last night and we
had a good
visit with her and George. She took us
to the airport on her way to work this
morning. The whole flight to Calgary was great until we finished
with
immigration and there was no luggage! Apparently
a whole cart from our flight was
"misplaced," for about an hour! So we missed our Banff shuttle
time, but we called and the next one was only an hour
later so the Airporter
folks just moved us onto that one. The
luggage did
eventually show up but it literally took an hour from when Fly Delta
said it
was delivered! The Calgary airport is nice, though - we saw the
first waterfall of the trip right there!
 We got
to Banff about 5:30 PM – of course we were
really
tired from a long day of travel. We got
settled in at the Caribou Lodge and then went to the Fat Ox at 7 PM for
our
dinner reservation
(made by Fresh Tracks). There were a
couple of large parties and it was quite crowded so it took until after
8 to get the
entrees. The food
was good, and the waitstaff was working hard, but the kitchen was
clearly
understaffed. After supper, we stopped at the IGA to get yogurt,
berries
and muffins for breakfasts and we picked up some sandwiches for
Saturday. The picture at the left was taken just after sunset
from the main street in town - I could get used to that view! We
were definitely ready to crash for the night!
Friday, July 31
 We
slept well! John got a smaller pillow from the the desk people
(who are all very helpful)
so he woke up without a stiff neck. We don't have a separate A/C
room control but it wasn't too hot and they provided a
fan
for circulation that helped immensely. 
This morning
we ate
our yogurt and muffins for breakfast and
then called the cab to pick us up and take us down to the Banff Gondola
- there
is a Roam transit bus that goes there and the hotel
had given us passes for the bus system, but Fresh Tracks gave
us a
voucher for the cab so we thought we'd use it. We were warned there
was
construction on Mountain Road, but it didn't hold us up so we ended up
getting
there plenty early. I begin to
understand what they mean about the crowds at this time of the year –
there was
a long line even though the tickets all have a specific time! We eventually got our turn
and rode up to Sulfur Mountain; it was fun. It is
somewhat smoky
today due to British Columbia wild fires.  They
had a big sign up saying visibility is
limited and there would be no refunds so be sure you want to do this -
but we understood
the problem.  It's true that some of the mountains we
couldn't see at all, but that's okay - we still got a lot of good
views and had a good time. The picture at the right above is
looking down on Banff - you can see the Bow River and also tell how the
smoke is affecting the view.
We walked the boardwalk path (right) up to Sanson
Peak. We also enjoyed watching the fairly tame
golden-mantled ground squirrels (left) play hide and seek and come beg
for
handouts. The ticket people at the top
basically said we could go back down whenever we wanted to regardless
of the time stamped on our ticket, so we spent some
time in
the Discovery Center, looking at the exhibits and then relaxing in the
sun. We had lunch at the Northern Lights Alpine
Kitchen buffet (altitude about 7500 feet). $55 is way too
much
for it but
we’re
on vacation, right? We could go through the line as many times as
we wanted to, so
had
plenty to eat. And we
did get great
views while we ate. The one at the left below clearly shows the
haziness from the smoke!
  We didn't use the taxi voucher coming back
because we weren't ready to return to the hotel yet. We took the
bus
and got
off near the intersection with Banff Avenue where we could access the
Bow Falls Trail to walk down to the Bow Falls viewpoint (picture at the
right). It
was very long and there are
lots of steps. They go way up and then you walk for a little while
further and
then
they go way down. But I found it a nice walk with great scenery
(at
that lower altitude the smoke doesn't interfere very much).
  We
kind of
retraced our steps, then crossing the street and going
into the Cascades of Time garden behind the National Parks
Administration
Building. It was lovely and we spent a
couple of hours
walking around in there. We saw what Google Lens told me was a yellow
bellied marmot
but it was really too small for that – they look very much the same
except for
the size but these are Columbian Ground Squirrels. The
pictures below
include a couple of magpies playing in a small waterfall, the Columbian
Ground Squirrel and one of the many nice bridges and sitting areas by a
pond and
another waterfall. When we
were
totally worn out, we grabbed
the bus back to
the hotel and cleaned up before supper.
We got the downtown bus less
than a
block away, at the Rotary Park – we could have walked it but we were
both
pretty tired out from a full day of walking. We
made a quick stop to
pick up a couple of things at a pharmacy, then
walked the last 2 blocks to the Balkan Mediterranean
Restaurant
where
we had supper tonight. It's primarily a Greek restaurant and at 8:30 PM
they have
"Greek night" which is described as “belly dancing and loud singing
with
lots of
music and smashing plates.” So we made our reservation for 6:30!
Before that got started, it was a very nice, quiet place and we enjoyed
the
meal. I had a spanakopita small plate
for about $17 Canadian and John had the lemon grilled chicken Souvlaki
plate
for $25. Those are quite low compared to
the prevailing prices around Banff and it was great. The people
we have
met here have all been very nice. We've had three sit-down meals so far
and the
servers have been from Australia, New Zealand and the UK. The hotel
staff and many of
the guides are also from all over the world and are here primarily for
the
summer (though some live here permanently now.) There is also a
ski
season in
the winter and one guide we met came for the skiing, then decided to
stay and works as a naturalist in the summer.
After eating, we did some window shopping and
bought ice
cream for dessert. We
walked back to the hotel which was really too much for John but he was
a good
sport and had time to take a long, soaking bath before bed!
Saturday, August 1
 This morning we slept in, had our breafast
in the room and
packed up our sandwiches to catch the Sunshine Village
shuttle bus at a little after
11:00 in preparation for a 2:00 guided walk. At the gondola
base (what they call Creekside), it seems very disorganized
and not signed well. There is no obvious
“ticket kiosk” and the staff sent us into the building and upstairs to
a
Customer Service office. After a couple of phone calls, we were sent to
another office in an entirely different building: “General
Administration.” There, they actually
had our tickets all printed out and ready for us so we went up in the
gondola. About half way up we come to "Goat's Eye" which
apparently is a stop during the ski season. We didn't get off but
the gondola makes a turn there and there was a family of big horn sheep
pretty much ignoring the gondolas (picture to right). We had
plenty of time so
checked out the Centennial Lodge and Interpretive Center - not a lot
there
but there were a few exhibits - a helpful one included posters of all
of
the "currently in bloom" wildflowers.
 It was a lovely sunny day so we went out to
the large patio and had the
lunches we had brought.  We went back in where we were
supposed to
check in with our guide at 1:30 - but I guess that was another lack of
comunication since she didn't show up until right at 2! There are
a lot of
paths at
that level; it would be a good place to go another time and just take
some
nice walks. The paths are all well groomed (mostly gravel) and very
well marked. You can tell from the left picture how much better
the view is today with less smoke. The picture on the right shows
one of the many wildflowers - white mountain-avens which is actually
the national flower of Iceland! The
signage
is easy to read but it is a lot of up and down. I was misled about that
– we
were told our hike would be pretty level. But
it actually involved lots of climbing and lots of
going downhill and my toes really hurt afterwards.
  Our
guide, Imogene, did an awesome job and was
apologetic that we hadn’t been advised to bring our hiking poles. We
took the chair lift up to Standish Mountain
and walked from there. We stood at the
point of the change of province - Alberta and British Columbia - (this
is also the Continental Divide), we
got
a nice view of The Three lakes (Rock
Isle, Laryx and Grizzly) shown at the left, and then we walked down to
Rock Isle lake (on the right). We
were
right out there among the snow drifts! There were lots of wildflowers
and that part was really nice. We also met numerous Columbian ground
squirrels who apparently thrive in that environment. We didn’t
take the chairlift back
down to
the main village but hiked it – this is where my toes really began to
hurt! The walk was not too long, but just too steep without the
aid of the poles. Below are three more of the stunning views we
enjoyed: Pilot Mountain (with mostly beargrass along the path) on the
left; view from near the continental divide in the center and at the
right, a view from the gondola going back down.
 We did get
back down to the base in time to get the the
4:45 shuttle and on
the way back to Banff we
saw a herd of
elk right by the highway (at the left). We got back to the hotel around
5:15
where we found out the elevator was
down. Apparently it has a
seven-person limit and there were about 10 people crowded into it so
its
overload mode kicked in and it stalled. They
did manage to get everybody out safely but then it wasn't running
correctly so we had to use the stairs to get up to
our
fourth floor room. Even when we got back
after supper it was still not working but they pretty much promised it
would be working the next morning. Let’s hope so since
we have to check out and I don't want to
haul all of the luggage down!
We had time to clean up and relax a little
bit in the room before
taking the bus down to The
Old Spaghetti Factory for supper. The bus
was overloaded but the nice driver let
us squeeze on anyway since it was just for a few blocks. Both of us
were pretty worn out and so we didn't really
feel like
walking even a few blocks. The restaurant was really really packed so I
was glad
we had
a reservation! We did have a good meal and it
just started to rain a little bit as we
were getting on the bus to return. Good
timing. Good birthday day for John!
Sunday, August 2
  We were picked up at 10:30AM by Mikela, our driver from
Discover Banff
Tours – she is Italian and delightful, as all of our servers and
guides have been.
She took us via the Bow Valley Parkway to Lake Louise. You can tell it
is a cloudy day but there was no active rain. We stopped at a
Castle Mountain
view point (left) and also Morant’s Curve (right) where
Nicholas Morant, working for the Canadian Pacific Railroad, apparently
spent hours photographing the Bow River,
the mountains and train tracks. It has become an iconic view now
and
several
of his photos have been used on Canadian bank notes.
  Along the parkway, we
had a
grizzly bear wander across the road in front of us and then gobble
berries in
the ditch, ignoring us completely. She safely pulled to the opposite
side of the road so we could snap a couple pictures from the van.
We
also saw a black bear in bushes further on but it was hidden behind so
many bushes, all you could really see were the ears! Mikela
picked up 4 more passengers at Lake
Louise so we did a quick check-in at the Farimont Chateau then went on
to Moraine
Lake. Private cars are not
permitted at Moraine Lake (crowds) so the only way to get there is with
a tour
or by bicycle. We walked the shore trail
(rather than climbing the Rockpile Trail with the bulk of the crowds)
for about an hour. Along the trail we saw this flower (right)
that John thought looked like a dogwood - when I looked it up that
evening, turns out it is a bunchberry, also known as "creeping
dogwood!" He has a good eye!
Below are three pictures I took at Moraine Lake - the first
two are just pictures of the Moraine Lake and the Valley of the Ten
Peaks taken from the shore trail; the one on the right is a close up of
the big glacier you can barely see in the left picture. The center
picture was taken from further down along the lake, looking back - you
can tell it's a different direction by the blue sky peeking
through! The water is always that bright blue color.
 Mikela dropped us off back at the Fairmont Chateau
where we stayed for two nights - at the left
is the iconic photo of Lake Louise with mountains, blue sky, fluffy
clouds
and a couple of canoes. Yes, the color is real. The Fresh
Tracks agent had reserved a supper time for us at the Fairview Bar and
Restaurant
but after walking through the Chateau and reading all the menus, John
visited the dining reservation
center and they
were able
to swap that for a place at the Walliser Stube which had our preferred
menu. It's an upscale
restaurant and we enjoyed it thoroughly! I had chicken cordon
bleu and John had rainbow trout. After supper, we
stopped
next door at The Pantry (a convenience carry-out shop) for breakfast
muffins and
yogurt parfaits then
walked the Lake Shore Trail for about half an
hour until dusk, when the bear danger increases!
Monday, August 3
  This
morning we hiked the Fairview Overlook trail up to the overlook.
The left picture is us up on the viewing platform; the right one is our
view from that platform, looking back at the trailhead in front of the
chateau. It was only about 1.2 k (about .75 mile) each way but so
steep that we had to keep
stopping to breathe! I had both knee braces on and we had hiking
poles so there was no pain involved,
but it took us over an hour to get up there – probably the altitude was
also
a
factor. Coming back down was easier but that experience made us
change
our minds about doing the Lake Agnes trail (2.1 miles up to 7000 feet)
after
lunch. It seemed like a great idea but
we are apparently too out of shape for such an adventure so we changed
plans! Some of the wildflowers we saw are shown below:
ragwart and
buttercups, twinberry honeysuckle and fireweed and others.
  I had some left over chicken I
could enjoy for lunch, but we
stopped at The
Pantry to get
John some chili and also pick up some scones for breakfast.
After a
restful lunch in our room, we went back out and walked the FLAT
Lakeshore
trail all the way to the end! That was about 1.5 miles each way
but it involved no climbing!
Pictured at the left is the very end of the lake and on the right is a
view looking back at the Chateau from the end. We saw lots
of
golden mantle ground squirrels, a couple of Clark’s Nutcrackers,
a few fuzzy rust colored mice (not pictured) and
some white
crowned sparrows. Plus, of course, loads
of wild flowers.
One of the elevators broke this afternoon - we must
be bad luck on
elevators! This time we were in it, heading back downstairs after
lunch. The
door didn't close all the way and the alarm started beeping. It
did open
when we pressed the "open" button so we were able to exit and use
the other elevator but it didn't restart. We reported it at the
front desk and it had
an “out of order" sign when we returned after our hike, but
the other one is
still functioning. We
had an ice cream snack on the patio when we
got back and then rested until supper at the Alpine Social (another,
less formal, restaurant within the Chateau). That evening we
packed up for our day on the Icefields Parkway.
Tuesday August 4
  This morning we were supposed to be
picked up at 9:20 by Sundog Tours
to go to Jasper via the Icefields Parkway. He
didn't show up until 9:45 and had a whole big bus full of tourists he
had already collected in Banff.
After he got us, he just parked there at Lake Louise so they could have
a
half an hour to see the lake. Somebody did not schedule this very
well - we should have been added AFTER their "lake time." Not
that critical - we just didn't understand how it was going to
work! At the left is one of the early mountains we passed - Mt.
Temple - and on the right is Waterfowl Lake. We stopped briefly
at Bow Lake (panorama below).
There were beautiful views all along the drive - more examples
are
shown below. The right hand photo is the North Saskatchewan River
at the recreation area where we stopped for our picnic lunch.
 Next
stop was the Columbia
Ice Field (to the left), which is part of Jasper National Park.
We had the chance to climb onto an Ice Explorer that then leads us up
to the Athabasca Glacier where we had some time to walk/slide around
the glacier, see some of its face up close and also see how quickly
it's melting and sending waterfalls down the mountains.
We spent some time in the Discovery Center that had some
well-done interpretive displays and a great collection of
photographs. Then we piled into the Ice Explorer, a "massive,
specialized all-terrain vehicle [that drives] directly onto the surface
of the Athabasca Glacier to walk on the ice." Pictured below: the
Ice Explorer, the view from the glacier of the Explorers coming down
the road and us being glacier explorers (and getting cold!)
The last stop in that area was at the Skywalk
where we walked on a transparent walkway out over a gorge about 900
feet below. The views were amazing - at the left is a view from
where we were dropped off by the bus; if you enlarge it, you can see
just a little of the
Skywalk at the left side. In the middle are just a few of the
falls from the glaciers rushing into the Sunwapta River. We
also spotted a mountain goat family on the cliffside below the Skywalk
in the right hand photo. They didn't seem to notice the
people! If you look carefully (enlarge by clicking it) you can
see the Mom at the lower right nibbling on grasses, Dad lying down at
the left with the youngster behind him. Look back at the first picture
to see just how steep that area is!
Finally, the last leg of the trip took us by Tangle Creek
Falls (left) and Athabasca
Falls (center) where we had a quick stop to look around the area,
and then we started seeing damage from the 2024 fires (right) as we
followed the
Athabasca
River on up to Jasper and were delivered to our hotel there (The
Crimson). The trip report picks up in Jasper in Part 2 -
click below
to continue!
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