Banff National Park – Canada
When the Canadian Transcontinental Railroad first traversed the Canadian Rockies in 1883, the president of the Canadian Pacific Railway named the area Banff after his birthplace of Banffshire, Scotland. The Banff Springs Hotel quickly became one of the railway’s most prized properties. Banff National Park was established in 1885 and was Canada’s first national park. The park is located about 78 miles west of the city of Calgary in the province of Alberta.
The town of Banff was incorporated as a municipality in 1990 and it was the first town in Canada incorporated within a national park. Banff is nestled in the Canadian Rockies and sits at an elevation of 4,537 feet (1,383m) making it the highest town in Canada. The town has a population of approximately 8,000 permanent residents and its primary industry is tourism with more than 4 million guests visiting Banff and the national park annually.
For centuries, the indigenous people to the Canadian Rockies hunted and camped along the shores of the Lake Minnewanka. The Stoney people called it “Minn-waki” or “Lake of the Spirits” for they respected and feared the lake for its resident spirits. With tourism coming to the region following the completion of the railroad, a log hotel called the “Beach House” was built along the original shoreline in 1886. By 1912, a resort village called Minnewanka Landing was established with avenues, hotels, restaurants, and wharves where guests could take lake cruises. A series of dam projects aimed at improving the shoreline for boating and then later to provide water for hydro-electric power for the war effort caused the water levels to rise over 100 feet and submerge the resort in 1941. Today, scuba divers are the only ones to visit Minnewanka Landing now that it is all underwater.
Lake Louise is easily one of Canada’s most famous and photographed landscapes. This 1.5-mile-long glacial lake sits at an elevation of 5,679 ft and its outlet is a creek which flows into the Bow River. The indigenous people called the lake Ho-run-num-nay which means “lake of the little fishes”. In 1882, a Stoney guide took Canadian Pacific Railway workman Tom Wilson to the site which he named Emerald Lake due to the lakes hallmark color. The lake was renamed in 1884 to honor Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and wife of Governor General the Marquess of Lorne. The characteristic turquoise color of Lake Louise comes from the glacial silt that is carried into the lake by the melt-water from the numerous glaciers that overlook the lake.
In the early decades of the 20th century, the Canadian Pacific Railway built a luxury resort hotel on the eastern shore of Lake Louise. Today, the Fairmont’s Chateau Lake Louise maintains the tradition of Canada’s grand railway hotels and it remains open year-round. Lake Louise is one of the most popular destinations in Canada, and you really have to plan a visit, especially in the summer. The limited parking at the lakeshore fills up early and it is pretty pricey to park. Fortunately, the county offers a shuttle service to and from Lake Louise that departs downtown Banff throughout the day.
Lake Moraine is another snow and glacially fed alpine lake in Banff National Park. This beautiful 120-acre lake is situated in the Valley of the Ten Peaks at an elevation of 6,181 feet. The lake, being fed almost completely by snow-melt and glacial-melt, does not reach its crest until middle to late June. Once the lake is full, it reflects a distinctive shade of azure blue. The unique color is due to the refraction of the blue end of the spectrum of sunlight off the rock sediment deposited in the lake by the melting of the surrounding glaciers. Lake Moraine is only accessible during the summer months and Parks Canada has the road to the lake closed to private vehicles. Fortunately, there is a shuttle that departs from Lake Louise to take guests up to Lake Moraine and many visitors, like myself, do them both on the same day.
The Banff Gondola takes guests to the summit of Sulphur Mountain for spectacular views of the Canadian Rockies and the town of Banff. The 8-minute gondola ride ascends the mountain steeply to an elevation of 7,486 feet where visitors get stunning panoramas of six different mountain ranges. At the summit there is a chalet that offers refreshments, several enclosed viewing areas, and a small museum. Outside there is a large deck for taking in the amazing views and boardwalk along the ridgeline that offers even more stunning views.
The Bow River runs through the most populated region of Alberta, intersecting cities such as Banff, Canmore, Cochrane and Calgary. It originates at Bow Lake in Banff National Park where the lake is fed by Bow Glacier. The river flows through downtown Banff where there are numerous trails that let you walk along the swift flowing river. Just past the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel the river drops 30 feet over the Bow Falls and then changes course 90 degrees by the golf course. The Bow River flows for a total of 365 miles until it joins the Oldman River to form the South Saskatchewan River, which ultimately empties into Hudson’s Bay to the east.
During my week-long stay in Banff National Park, I camped at the Tunnel Mountain Village II campground which had great public transportation into town where you could catch connecting shuttles for getting around the entire park. From my campsite, I had spectacular views of snow-capped mountains including Tunnel Mountain. Unfortunately, I did not see much wildlife while I stayed in Banff National Park. I did get a glimpse of a bear, couldn’t tell which species, when I was on the shuttle bus out to Lake Minnewanka. While hiking along the Lake Louise shoreline, myself and others thought we heard what sounded like a grizzly bear roar in the distance. Always good to carry bear spray in Banff National Park for it is bear country!
