One of the things I noticed on my early morning walk was these large (maybe 30 inches in diameter) copper colored signs embedded in the sidewalk. They were at three major intersections with Banff Avenue: Wolf Street, Caribou Street and Buffalo Street. They were on each of the four corners of each intersection with the compass directions the same on all, but with the animal's head pointed to the intersection - thus, all four wolf signs were different because of the orientation of the wolf. This means there were twelve of these unique signs at the three intersections. I did not find any more at other streets named after animals (moose, rabbit, marten, beaver, etc.).
2017 is the 150th birthday of Canada. One thing to celebrate this is free entry to all National Park sites in Canada. One thing done in Banff was to have the school children paint one of the sidewalks with their own interpretation of the 150th. For the two city blocks in front of the public library and the Whyte Museum, there are these sidewalk paintings.
The plan for Friday was to hike the Bow Falls Trails (one on each side of the river). We left the hotel on the riverwalk outside our room and took the pedestrian bridge over to the other side of the Bow River.
The trail follows the river, and where there are cliffs, they have stairs up, over and down to keep you near the river.
Over a half mile or so, the falls are a series of small falls, maybe five to ten feet each, with a final drop of 20 - 25 feet.
After that final drop, the river is joined by the smaller Spray River at a small park area.
As we climbed back up past that final waterfall, we had a fair view of the Banff Springs Hotel on the side of Sulphur Mountain.
We returned to the pedestrian bridge, crossed back to the other side and started hiking there. That trail is labelled both as the Bow Falls Trail and the Surprise Corner Viewpoint Trail. It follows the river for about a half mile, before bringing you up to the road that goes up to the viewpoint parking lot and on to the Banff Center (the big arts and performance center we looked down on from Tunnel Mountain earlier in the week). Because we were on bigger cliffs, the view of the falls was a bit more dramatic.
At the Surprise Corner Viewpoint, I learned about the Canadian Pacific Railroad finishing the trans-Canadian railway in 1885 and then building a luxury resort here in Banff to bring wealthy tourists and to financially support the railroad - hence the large Banff Springs Hotel on the other side of the Bow River.
We then hiked back into town to have our picnic lunch at Banff's Central Park (not as big as New York's, but still a very nice park along the river). Banff is a very bike friendly city with miles of paved bike paths, many totally separate from car traffic as well as bike lanes on most streets and roads. One thing they have in the park is a bike repair station with tire pump and a variety of tools, all to use at no cost.
After lunch, we visited the Banff National Park Museum. They showcase the park's history and variety of wildlife, among other things.
We returned to our hotel room to drop off our backpacks, took a short rest and then were off to see the 4:00 p.m. showing of the movie "Dunkirk." I had just finished reading the book that was written about the military actions up to and during the Dunkirk evacuation in WWII and the making of the movie. Even so, I had a hard time following much of the story in the movie. Patty had not read the book yet and she was totally lost. Frankly, the movie was not that good - even with having just read the book.
After the show, we had our last dinner in Banff at an Irish Pub - a fine way to end our week in Banff.
The plan for Friday was to hike the Bow Falls Trails (one on each side of the river). We left the hotel on the riverwalk outside our room and took the pedestrian bridge over to the other side of the Bow River.
The trail follows the river, and where there are cliffs, they have stairs up, over and down to keep you near the river.
Over a half mile or so, the falls are a series of small falls, maybe five to ten feet each, with a final drop of 20 - 25 feet.
After that final drop, the river is joined by the smaller Spray River at a small park area.
As we climbed back up past that final waterfall, we had a fair view of the Banff Springs Hotel on the side of Sulphur Mountain.
We returned to the pedestrian bridge, crossed back to the other side and started hiking there. That trail is labelled both as the Bow Falls Trail and the Surprise Corner Viewpoint Trail. It follows the river for about a half mile, before bringing you up to the road that goes up to the viewpoint parking lot and on to the Banff Center (the big arts and performance center we looked down on from Tunnel Mountain earlier in the week). Because we were on bigger cliffs, the view of the falls was a bit more dramatic.
At the Surprise Corner Viewpoint, I learned about the Canadian Pacific Railroad finishing the trans-Canadian railway in 1885 and then building a luxury resort here in Banff to bring wealthy tourists and to financially support the railroad - hence the large Banff Springs Hotel on the other side of the Bow River.
We then hiked back into town to have our picnic lunch at Banff's Central Park (not as big as New York's, but still a very nice park along the river). Banff is a very bike friendly city with miles of paved bike paths, many totally separate from car traffic as well as bike lanes on most streets and roads. One thing they have in the park is a bike repair station with tire pump and a variety of tools, all to use at no cost.
After lunch, we visited the Banff National Park Museum. They showcase the park's history and variety of wildlife, among other things.
We returned to our hotel room to drop off our backpacks, took a short rest and then were off to see the 4:00 p.m. showing of the movie "Dunkirk." I had just finished reading the book that was written about the military actions up to and during the Dunkirk evacuation in WWII and the making of the movie. Even so, I had a hard time following much of the story in the movie. Patty had not read the book yet and she was totally lost. Frankly, the movie was not that good - even with having just read the book.
After the show, we had our last dinner in Banff at an Irish Pub - a fine way to end our week in Banff.
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