June 28th, 2022
Calgary, AB
What, you ask? Didn’t like Banff? How could anyone not like Banff?
To be fair, Banff is a beautiful town in a gorgeous national park. I had no problem getting a campsite midweek at one of several campgrounds that have convenient shuttles into town. The town itself was pretty, had ample parking if you were willing to walk a bit, though the streets did seem crowded. The latter shouldn’t have been a surprise in early summer travel season. There were also no end to excellent restaurants, all rather expensive.
The thing that I think ruined it for me was the continued crappy weather. The real appeal of Banff is the plethora of surrounding lakes, waterfalls, hikes, etc. None of this terribly appealing in the rain. One of the cool things I really wanted to do was hike to the Lake Elizabeth Tea House. This is about a 2-mie hike each way to an historic lakeside teahouse where all goods sold are packed in. No fun in rain, though I later heard from a coworker that when he and his girlfriend did this hike, it was a zoo of people.
So I thought I might try the Banff gondola. At least that would be dry. I gave up when I was directed away from the backup parking area, which was full. I then drove to Lake Louise, a very pretty little resort about 40 minutes away, only to find a similar parking situation. I thought I might try the Lake Louise gondola, but passed when I realized it would merely take me into the clouds.
Destination of Lake Louise Gondola
I shouldn’t complain, I suppose. It was peak travel season in one of Canada’s premier national parks. I was lucky to get a campsite for two nights and ate some delicious Indian food. Though I’m not ready to give up completely on a return to Banff someday, I’m pretty close to it.
I next returned to Calgary for a night. They have a very nice museum/historical site for Fort Calgary, an RCMP post from the late 1800s. It not only does appropriate justice to First Nations people, but includes stuff on a lot of themes including daily life, medicine, farming, law enforcement, and a display on the local Japanese community. Definitely worth a visit.
Next in Calgary, I visited the TELUS Spark Science Centre, which I thought was going to be a version of the purely wonderful Boston Science Museum I had visited a few years back. While the one in Boston catered as much to adults as to children, the one in Calgary was purely geared toward kids, so a tad expensive for a single adult, but still fun to watch loads of kids utterly engaged with creative displays illustrating scientific principles. Exceptionally well designed. No regrets.
I headed back home through the south Canadian Rockies. From the plains in Calgary you go SW through some beautiful hill country before getting back up in the mountains. At Sparwood, I found what was claimed to be the world’s largest truck. It’s not actually, but what was poor Sparwood to do, remove the display when someone built a bigger truck? I think not.
Southern Canadian Rockies
