Day 3 (24 October)
We slept in today because I chose to stay up until 2AM watching movies (Bri was smarter and fell asleep at a reasonable hour). We headed over to Mountain Juice Café to grab some smoothies to start our day.
We drove over to Banff to take a photo with the Banff sign. We learned from Gordon yesterday that the town of Banff exists in the national park because the town came first. Because of this, no new development is allowed without copious amount of bureaucratic red tape. The town put up a “Banff” sign and all the tourists (ourselves included) love to take photos with it. Gordon told us that during the busy season, the line to take photos with the sign stretches two hours long. Luckily for us, the line today was only about five minutes long.
After taking photos with the sign, we headed to the gondola for our 2:10pm reservation. We learned yesterday about the gondola and all of the activities to do up at the top of the mountain. The gondola ride up was over 2,000’ of elevation gain and showed us a jaw dropping perspective of the valley. It wasn’t for the faint of heart, though. We were suspended on cables that stretched hundreds if not thousands of feet between lift towers. It’s no wonder they have protocols to shut down if the wind gets stronger than just a breeze.
Once we reached the top, we found the boardwalk which seemed to keep going and going. What we originally thought was going to be a nice little stroll, ended up being a half mile each way on the out and back walk. The temperature was much colder and the wind was much stronger than at the base of the mountain (as could be expected), but the views were worth the icy temperatures. We took many pictures along the way and then retreated to the warm of the Summit Building.
As it was long past lunchtime, we chose to dine at the Northern Lights Alpine Kitchen Buffet and enjoyed our delicious food with the amazing views from atop Sulphur Mountain. Our waiter, Jake, told us that during the busy season, the wait time (there are no reservations available for Northern Lights) to get a table is about three hours, whereas today, we just walked in and were seated immediately. During the busy season, they ask people to leave after just 90 minutes of dining, whereas we were allowed an unlimited amount of time to enjoy our food. We really did luck out on our timing. Jake told us that the best time to visit is either right now or early June. These two times avoid both the summer rush and the ski season, so it’s perfect for those who wish to enjoy Banff without all the crowds. If you’re like us and dislike crowds more than the cold, it’s a perfect situation.
After lunch, we explored the Summit Building a bit more. We looked through some of the exhibits and watched a short film about the history of the valley.
We got a message from the host of our evening activity (stargazing) that the cloud cover was too thick and wouldn’t lift in time, so he would have to cancel. Unfortunate as this may have been, we didn’t feel too bad about it because we had been quite productive with the day.
We chose to use the rest of the evening to explore some areas around Banff like the Bow River Falls and the Cascades of Time Gardens.
We’ve booked our helicopter tour for tomorrow, so hopefully the weather cooperates and we can get up in the air tomorrow. We tried to book a train ride, but much to our dismay, we found out that the Rocky Mountaineer is done for the season. We’ll need to find another time next year to book a ride.
