The morning after our not-so-leisurely 12-hour car ride from Vancouver, BC to Banff, AB, I was ready for a pick-me-up. We woke up on Saturday (a great start to any day, to be sure) and got ready to head out into the cold. It was a good thing that we both brought our down jackets because we definitely needed them.
Driving through town in the darkness the night before was lovely, but it was nothing at all compared to seeing Banff in the daytime. It looked like a little Swiss Alps town! There were a few breathtaking, ginormous mountains practically right on top of town, as well as plenty of other mountains surrounding the town. There seemed to be more and more mountains every direction you turned. Being in the middle of a mountain range is... not lame. And seeing all of the peaks in the sunshine against the blue sky was probably the best they could have possibly looked!
We went to Coyotes Southern Grill for breakfast, which claims to have the Best Breakfast in Banff. It was certainly adequate. After breakfast we walked around town a little bit, snapping pictures and freezing our noses off:
This was the conversation that Dave had with the man behind the desk there:
Dave: We're thinking of doing Mt. Rundle tomorrow.
Info Man: (Looking back at us bewildered) Thinking of doing what with it?
Dave: ...Climbing it.
The visitor guy did not react as if this is something he gets asked about often - or ever - which sort of alarmed me... like maybe Dave was getting me into something that we shouldn't be getting into. Which he'd never do. (< You couldn't hear it, but that was dead pan sarcasm.)
The man said we'd have to call a phone number to speak to the town's Safety Commissioner (da fuck??) to ask him about avalanche conditions and trail conditions for Sunday... and he added that the Commissioner would probably tell us not to climb it. You'd think that would leave Dave with some hesitance about hiking the damn thing, but it didn't. That's my boo.
After the visitor center we went back to the hotel to warm up and figure out where we'd like to spend the rest of our Saturday afternoon snowshoeing. We decided to take a casual trail just west of Downtown with very little elevation, a popular cross-country skiing and snowshoeing loop called the Cave and Basin Marsh Trail.
The parking area for the trail was down a short snowy road with fields on either side of it and a bright red barn at the end... Oh, there were also a few mountains surrounding it all:
Not too shabs.
As if that wasn't all enough of a sight to see, as we stood beside the car putting on our hiking boots and snowshoes, what the hell comes strutting along but this:
We began snowshoeing through mostly flat woods along the Cave and Basin trail. The trail was relatively flat but the surroundings were nawwwwwwt. Cue photo ops a-go-go:
I loved the way the spring looked - cutting through the snowy surroundings with steaming hot water. It made the air smell heavily of sulfur, though, so we didn't linger near it too terribly long.
The Cave and Basin Marsh Trail is about a 2.4km hike in itself, onto which we tacked an additional 5km or so to make our way to and from the Sundance Canyon:
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| . sundance canyon trail in blue, cave and basin marsh trail in pink . . click for a larger, clearer view . |
It was great exercise and beautiful weather - couldn't have asked for anything better. On our way back to the car after we finished the loop, we saw the horse-drawn sleigh again - a lovely cap to the walk.
After the snowshoeing we headed back into town and stopped into Evelyn's Coffee Bar for hot cocoas and a late lunch - a chicken pesto panini for me and a sausage roll for David. There are I believe four Evelyn's Coffee Bars in Banff, and the town is not large. Pretty much wherever you are in Banff, you're probably quite close to an Evelyn's.
For dinner we went to an Indian restaurant in town called Masala and afterwards stopped into Welch's Chocolate and Candy Shop for some goodies. This candy shop was heavenly - a sweet-lover's dream. Colorful lollipops decorated the shelves, there were rows and rows of candy-filled jars behind the counter, and there were literally more Pez dispensers there than I have ever seen in my entire life. If by any strange chance you happen to be a Pez junkie, go to Welch's in Banff. The largest Pez selection you'll probably ever come across.
From the array of homemade goodies behind the glass case in the front of the store, I picked out a milk chocolate candy bar with two oreo cookies embedded in it and drizzled with white frosting. David chose a chocolate-covered caramel. #diabetes.
It was a great Saturday, but it was chillllllz-billlzzzz outside and we planned on waking up early to hike Mt. Rundle (BTW, the Safety Commissioner was less alarmed by our questions about climbing Mt. Rundle than the Info Man was, so we were definitely planning on "doing" Mt. Rundle on Sunday), so we walked around town only a little more before heading back to the King Edward Hotel and continuing to watch the Ghostbusters movie we'd begun watching the night before.
Stay tuned for Part III!
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