Summary
Took the hotel shuttle across the (very wide) Bow Valley to Whitehorn Mountain Ski Area. Given the choice of taking a closed gondola or a chairlift up, we chose the chairlift for the stunning 15 minute ride up. The area was lush and green with tons of wild flowers blooming. We enjoyed lunch on the terrace at Whitehorn Bistro with amazing views of the mountains across the valley including Victoria Mountain at the end of Lake Louise. The distance made the massive Fairmont Château look tiny. Back down on the chairlift and back to the hotel for a sightseeing bus transfer to Banff via Yoho National Park. Our route took us over Kicking Horse Pass on continental divide, the highest point on Trans-Canada Highway. On the way we stopped to see the Spiral Tunnels which allow trains to lose elevation by performing u-turns in 2 different mountains. Quite the engineering feat! Next stop was at the Natural Bridge over Kicking Horse River followed by the beautiful Emerald Lake. Arrived at the impressive Fairmont Banff Springs hotel, built, they say, in Scottish Baronial style with 754 rooms!
Details
Today we’re relocating from Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise to Fairmont Banff Springs. That will happen at 2:30 pm but before that we need to do some convoluted schedule synching to get to a lunch reservation up on top of a ski slope and back.
The Lake Louise Fairmont is not near town, nor is it near the ski area we need to get to for lunch. There is a free shuttle but it runs very infrequently. We imagine walking but we’d be walking for hours. We imagine taking an Uber or Lyft, but they don’t exist here. We imagine taking a cab but they, too, don’t exist here. So Fairmont free shuttle it is, and we hope that everything meshes like clockwork to get us over and back in time.
You might ask how can they not have a taxi service in an area so spread out with people wanting to go hither, thither and yon. Well they DID have a taxi service but it was too popular. There was only one taxi guy and he was so much in demand that he couldn’t be reliable to all the demand. So the most logical thing to do? Shut down the taxi service. I know, right?
Once the shuttle does get us over to the ski area we get our “not cheap” gondola tickets validated and then choose our preferred way to get to the top of the mountain: Enclosed gondola or chair lift (they’re both operating on the same line, one after the other. We go for the openness of the chair lift, with gorgeous weather and views.
It’s a long way to the top but so much fun looking around on the way up. At the top we hop off and ask how to get to “the restaurant” (Whitehorn). It’s just over there, follow that path. It’s like a 10 minute hike over there which crunches our time even more. As the hostess is about to walk us to our table we ask about what’s quick on the menu, given that we’re in a bit of a hurry. This causes her to stop and give this a very long thought… Hm, no one’s ever asked that before… WE’RE in a hurry, just show us to our table, we’ll figure it out.
The restaurant normally serves well healed skiers in the middle of winter and with all the snow I’m sure the view is spectacular. Even without too much snow it’s not too shabby. We split a burger for lunch. It shows up fairly quickly and we wolf it down. As we check out, our waitress indicates that they can drive us back to the chairlift if we’re too pressed for time. It’s not that critical.
Back at the base we do make our shuttle bus and get back to the chateau in time for our bus ride down to Banff. It’s a 44 minute drive, but the rail company who set all this up wants to make it seem worth our time so there are sights in between we’ll be stopping at to stretch out the transfer.
The first stop is the train Spiral Tunnels. Back in the day Vancouver was really separated from the rest of Canada. The US, thanks to rail service, was quickly being connected. Canada thought that if they didn’t, too, connect eastern Canada to Vancouver the US would swoop in.
So they did a quick and dirty job connecting to two population hubs. Trains can’t handle steep grades (> 2.2%) but heck, Canada was in a hurry and said 4.5% might be OK, too (it’s not). Repeated accidents proved this and so they had to figure out how to fix this mistake. The solution? Imagine a big cursive letter L. The train would make to big sweeping loops, going under itself twice and going into two mountains. They did, problem solved, and we’re now here to witness it. If a train comes. And if the trees haven’t grown up too much. One doesn’t and they did.
OK, that was a bust. Next! We’re off to a natural bridge. This is a waterfall that turned into not a waterfall. The madly rushing glacial waters, as they go over this waterfall, form eddies that drill into the rock below. Over time the drilling is more and more successful to the point where no water goes over the waterfall anymore, it’s all routed under the rock that was the waterfall. So first a train track that fails and now a waterfall that fails. OK. It’s interesting.
We do hear about the color of the water. It’s glacial water so it looks glacial, that is, blue grey. Why? The glacier grinds the rock into find powder (‘rock flour’) which is then carried away by the water. The rock flour is so fine it stays suspended in the water. Bears have been hibernating (not pooping) for five months. They’re backed up. What to do?? Seek out the glacial water. It’s quite a laxative. Problem solved. Smarter than the average bear, eh Booboo?
Next stop: Emerald Lake, so named because… well you can figure it out. It is pretty and well attended. Lots of people looking and taking pictures but also in line to rent canoes to paddle across the pretty water. And some crazies (quite a few crazies) are swimming in the glacial water. Thank you, no. Just no.
Driving on we’re quickly in Banff. It’s only a few blocks blocks long but is an absolute Mecca for alpine hiking tourists. Here are all the people I’ve been looking for in Jasper and Lake Louise. It’s mobbed. Winter (skiing) is the high season but there are tons of people here now. Downtown is only two blocks long but it’s pack jammed with shops and stores, bars and restaurants, if tourists can spend their money on it, it’s here. It’s a refreshing change from all the natural beauty of Jasper and Lake Louise.
After dropping off some of our cohorts staying at other hotels we press on the 1/2 mile to Banff Springs, here only for the Fairmont Banff Springs and it’s 750 hotel rooms. We get ours and it’s nice. We’re once again on the “gold floor” meaning nice rooms and free appetizers from 5 til 7. There’s another honor bar (albeit with a bartender ensuring you’re honorable) and we make that our dinner for the night.
Photos
