Farnsniente

At Ten Foot Henry in Calgary

Crying about leaving the Rockies

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in
📍 Calgary, Alberta

Photos

Trip index

Summary

Today we took a “sightseeing transfer” by bus from Banff to Calgary. The first sightseeing stop was for an eight minute ride up Sulfur Mountain in a gondola. The views over Bow Valley were smoky but still pretty awesome. We walked the boardwalk from the top of Sulfur Peak to Sanson Peak (~350 stairs) and back. After descending we stopped to see Bow Falls and some had free time in Banff for lunch before the drive to Calgary. Checked in to our final Fairmont Hotel, had a little down time, then walked a few blocks to Ten Foot Henry for an excellent dinner.

Details

We get up knowing it’s our last day in Banff and our last day having our hands held by the Rocky Mountaineer Train group. We pack and leave our luggage in our room, as instructed. They should meet us at the bus in a couple of hours. First we check out and have one last big breakfast in the Fairmont Gold lounge. We’re both OK with that. We’ll definitely miss it by my goodness there are a lot of calories there to be consumed. 

As we have breakfast we check the weather and air quality. The weather is OK but the air quality has gotten worst, here in Banff and in Jasper, Lake Louise, Kamloops, seemingly everywhere. Calgary is OK.  Post breakfast we get directions to the bus pickup area at the hotel. It’s quite a ways away and involves a labyrinthian maze hike through the shops at the Fairmont. One has lots of mineral specimens and fossils. A big, flat fossil caught my eye, maybe three fee by four feet. I look at the label. CA$6,000 doesn’t sound bad, til I figure out that’s for shipping. The piece itself is CA$90,000 (~US$60,000). That’s more like it, but sorry, no. 

At the bus we confirm that they have our luggage and climb aboard, meeting our driver Ben along the way.  He’s friendly but doesn’t want to be here. He’s hoping to become a helicopter pilot and has been working towards being able to go to school for that for a while. Today is his last day driving and tour guiding. It’s been a long slog for him to get to this point, especially with all of his challenging ailments, about which we hear in detail. OK then. 

First stop is the cable car to the top of the nearby peak. We were supposed to come up here yesterday evening for dinner, but figured if we’re doing it as part of the trip, and eating up there, why do that twice. It turns out that today we ARE going up there but we’re not eating. Wha?? Had we known. Oh well. 

Since it’s hazy the views aren’t the best. At the top we hike on the wooden boardwalk stairs/walkways over to the top of the next peek (and back). Being so hazy the views were uninspiring. Back down we reboard the bus for our next stop and more medical info about Ben’s various conditions. We will be having lunch, only in town, we’re selecting where, we’re paying and we’re ensuring we get to and from whatever restaurant in time. 

We’d wanted to eat at Balkan Mediterranean but there was a mixup and we did’t get there yesterday. Today’s “new news” lets us fix that. We do get there and get to eat. It’s really quite good and fast enough that we get back on the bus in time. Next stop? Calgary. 

As we drive the land gets more and more flat. We lose elevation and smoke. We hear about the brutal winters in Calgary. We hear about Calgary hosting the Winter Olympic Games and see ski jumps, and other facilities. We see one of the Calgary subway line stations, way up in the air. We’re told all of the subway, er metro lines are above ground. Apparently the city sits on an unimaginable amount of glacial moraine rock which is a b*tch to dig through, so they (mostly) don’t. 

As we near our hotel we see more of the Jehovah’s Witnesses we saw in Banff. Our room’s great, as is the Gold lounge. We head out to dinner, at Ten Foot Henry’s. The restaurant is so named for a ten foot wooden image of the 1930’s cartoon character, Henry. The food is awesome and the restaurant is in an area that seems to have many similarly good restaurants. 

We take the long way back to our hotel, seeing the space needle type rotating restaurant/bar rising into the sky. We see (again) quite a few homeless and substance abusers. We see the home (we think) of the Calgary Flame hockey team. And we retire early. We have a flight to Ottawa to catch in the morning.   

Photos

Our last time in the Gold Lounge of the Banff Spring Fairmont Hotel. It’s been swell.
I did ask at the front desk about their advertised Canada Goose Lending Program. Can I really get my own Canada Goose to try out?? Apparently it’s a brand of outdoors wear that they allow people to try.
At the base of the Banff Gondola.
On the ride up on the Banff Gondola we can see (barely) our hotel down below. The air quality here, and elsewhere near by, has taken a marked turn for the worst.
Given the fire danger they’re not keen on people smoking though they do have an area labeled as a smoking area. They also have a lot of “recycle your butts here” receptacles. I’m still puzzled. They actually reuse the parts of old, smoked cigarettes to make new ones? Whaaa?
Some one up top offers to take our picture and we can’t say no. Behind us is… hm… I can’t really tell.
There is an instructional diagram showing what’s where in what we are seeing (er, should be seeing). Maybe next time.
There’s a board walk with lots of stairs leading to the peak on the adjacent mountain. We do make the hike. Karen counts the steps.
As seen everywhere there’s an understandable paranoia about bear spray. Please don’t fidget with your bear spray and accidentally remove the safety clip. Hand grenades? Good advice, too.
Driving off we get to see where they’ve clear cut, in the park, to help ensure the survival of Banff in case of more fires. We see the cut wood piled (rather than removed) as required by park rules. Very strange.
Us in front of Bow Falls.
Downstream of Bow Falls is more calm and there are boat rides.
Lunch at Balkan Mediterranean. It is all we could have hoped.
Squinting through the smoke we can take one last look at the Banff Springs Fairmont before we head down to Calgary.
On the flats we start to see lots of cattle and hay. Not so many pine trees or mountains here in Calgary.
Ben explains that part of the rules for building in Calgary requires setting aside 10% of the building cost for public art. We’re dubious about the percentage quoted but we do see a lot of murals about. Perhaps very expensive murals.
Our last Fairmont Gold happy hour snack bar.
Our last lovely Fairmont hotel room.
At Ten Foot Henry’s, a wonderful restaurant here in Calgary based on the 1930’s comic book character (who rarely spoke and often was drawn without a mouth).
Walking home from dinner. Calgary’s bustling, for sure. Tomorrow we fly to Ottawa.