Soaking in the Sights

Saturday, July 9th – Field to Banff to Field, British Columbia - Day 148

With the decision to go to Lake Louise yesterday, we wanted to get back to our Yoho National Park destinations. We decided to stay an extra night at the campground relieving the need to pack up. The campground was incredible with mountain views on every side. The Trans-Canada was close so there was some traffic noise.

We started to head towards Takakkaw Falls. On the way there was a viewpoint for the spiral train tunnels. The train enters the mountain tunnel and travels a loop inside the mountain and leaves the mountain going in the opposite direction. This is the train equivalent of a switch back. Instead of a steep downhill, they extend the distance of the downhill through the two mountain spiral switchbacks. We waited for a train to go through the tunnel but no luck so we pushed on to Takakkaw Falls.

Takakkaw Falls was at the end of a drive into a river valley, you could see it from far. The water fell from a mountain stream down into the valley. The kids took side trails through the trees to the river on the way to the base of the falls. It’s always concerning when you have fast moving water with children nearby.

Jo-Ce had another friend in Canmore; Jo-Ce is connected she knows people everywhere. We wanted to see the town of Banff and Jo-Ce set-up a dinner date with her friend. In the meantime, we drove the 50 minutes to the town of Banff and then to Banff Hot Springs. Parking was trouble but we found a spot relatively quickly. The hot springs was incredible. The packed pool looked out over the town of Banff below and the mountains and rivers in the distance.

Refreshed, we drove past the Fairmont Banff Springs where Mother Mary had been a lifeguard in her younger days. Ten minutes later we were at Cascade Ponds for dinner and a walk with Lisa and her pup. Rain created an opportunity to leave and drive to nearby Two Jack lake and Lake Minnewanka. We keep seeing mountain lakes and they are all stunning in their own way. On our drive we saw one elk and three mountain goats. Looking to chat some more, we made our way to the Keg for a snack then an hour drive back to camp.

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