Day 213 - Too Much of a Good Thing… NEVER!

We arose from a good night’s slumber, casually packed our things for the day and left soon after to tackle our last day in Banff National Park. We only had a couple of things remaining on our definite to-do-list here and so could take the day at a steady pace. Our first stop of the day was back along the Bow Valley Parkway a little while where we soon arrived at Johnston Canyon. We set off to check out the walks on offer here and had already got it into our heads that we’d walk to the upper falls and back. Corrie’s old nemesis had returned yesterday and, even though she’d used enough plasters to cover a football pitch, she still had doubts about how far she’d be able to walk with it. We soon found ourselves at the lower falls and took a few pictures before quickly moving ever further uphill towards the upper falls. The uphill part seemed to last the entire duration of the walk there which at least meant that the walk back would be all downhill. By the time we reached the upper falls Corrie’s other ankle rear was hurting though we decided to leave the damage un-assessed for now. The falls were nice and, again, impressive, though not quite living up to the pinnacle of visual standards that we’ve come to expect. We took some pictures and then noticed the sign for the Ink Pots which would mean a further 3 miles to add to our trip. Corrie had read that these were meant to be very nice and so we considered this extension to our walk a little. We concluded that we had nowhere near enough supplies to go further really, no supplies at all in fact, plus Corrie’s ankles were giving her trouble now. Back we went which turned out to be a good move as the 3 mile walk took us a grand total of 2 hours (including stops for pictures) and the condition of Corrie’s walking wounds on assessment back at the car – nasty!

Corrie’s manky wounds meant we’d have to cut back on our planned walking today though we already had a back-up plan sorted in the event of such a thing.

On the way to our second major stop of the day we made a few short stops at lookout points and a couple of other surprises. The first of which was back along the Bow Valley Parkway which was the same route we’d driven yesterday. Yesterday we’d noticed a gathering of cars and people and had presumed they must have all been watching a train pass. Today we witnessed a similar gathering in the same place but pulled over to have a look and see what was so special about this train; well for starters it had horns and four legs! It was another elk and so we took a few pictures before heading off again, only to pull over minutes later on the highway as there was another gathering of people. This time it was for a female moose and two young moose with her. They were quite a way off but we could see them. Corrie was pleased she’d gotten to see a moose, albeit a female one so with no fancy horns.

We arrived in Banff not long after the moose watching and parked up in the town to have some lunch and a little stroll. Banff is a gorgeous little town and reminded us both quite a lot of Queenstown, NZ. We reflected that it would be nice to spend a week or two here in the Banff National Park so we could spend a few days in Banff itself as well as take in more of the beautiful lands.

After lunch we made the short drive along the road to the bottom of Sulphur Mountain. Originally we thought we’d do the two hour walk up to the summit and the ride the gondola down. Now though we opted to take the gondola both ways; we wouldn’t miss much walking up either as the views we’d get along the way would be mostly of trees.

The gondola ride was good and we were soon at the top with a walk-around 360 degree panoramic view of the countryside. We soon discovered a walk that would take us to a second summit – Sanson Peak – and so set about doing that as it was mostly flat and had proper stairs so Corrie’s feet should be OK. The views from the top of the peak were some of the best we’ve seen on our travels and we spent ages up here soaking up their splendour.

 

After this we really just made our way back to get some tea etc before bed.