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Calgary, Alberta
Because people believe that they're gonna get away for the summer
I landed in Calgary realizing that I had not put two and two together. I had some trouble finding a hotel there, but had not realized until I landed that I was visiting during the Calgary Stampede, an annual, big time event that is somewhat analogous to a really big state fair. Luckily. I used this knowledge to find some time to both attend the stampede and also to stop by the Saddledome parking lot for free pancakes. Free pancakes are a Stampede tradition and, due to the volume, are famously mixed in a (hopefully clean) cement mixer truck. And maybe its the cement residue talking, but damn, those were really great pancakes.
The hundred year old Banff Springs Hotel is a landmark in Banff and the only building in the town of Banff that is really worth talking about. Unlike US National Parks, Canadian National Parks include actual townsites where hotels and shops and houses can exist inside the park borders.
Banff National Park is huge- 2,500 square miles with over a thousand miles of trails. I did not hike all of it (I was only there for less than a week for god’s sake) but I did get into the back country and up a mountain or two. Unfortunately this one doesn’t really count. These pictures are from a sightseeing gondola that quickly takes you up over Banff (both the park and the townsite) and saves you a few hours of hiking uphill to see the same views.
Arguably the second most photographed lake in the Canadian Rockies, Lake Peyto hides a short half mile walk away from the Icefields Parkway, just on the eastern side of the Continental Divide, which in this case separates water headed to the Pacific versus water headed to Hudson’s Bay.
Welcome to the real back country, on a trail just east of the Bow Glacier, where the Bow River winds its way to Bow Lake before heading to Calgary through the Bow Valley and then onward past things no longer named Bow.
If Lake Peyto is arguably the second most photographed lake in Banff (and it is), then this is most definitely the most photographed lake. Here, on the shores of Lake Louise (which we’ll visit again later) is another perfect lake framed by mountains and glaciers and trails and (probably) bears.
