A Weekend in Banff National Park

I just returned from a fun weekend trip to see the beauty of Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. My travel buddy Christie needed a spontaneous adventure so she booked us a hostel in the town of Banff for a few days. We flew from Toronto to Calgary and after getting our rental car we made the 2hr drive to Banff last Thurs evening.

We stayed in a private room at the HI Banff Alpine Center and were very happy with it! We ate dinner at the cafe on site that night then got some sleep.

We woke up Friday morning to a fresh layer of snow! I enjoyed some coffee in the loft with an amazing view of the mountains.

That day we wanted to see Lake Louise, but there are lots of sights along the way.

Here is the viewpoint at Morants Curve:

The next stop was Johnston's Canyon for a hike to Upper Falls. There was a nice paved boardwalk to go on however some parts were slippery from the packed down snow cover. The views thru the canyon and numerous waterfalls were beautiful!

 After that we continued on toward Lake Louise, stopping at one more scenic viewpoint along the way.

We finally arrived in the ski town of Lake Louise and made our way to the popular lake. It was getting pretty busy but we grabbed parking then headed toward the lake shore for the tranquil alpine views.

We grabbed lunch in town then made our way back to the town of Banff so we could go on our next adventure.....the gondola! Our tickets were for 4pm so we got there and were able to get right on for our ride up the mountain side. 

The gondola brought us to the visitor center at the top so we walked around a bit to wait till closer to sunset. Then we went outside to the boardwalk where we walked that all the way up to the summit of Sulphur Mountain! We watched the sun go behind the clouds and mountain range and enjoyed the views of the valley from 8,000+ft elevation. 

After walking the boardwalk we made our way back down to the visitor center and warmed up with a latte while we sat and enjoyed the views from inside.

It was starting to get dark by the time we took the gondola back down,so we got great views of the town lights in the valley.

Last little peak of the sunlight in the west.

For Saturday our plan was to leave early and head SW for a natural roadside hot spring! It was about a 2.5hr drive with amazing views along the way. We kept our eyes peeled for wildlife the whole trip, and finally got to see some up close in the town of Radium....big horn sheep!

In the valley we drove in and out of the fog

Eventually we crossed into the province of British Columbia and made it to the Lussier Hot Springs just past Canal Flats. We had to take an unpaved logging road for about 11 miles that went a long the cliff side down the valley, then we finally made it to the parking area for the hot spring. The province did make the parking area and trail to the river more civilized, however the hot spring is uncommercialized.

It was just a few small pools off the side of the river where natural hot water comes out of the mountain side. The first pool here was the hottest ranging from 110-120°, but the the others closer to the river were cooler.

We stayed there about 2hr and by noon it was starting to get more busy with visitors and families so we packed up and headed back to the car. We grabbed lunch and enjoyed the wonderful views along the ride back to Banff.

We passed by a marker for the Continental Divide which also marked the border of provinces, putting us back in Alberta.

Once back in Banff we went to a grocery store for some dinner snacks then cooked our food in the kitchen at the hostel.

For Sunday our last full day there we just walked around the town and checked out the sights and the shops. Here is the Bow Falls in Banff:

Inside one of the shopping centers we got a delicious lunch at the food court. I got a falafel plate PLUS butter chicken poutine. I took the poutine with me to eat later that evening it was so good.

But on the way back to the car I saw a place with hotdogs, so of course I had to get one of those too! It was little and made a good snack.

In true travel fashion our flight home on Monday was delayed about 8hr due to "maintenance", which would have put us landing back in Toronto in the middle of the night. We would have essentially been stranded because our car was parked and we would not have been able to access it until the place opened the next morning on Tuesday. After some fighting with the airline, we got the flight changed to a red eye flight for Sunday night instead of Monday, so then the plan was to just check out of the hostel early and make the drive back to Calgary Sunday evening.

But wait, there's more! Then a snow storm decided to pop up around Toronto on Sunday and delayed a bunch of flights coming and going. So due to that our flight yet again got delayed a couple more hours. So we got to vegetate in the Calgary airport until our flight left around 3am Monday morning. After a VERY long day we landed back into Toronto around 9am Monday and made it thru the snow to collect our car and drive the 2hr back home. Another adventure done!