Western Canadian Rockies (WCR) – Day 9 – Still in Banff

Our goal this morning is to tour the town of Banff. We begin by going to the Banff gondolas and riding up the 7500 feet to the top of Sulphur Mountain. Each gondola holds 4 people, but we were to the top in 8 minutes. As we go up the mountain, we get a good, but hazy of the bow river and surrounding area.

The brochure says that you can see 150 km on a clear day, well this morning it isn’t so clear, but the views are still great.  We can see the whole town of Banff.
 

 

Up at the top by the summit building there are three mountain sheep.  They were milling around and even decided to lay down for a little while.  They must be familiar with the noise us humans were making because they did not seem very frightened. 

 

Two are rams had the classic big horns that wrapped around each side of their head, a classic picture.

While we were walking around the deck around the summit house, it was drizzling a little bit.  Here is a picture of Carmen from the top of Sulphur Mountain looking out towards the mountains.

As we made our way around the summit house, we looked at the gondolas coming up and down the mountain.  We’ll be going back down on one of these is just a little bit.

Although it is drizzling, the clouds seem to be breaking up some.  The sun is coming through in spots and the overall haze seems to be lifting.

We head back down the mountain, as we will soon go to the Bow River falls and the Fairmont Banff Springs.  On the way to the Fairmount, we spot a bull elk and stop to take pictures.

 

Bow Falls (really more like a cascade rapids) runs right in front of the Fairmont hotel.  I found a raft on shore, so I’m ready to go downstream, now that we are below the falls.

As we continue along the road and cross the Bow River, we have a full view of the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel.  It sits on the Bow River just below the falls and is an impressive site with the mountains in the background.

After leaving the overlook for the Fairmont, we come across an elk and her fawn.    She looks as though she was born only a couple of weeks ago.

Carmen thinks the fawn is so cure that I should put a picture of just the new born.

 

We head over to where there are Hoodoos and although the view is okay, we see another golden ground squirrel.

Although we see more elk, the weather seems to improve from earlier.  The mountains seem as they are beginning to get sun even though still covered in some clouds.

We still do not know if the helicopter ride is a go, but we drive out to the helicopter company hoping that they will fly.  When we get there, the sun has just broken through the clouds and has begun to clear and we are a go.  We are in our helicopter and this is the one next to us as they prepare to lift off.

 

We take off and begin our trip which will take us around the mountains for a 30-minute ride.  As we begin, we pass the Three Sisters, a mountain near the helicopter site. 

As we travel around we see mountains  with snow and we also see several mountain lakes like this one. The colors in the photo, taken through the helicopters window, do not seem to capture the true essence of the scene as seen live.

Mountains and lakes truly are the stars of this trip.  Everywhere you look on this trip, the scenes are more fantastic.

The views from the helicopter are unbelievable.  The mountains and valleys clearly show their true splendor from high up in the sky.

In the helicopter, we are able to come close to the mountains and glaciers like this one.  We traversed the glacier close flying from the right to the left and then circled back around for another view.  Simply fantastic views that you would not otherwise see

 

We see more mountains, some still in the clouds, and valleys that are more magnificent one to the next.

Again, as I said before, from the helicopter the views are fantastic, we see mountains, glaciers, mountain lakes, everything you can image.  Pick a photograph as they are all great and it is difficult to determine which one to use.

 

As we head back to the landing pad, we pass this site where some sort of excavation is taking place and steps have been cut out of the hillside.

 

After we land, Carmen and I stop to have someone take our picture in front of the helicopters we just finished flying.   The trip was fantastic, that is only one of the things I can say about the trip.

Our helicopter trip ended, we return to the hotel and end our day.  We continue to see mountains that are simply unbelievable with the sun and snow. 
Tomorrow we leave Banff and begin our trip back to Vancouver.  We will spend the night in Kelowna.  Until then goodnight, Bob and Carmen.