We arrived last night into Banff, which the last time any of had been here was a small mountain resort town filled with laid back Canadians enjoying the small-town, mountain lifestyle. Banff had changed a lot. It was a tourist haven and people from all around the globe were represented; Asians, Germans and the British were particularly well represented. (Although we were there during spring holiday for the Europeans) Although the town has experienced significant growth over the last decade and is quickly becoming the Aspen of the Canadian Rockies, it is still quite beautiful and picturesque.
Today the weather was again not going to cooperate and there appeared to be what we thought was a smog or a haze clouding much of the mountains. (As seen in the photo above) The Trans-Canadian highway runs through Banff and this part of the Rockies and there is quite a bit of truck traffic. Hopefully we just caught it on a bad day, otherwise it would truly be a shame to see such a beautiful part of North America obscured by pollution.
We headed about 45 minutes up the road to Lake Louise and home of Chateau Lake Louise. The Chateau is nestled at the head of Lake Louise in a valley surrounded by high peaks and distant glaciers. While Steve and Caki were doing some filming I ventured out onto the lake to get a better view. There were fresh snow mobile tracks, so it seemed pretty safe. I had ventured out a couple hundred yards from what appeared to be the shore when I noticed my footsteps slowly filling up with water. I guess the sleds had made it through so quickly that it didn’t really disturb the ice. I decided it was a good idea to make it back to shore as quickly as possible. Upon getting back to the shore I noticed a lot of little signs indicating certain death for venturing out on the ice. Maybe I missed them, or maybe it was because they were in Canadian, but I had better start paying attention to things like this or it is going to be a short trip for me around the world.
We spent the rest of the day enjoying the comforts of the lounge at the Chateau and then headed over towards Glacier National Park. We stopped in the small town of Golden, which was back in British Columbia and then drove onwards to Rodger’s Pass. It was a nice drive and the scenery was amazing, but again, the weather just did not want to offer up any opportunities for some decent photography or video.
After a light dinner back in Banff, we went out on the town and pretty much had a thoroughly unenjoyable experience. The drinking age is 19 here in Alberta and first off, I felt like the old guy in the club. I would hedge a bet that nearly 80 percent of the patrons at the bars we went to were under 20, but maybe we just went to the wrong places. Overall, the bar scene was crowded, underage, rude, and generally unpleasant. We even got in an argument with the management at one bar after one of the staff members took our half consumed beverages away because it “looked like we were done.” We had even been tipping the wait staff, which is not generally custom in Canada.
All in all, Banff turned out to be a buzz-kill for me personally. It seems that the days of the friendly, local Canadians who just want to hangout, relax and have a good time are gone in this part of the country. Our next destination in Canada was Calgary and it would be the country’s last chance at redemption after a couple of lackluster days. Steve B.
