Banff National Park: an essential wilderness experience

Banff Upper Hot Springs

Just on the edge of the town, housed in a heritage building is Banff Upper Hot Springs. Whether to begin your day afresh, as the locals say, or to immerse your beat souls at night, as I would say, the Upper Spring Waters are potions to uplift your sojourn in the Banff National Park.

Lake Louise

Visiting Lake Louise needs a bit of deliberation, a day trip from Banff, a night in palatial Fairmont Chateau, or a week or more in the quaint Lake Louise Village. Forty minutes out of Banff, and your first hit is the Lake Louise Village, a conglomeration servicing you with refreshments, gas, and visitor’s information.

Moraine Lake

Up a winding road, 14 km apart from Lake Louise, is the object of longing for travellers: the Moraine Lake. Disengaging from the embarrassing comparisons to its more visited neighbour Lake Louise, I will rather use this space detailing the phenomena that it is.

Banff Gondola

At 5 minutes drive from town, with Banff Upper Spring as its neighbour, sits the Banff Gondola, your aerial drive over the Sulphur Mountain. You must take some warm clothing as the temperature drops significantly with the steep ascent, and do purchase the ‘The Ultimate Explorer combo,’ with Banff Gondola as one of the inclusions, this package from Brewster comes pretty thrifty.

Wildlife

They call it the Bear Country, and I can’t find reasons to hold them back for doing so. An Estimated 380,000 Black Bears and 26,000 Grizzlies on the Canadian Soil, compared with a resident population of 8,000 fellow beings in Banff Town, the numbers do explain!

Lake Minnewanka

Every lake in the Rockies has its own character, its own story, and the story of Lake Minnewanka goes back to 10,000 years when the aboriginals inhabited its banks, and called it Minn-waki or the Lake of Spirits. Today the Spirits are gone, the Banff town embraces it and calls it its very own, the Banff Lake.

Vermillion Lakes

Do visit the Vermillion Lake at dusk and dawn, and let me tell you why. Located just 5 minutes outside of town, the Vermillion lakes are a series of 3 lakes in the Bow River Valley beneath the Mount Norquay. Vermillion Lakes are a perfect mirror to Mount Rundle, who by the way gratifies its vanity by looking into its waters whole day, and its resultant reflection in its coy waters is a sight that men can’t replicate.

Johnston Canyon

Made accessible by Parks Canada what otherwise would have been a climber’s ambitious dream, the very deep Johnston Canyon is half an hour drive from the Banff town on the Bow Valley Parkway. The excursion at Johnston Canyon is divided into three legs, the Lower falls, the Upper Falls, and the Ink Pots, each at an incremental distance.