Heading into the Rockies with many fine mountain views and a good hike.
More Canada
A small, attractive town in Banff National Park, surrounded by mountains. We stayed at the Rimrock just outside the town and within walking distance of the Banff Gondola.
We took the gondola one afternoon and spent some time at the top, taking photographs. No sign of the smoke we'd seen on landing in Calgary which was a relief.
Atmospheric drifting mist was particularly effective around Mount Louis.
We set out early for Sunshine Meadows on a beautiful day, arriving just as the gondola opened. We bought bear spray at the shop before heading up. The chair lifts had been having power problems but reopened a few minutes after we got there so we were spared a steep climb at the start of the hike.
We began our walk at the Standish Viewing Deck, very close to the top of the chair lift. We chatted to some people there who were very familiar with the area and pointed out Quartz Ridge where we were headed.
The hike turned out not to be strenuous at all, beginning with a descent to Rocky Isle Lake.
We continued on the track which is quite gentle, and at a junction turned right to head across the meadow to Quartz Ridge.
This is very open country but fortunately there was no sign of a storm at all. It can be quite dangerous here in a thunderstorm.
We went quite a long way along the trail, but realised it continued down a deep dip and then rose steeply onto the ridge. It also went through quite a lot of coniferous forest, not my favourite for hiking through. We hadn't really planned on a day hike which was what this was turning into, so instead, close to the edge of the dip, we decided to turn around and continue along a trail which eventually descended to the top of the gondola.
We had lunch at Trappers, near the top of the gondola, which serves excellent Hop Valley Beer - very strong at 6.2% We decided to try the infamous poutrine: chips, gravy and cheese curds. We shared a serving which for us was very large, I can't imagine how one person could eat it all! The chips and gravy were good, but the curds were mostly cold lumps - where they'd melted it was better. Not something I'd care to repeat though!
As we were driving down from Sunshine Village we spotted some mountain goats.
We stopped at he Vermilion Lakes view point on the way back to Banff where there were good views of Mount Rundle.
