Banff Part 2

Our second day in Banff was a fairly easy one. Cheryl wanted to do some shopping so we left the boys to their own devices. Earlier in the day Peter and John had gone for a walk to the Bow River Trail but after a short while decided it wasn't worth going much further as they were being carried away by the mozzies again.

Banff Information Centre

View of the mountains that surround Banff

The shopping in Banff is all about the tourist and the outdoors. We did eventually find a couple of shops and made some purchases.

We did make our way to a very special shop in Banff called "The Spirit of Christmas". Both Cheryl and I get right into Christmas so this was one of the shops that we really wanted to go to. Today was just a look see and a final decision would be made in the coming days.

Meeting the boys we had lunch and then had a rest before going out tonight on our wild life tour. I did a bit of blogging during the afternoon and then an early dinner in the local Irish Pub ready to see some animals on our tour.

Our tour guide Matt picked us up from our hotel and we set off towards the Fairmont Banff springs Hotel as the golf course, was the first spot where we might see some of the local wildlife. As we drove Matt told us a lot about the region, the animals and how they are being managed with the interaction of the human population. He also described how the area came to be developed and that was due to the railway being put in. It was settled in the 1880s after the railway was built through the Bow Valley. Workers from the Canadian Pacific Railway stumbled on a series of natural hot springs and this began the promotion of the area as an international resort and spa. At this time an area around the hot springs was declared a federal reserve and was the beginning of Canada's National Park system. The CPR built a number of grand hotels along the rail line and advertised the Banff Springs Hotel as an international tourist resort but more about that one a little later on.

Matt was a very informative guide and the first sighting was of some female elk just lying around on one of the fairways on the Banff springs Golf Course. As we drove around we also saw some male elk as well but I didn't manage any photos. It was quite difficult to get any photos as we were in the bus and the animals moved very quickly away into the forest. We did see some coyotes as well on the golf course.

Female Elk on the golf course  (taken through the window of the bus)

Same lot of female elk but shot taken outside of the bus

Matt drove to a couple of more locations but we weren't lucky enough to see any more in this area. As we drove he told us how Canada Parks are managing the wildlife crossing the major highway that has thousands of cars on it every day. In previous years a high number of wildlife were being killed as they tried to cross the highway along the corridors they used to traverse from one area to another. So they have spent millions of dollars building under and over passes along the highway as well as putting up a fence that runs the extent of the highway and goes down into the ground a metre to also deter digging animals. It seemed to have worked as they have drastically reduced the amount of wildlife lost. Although they had some unplanned consequences that needed to be managed as the cougars and wolf packs were treating the over passes as a smorgasbord.

They also have a number of ways of monitoring how it is working using cameras and tracking devices.
We had a stop along the way at an open field where one of the Discover Banff guides showed us some items such as elk horns, a horn from a short horned sheep and a bear pelt. Again lots of information. The guide also had some great photos of cougars using one of the underpasses.

Mountain view from our field stop

Bear pelt

Our next stop was around Lake Minnewanke which was beautiful at this time of night but unfortunately we didn't get an opportunity to stop for a photo. Not long after we saw a white tail deer who was a bit skittish and darted across the road.

Lake Minnewanke taken from inside the bus

White tail deer

Our last stop for the night was at Vermillion Lakes where we were treated to a beautiful sunset shot and reflection of the mountains on the lake but it was a quick stop as the mozzies started swarming from the time the bus door opened. By the time we got back in the bus there were so many in the bus you could almost count them!

Vermillion Lakes

Vermillion Lakes

We made our way back to our accommodation after a very interesting night.