Our Trip to Banff (Part 7 and last)- Back to Banff, On to Calgary

We got up to a free hotel breakfast Saturday morning and then decided to back-track into Banff to pick up a few of the attractions that we missed yesterday. This is the main entrance into Banff National Park.

As we drove toward Banff again it started to rain :(. Really?? We were convinced that Banff was cursed- the weather had been fine in Canmore! We branched north onto the Bow Valley Parkway and headed to our first destination, Johnson Canyon, just west of Banff. We figured we'd sit in the parking lot and scowl at the sky for a bit in the hopes the sun would come out again. With luck there would be a Visitors' Centre or coffee shop to wait out the weather. There was nothing but washrooms in the parking lot, though, so we sat in the van.

And luck was with us, because within 30 minutes of arriving at Johnson Canyon the skies did clear up and the sun did come out. Yay. And we were amused that as we headed down the path to the canyon just beyond the trees there -was- a coffee shop/souvenir shop, so we could have been waiting out the rain in comfort.

I had done some research the night before on Johnson Canyon to decide if it was worth back-tracking for and though all reviews raved it was excellent, there were also several comments about how the walkways, riveted onto the side of the canyon, might not be best for those with a fear of heights- eek. But, no, they were fine. Sturdy and not see-through- thank you, Banff National Park. Because the view from the walkway did get quite deep after awhile!

Johnson Canyon was gorgeous, though, and well worth a trip back to walk through. There was an upper falls to walk to and a lower falls. We decided just to go as far as the lower falls, since the trail to the upper falls was longer and steeper and still slick from the rain.

The lower falls was very pretty and you could go through the hole in the rock in the background there to get an even closer look at the falls.

And, look! It's our furry friends the chipmunks hanging out in the rock junction between the upper and lower falls, playing as shamelessly for the tourists as the fuzzy guys at Lake Louise and the Athabaska Glacier.

Johnson Canyon was a beautiful walk and I am grateful the weather decided to co-operate on our last day in the park. I didn't know this woman below beyond a nod and a smile, but I liked her hiking spirit.

We stopped at the coffee shop for lunch and I bought my last handful of souvenirs and then we headed back onto the Bow Valley Parkway toward Banff for a final walk at the Vermillion Lakes. While going down the very narrow road we suddenly had to navigate a crowd of cars haphazardly parked on both sides of the road. We had come to learn that such situations meant one thing- a wildlife sighting. Sure enough, just off the road there was a -huge- elk with a stately set of antlers and a dozen tourists tryng to take his picture. We had come to learn that if anyone seemed to be randomly pointing a camera at a rock or tree instead of the incredible mountain vista behind them it usually meant there was some kind of animal to be found :).

Still, in our four days in the park we had not seen a bear. With the research I had done and the number of warnings throughout the park you'd have thought we'd be bumping into them everywhere :). Believe me, I was quite content not to run into a grizzly bear, and we had stayed off deep woods hiking trails to guarantee that fact, but John is now quite convinced they're mythical :). Rather like the moose in Newfoundland that we were told were everywhere, but we didn't see any during our trip there, either.

Our last stop in Banff was at the Vermillion Lakes, just north of Banff in sight of the highway. Very pretty and the sun made an appearance just in time to let me see that it doesn't always rain in Banff.

Very peaceful, very scenic and hardly any people (or bears). A lovely way to end off our time in the park.

From there we bid adieu to Banff and headed out onto the highway for Calgary, which was only about two hours away. We settled into our airport hotel, spent some time in the hotel hot tub, walked across the street for dinner and then collasped knowing we had to be up at five the next morning for our flight back to Toronto.

An amazing week. Banff is spectacular.