Before I talk about today, I need to talk about all the rental RVs there are. At least half of the RVs we have seen in Canada are rental. Most are short Class Cs, the type that have a delivery-like truck front with a box that over-hangs the cab. There are mostly Canadream, Cruisecanada, Cruiseamerica and GoWest. They are everywhere and dangerous as people are not used to driving them. When we were in Jasper, one crossed the center line and killed three people in the car coming toward them as well as the passenger in the RV. We just watched someone in one put their sewer hose up around the drinking water spigot to rinse it out. Yuck!!! We will be disinfecting our water spigot from now on.
On our way to the Cave and Basin National Historic Site, we took Tunnel Mountain Drive stopping at an overlook of the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, a national historic site. The original chateau style hotel was built in 1888 but fire damage led to the present building built in 1926. Tourism was a way for the Canadian Pacific Railroad to recoup its investment in building thousands of miles of railway and they built hotels all across the country to attract tourists. It certainly is an impressive building from a distance and one we should have explored.
Canada was only 18 years old in 1885 when it created its first national park. In 1883 three railroad workers discovered a cave with hot springs bubbling up in it. People saw the Cave and Basin hot springs as an opportunity to make money but the prime minister at the time supported a landmark proposal to create a hot spring reserve which became the first national park. Originally the park was just a little over a thousand acres and called The Rocky Mountains National Park. As more land was added the name was changed to Banff National Park. Still a part of the park, it is now Cave and Basin National Historic Site.
Our annual national park pass got us admission at the visitors center and we walked up to the building containing the Cave and Basin. This is a new multipurpose building erected in 2011 and was patterned after the original baths and bath houses complete with covered belvederes on the roof. The first room had interpretive signs talking about how the water gets heated and back to the surface, why it smells like sulfur and the tiny Banff Snail that lives in the springs and is found no where else in the world but here.
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| The Visitors Center Has Grass on the Roof |
We then walked into the cave through a low, rough tunnel. This small cave has a vent hole in the top which is how the three men accessed it. There are mineral deposits on the walls but all the stalactites and stalagmites were removed by souvenir hunters before it became a national park. The water is blue with glacial till and it smelled like sulfur. There us a wall around the basin and a viewing platform commissioned by the first superintendent. I didn't use a flash and my pictures didn't come out.
The next room had a four large screens with an HD Video on Canada's national parks, historic sites and conservation areas playing across them. It was stunning and we stayed to catch the beginning while looking at a exhibits and almost watched the whole thing twice. The outside pool area where people came for the healing power of the waters had been bricked in with an outline of where the pool once was. We walked up a couple of levels to the viewing areas where you could once watch the people as well as the amazing scenery around you.
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| Stripe Depicts Where Pool Used to Be |
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| Outdoor Springs |
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| Viewing Areas at Left |
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| Belvederes allow 360 degree viewing |
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| Canada's National Park Symbol - I Like It |
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| There is a Huge Mural of This Inside |
We returned to town over the rough road under construction and parked by the Banff Park Museum National Historic Site. We were hungry so walked up Banff Avenue looking for a place to eat. Banff Avenue Brewing Co. caught our eye so we crossed over to the in-town mall and climbed up to the pub. The balcony seats were all taken so we sat inside watching rugby while we ate. I had the seasonal pale ale that had a touch of Kiwi in it. Yum!!
After lunch we walked the length of Banff Avenue window shopping and enjoying the signs on the historic buildings along the way. Ted finally found a new day pack so he don't have to carry an LL Bean book bag any more. This one had places for water bottles, walking sticks and other neat features for day hiking.
We returned to the museum which is western Canada's oldest natural history museum. The beautiful 1903 building built of Douglas fir and described as a railway pagoda had all original display cases complete with the old wavy glass. There are over five thousand specimens of every kind of native wildlife from insects and bees to small and large birds to wolves, bear, elk, sheep, goats, etc. With mostly natural light and lots of glass, the photos are a little blurry but I wanted to show how many and what types of animals were on display as well as the architecture. There were hundreds of birds but I only have a picture of a loon. Go figure. We wandered around for quite awhile enjoying all the animals before heading back to the campground.
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