On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
frosty
Banff is a ski resort and the town definitely has that look. Lots of restaurants, pubs, breweries, outfitters and coffee shops. And people!
We were able to get a reservation in one of the National Park Campgrounds – Tunnel Mountain Village II. It’s got a unique layout – sites are nose to tail with a picnic table and electrical hookup to the side. It’s up the hill from the Town of Banff, so we visited the town a couple of times.
There’s a hiking trail that loops the campground. This is a view of Banff from the trail.
The main street through Banff
Seems like there’s a mountain at the end of every street.
Another one
Another one!
And another one. The “castle” at the end of the street is the Fairmont Banff Springs, a luxury 739-room hotel that opened in 1888.
The streets are named after wildlife. We found the perfect intersection!
War for Ukraine Day 1,174: More Drone Swarms in the Small Hours of the Night
Baud
Pretty, but I can’t imagine that place crowded.
MartyIL
Beautiful views. Thanks for sharing-looking forward to the rest of the series
sab
Amazingly beautiful.
Maybe focus more on US parks because they are under attack and not well defended. The Canadian parks will still be there when ours have been turned into HOAs.
But the Canadians might not still be welcoming us later.
sab
My dad had a job offer in 1965 to move us from Florida to BC. He really wanted to go. Mom, with the Canadian grandmother, said No. It’s too cold.
So here we are now in Ohio under Trump.
Eastern BC is cold.
Raven
In the Blue Canadian Rockies
https://youtu.be/nzOHtU8Sb3c?si=8QtleKoouiyjVEo3
Cactus_Jack 1955
Last week, I flew around Banff in Microsoft Flight Sim. Amazing geography from the air. Nice to see it from the ground. A cool coincidence.
sab
6 am and a flock of Canada geese just flew by, honking. Canada geese aren’t all Canadian. Some of them stay down here year round.
MagdaInBlack
@sab: Hope they have their papers in order.
Our usual Canadian summers meant driving as far north as possible and camping on some remote lake. But the summer of “67 was our trip across Canada on the Trans-Canada. The only thing I remember about Banff (and Lake Louise) was that my father drove right past. Too many people for him, even then. Being nine, I was disappointed. Now, I get it.
Further west, Rogers Pass, I have very vivid memories.
stinger
Each view more spectacular than the last! Thank you, frosty!
They Call Me Noni
@sab:
But when they’re the 51st state those parks will be ours!
//
Betty
@They Call Me Noni: Doesn’t it all just want to make you cry?
They Call Me Noni
@Betty: Every day.
Ferd of the Nort
I recommend a hot-springs tour through BC. Look it up.
With a bit of research you can find wilderness ones, not just the developed ones. Did this with wife. Big fun. Used rental RV and avoided hotels.
J.
Went to Banff and Lake Louise years ago. Such a beautiful spot. Those mountains! Thanks for sharing.
Trivia Man
Those shots also give an idea of how compact it is. The mountains look close in every direction. Last year we had a bus tour that spent a couple nights here. I have curiosity and extra energy so i did a lot if walking there. Before breakfast i found sone stairs a couple blocks from the hotel that went several hundred vertical feet up the hillside. Very nice walk.
Trivia Man
@Trivia Man: And one house clearly had a mini observatory dome sticking out the too. Sky watching from your own living room!
twbrandt
I skied Lake Louise and Norquay (another ski resort near Banff) with my college ski club over Christmas break many years ago. The skiing and the scenery were absolutely fantastic, but I have never been so cold in my life—and I’m from Michigan.
Xavier
We drove our RV into Banff, decided it was too crowded, and proceeded on the TCH over the divide to Golden BC. Stayed at the municipal park next to the Kicking Horse river, was a good decision.
frosty
@sab: No worries! Five US National parks will be coming up: the three in Washington, Glacier and Teddy Roosevelt.
frosty
@Xavier: We were going to do that route from Banff to Vancouver to Washington but then I did a little travel research*. TCH is two-lane through the mountains with a lot of curves and elevation changes. We’re kind of done with dragging a trailer on roads where we’ll have cars stacked up behind us and no place to pull over to let them pass.
We went south through Idaho and west from there instead.
* Best resource for me is https://rvforums.com/forums/trip-planning/. Type in the route you’re thinking about and get reports from other people who’ve been there. I dodged one nicknamed “The Rattlesnake” awhile ago.
Doug R
@Baud:
I’ve lived it. If you’re from way out of town, they encourage you to park on the edge of town and take a bus in. Same with Lake Louise.
Doug R
@frosty:
True, but it is a modern highway with passing lanes and is 4 lanes all the way through Alberta.
And BC and the Government of Canada are spending MILLIONS of dollars widening and upgrading it.
The WORST section through Kicking Horse pass was upgraded from a 50 km/h road with 30 km/h hairpin curves to a 100 km/h freeway. At great expense.
Here’s the provincial website on that one project:
https://www.kickinghorsecanyon.ca/
https://youtu.be/v9JdCFZiSnQ?si=rFVi78_wcSy-qtMI
BigJimSlade
@sab: We have some in L.A., too. My wife was running on a path by the LA River and one was 5-10 feet away and stuck its tongue out at her. It turns out that’s a goose thing.
Cathie from Canada
We love visiting Banff – and one of our favourite drives is the Icefields Parkway from Banff to Jasper.
The mountain in picture 6 is Mount Rundle. I don’t know the names of the other mountains.
(Also, picky correction, but the building at the end of the street in photo 7 is the park administration office – the Banff Springs Hotel is a couple of miles east.)
MCat
Thank you! What a gorgeous place.
Celeste
Mount Edith Cavell has a trail to a little pond (there’s a word) that can be reached from a parking lot. Breath-taking. And the life of Edith Cavell is worth looking up.
Dr Daniel Price (Saint Vincent)
Views from the tops of lifts at Banff Sunshine (ski area) are spectacular, except when fog interferes.
One can ride the Great Divide lift through a tiny corner of British Columbia; support pillars indicate when one has left and returned to Alberta. Some of the ski runs must take one into and out of BC, but there as no signs to show where one crosses the border. The boundary between the provinces is not static, determined by the direction of water’s flow from the ridges.
WaterGirl
@Celeste: Sorry I saw your comment so late! Just released it now, but next time you comment it will show up for everyone right away.
Welcome!