Banff and Tunnel Mountain

We have arrived to one of the most awaited section of our trip: the Rockies and specifically Banff. Not as if we are much into crowded, touristic places but we have a special bond with mountains. Our favourite trips in the past were the ones in Austria into the Alps, we even spent an unforgettable Christmas there. So we were very excited! All the campsites were fully booked months ago in the area but we managed to get sites for 6 days in Tunnel Mountain, Banff with one small compromise: after the first two days we had to move to another site within the camp for every other night.

As we came from Cochrane (not too far away) we got to the campsite at 1pm. We have seen a large elk on our way and the weather was nice to us: it was raining during our drive and we even passed through a large storm with heavy rain but right after our arrival it stopped raining. So the setup of the trailer was a dry excersise this time. After setting up the camper we went to a teaser drive to a lookout at Surprise Corner Viewpoint overlooking the famous Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel and the scenic bend of the Bow River.

After the lookout we drove uphill to Mt Norquay Lookout and on our first scenic stop we bumped into a wedding photo session. It nicely complemented the beautiful scenery.

Afterwards we still felt ready for a short walk. So we drove to the free public parking at the bus station in Banff and walked along the river. Echo got unusually excited at one point and after about 50 meters of struggling with the dog we have noticed the reason for his odd excitement: two deers approaching. They were walking literally on the pathway and they were staring at Echo but not afraid at all, even walking closer and closer to us. What a welcome!

In the evening it got cold (being 10 C and I know, most locals still walked in t-shirts and flip-flops but we needed 3 layers AND the raincoat to save us from freezing.) The heater in the trailer was on for the night.

The next day we started around 10:30 and walked straight from the campsite towards Tunnel Mountain. First we took the trail running paralell the Tunnel Mountain Road then turned left to Tunnel Mountain Drive and after about 2 kms we arrived to the trail leading to the summit. It was about 2 kms from here uphill with an elevation of 222m (from 1470 to 1692m) but the kids did all right. I was carrying Akos and Zsuzsa was carrying an equally heavy backpack with raincoats, water and sandwiches. The view was getting better and better and at the top it was very very beautiful. You can see the whole of Banff and the Bow river several times all different directions.

These pictures are far from the real beauty your eyes can see.

After hiking back to our camper we had a good rest and late lunch (hot dogs). Then we drove to Lake Minnewanka (15 mins from the campsite). The day use area was quite full of people and at least 3-4 photosessions were running in paralell. Echo got quite excited again but we haven't spotted any wildlife, we assume they come to the area to pick up picknick leftovers in the evenings and their smell was too interesting for our dog.

The evening campfire was closing off our day full of adventure.