The final two days of The Great American Get Away in Banf felt more like a vacation. Later starting times and a more leisurely pace gave everyone some recuperative space and unclaimed hours to pursue personal interests.
The major activity for Friday was a site visit to the original hot springs which inspired the growth and development of Banff and the entire region. Three railroad workers who were left behind when the railway construction moved further west, decided to look around, hoping to find precious minerals and the opportunity to strike it rich. What they found was a hot spring which had been known and used as a sacred site by the local indigenous tribes for centuries. They immediately attempted to lay exclusive claim to it, but were frustrated by the Canadian Government, who also saw great potential as a tourist/health destination, and a possible revenue source for completing the railroad, which was costing much more money than had been anticipated.
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| Hot Springs Basin, Banff National Park |
The Canadian government paid the men a "discoverer's fee" and designated the 64 square kilometers around the spring to be Canada's first national park. Not long after that, the head of the Canadian National Rail Road, built a luxury hotel utilizing waters from the spring for a spa for the guests and visitors to the hotel. There have been several iterations of of that first hotel following some destructive fires. But, it stands, today on the same spot, much expanded and more of less modernized, still catering to the rich and famous. A quick visit there demonstrates that there are still plenty of people in the world who fit easily into that profile.
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| Banff Springs Hotel - 2018 |
The rest of the day and evening were unscheduled free time which I spent looking around downtown Banff and locating a restaurant in which to eat dinner. A group had loosely formed around the idea of meeting at "The Maple Leaf" at 6:00 pm, and I though it best if I located it in advance. The meal was excellent, if more expensive than I am accustomed paying. However to company was excellent, and aside from the price, there was nothing to fault in service or dining fare. I even walked back to the Center (not an easy stroll!) and crashed into bed before 10:00 pm.
Day 7 also appeared to be easy on the energy expenditures. Lecture on "Women of the Rockies" at 9:00 am, and another excursion in and around the Banff area. First stop was another lake, this time, "Two Jack Lake," a pretty place set in a rugged mountain location. For the untrained eye, it looks like the other lakes that I have posted. However, there was one unique feature to this stop which makes it memorable. There were skin-divers swimming in the water, which is so cold, we were told, that one would loose consciousness in minutes if unprotected. What human being will get up to in pursuit of adventure and entertainment!
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| Insane divers in Two Jack Lake |
We visited momentarily another lake, Minnewanka, which is the largest and deepest lake in Banff because it is also part of a hydro-electric power operation which has raised the overall depth of the lake by some 40 meters. As we were leaving Minnewanka, we were treated to our first real sighting of native wild life. An elk feeding beside the road gave everyone an emotional lift and a great photo opportunity.
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| Young Elk, feeding at Lake Minnewanka |
A walk-through at the Banff Springs Hotel lobby and observation platform marked the end of the excursions in this program. All that was left was an afternoon viewing of the Banff Center Mountain Film Festival, an annual event which draws people who love mountains, mountain scenery, personal mountain stories and mountain history. The program was made up of approximately a dozen short films, most lasting less than ten minutes. I couldn't get my hearing aids adjusted so that I could really understand most of the dialogue, and, unless one is a fanatic mountain enthusiast, the entire presentation went on about one and a half hours longer than necessary.
That was followed by a "reception" to which all the cougars, elk and wolves were also invited, where photos of the various groups were shown on a projection screen, and a free glass of wine got everyone talking loudly enough to be heard. This is the sort of social arrangement from which I flee. Hearing aids do not help in situations with lots and ambient noise, and the conversation is usually inane. I calculated my escape and made it happen in record time, back to the quiet and solitude of my room.
Tomorrow morning, this merry band departs for their various homes. I feel that it's time to go, and so I will happily take my appointed bus at the appointed time to Calgary, and then on to Chicago. I will be making a summation post in a day or two. In the meantime, I'll add one more picture to this blog. I think it could be called: Banff through the rear window.
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| Banff, Adieu! |
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