Saturday, July 22, 2023

Norquay Lift, Kootenay, drive to Calgary

We started our Saturday and last day in Banff by finally getting on the Norquay lift and had breakfast at the top. The restaurant up there did not offer much choice for breakfast.  I guess this is understandable given how they have to get supplies there.  But the few choices they did have were odd, nothing very traditional.  It would have been nice to be able to just get some scrambled eggs and bacon, for example.  I don't know why some places feel they have to offer exotic, or off beat, food when the whole attraction is something other than the restaurant itself.  Great views though, it was very peaceful, quiet with the morning mountain breezes. 

We then drove around Lake Minnewanka area, which was kind of the opposite, really crowded. We just drove around because parking was virtually impossible.  The whole park seems to be much more crowded than during week.   It looked nice, but honestly the experience was kind of ruined by the congestion.  

We did find parking by Johnston Canyon, where we hiked to the lower falls.  This was also crowded though, and parts of the hike are single file so it was tight.  Also a big attraction is to walk into a little hole under the falls. People were stacked up waiting on this, so we just did a selfie with the falls in the background.  We've been under Niagara Falls so we get what the experience is like. 

After that we left Banff and drove down to Kootenay Park, we did a short hike around Marble Canyon.   Nice pretty canyon, not a bad hike.  We will have to come back and explore Kootenay more some time/  We then drove to Calgary, we ate at "The Place"-a small local Italian place.  Very old school where the workers seemed to know most of the customers, food was pretty good.  We also had the honeymoon suite at the Four Points we stayed at.  That was kind of nice.

Mt Norquay-Banff


Big Horn Sheep

Johnston Canyon Lower Falls

Johnston Canyon crowds






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