Day 12 – Heading Home

Posted on February 16, 2016 by Dave Hodson

We’ve come to the end of another great trip, and shortly it will be time to head home.

On the day we arrived at the Banff Springs, I talked about the Gold lounge, but I didn’t post any photos. Below are a few photos of the lounge where we had many of our morning and evening meals this week. Because we had breakfast early, and also because the holiday weekend is over, I was able to get a few photos without crowds of people.

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This was a nice cozy spot to relax with a drink by the fire!

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The kitchen area was very well set up.

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This is an additional lounge area across the hall.

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As I mentioned before, I’m not sure I’d choose to stay on the gold floor here again. The lounge itself is nice enough, but I find it large and not as personal as Fairmont Gold at other properties we frequent. We also get better views from our regular suite on the 6th floor. This hotel has nice lounges, restaurants and common areas, which are just fine for spending time.

After breakfast, I managed to secure a massage appointment at the Willow Stream Spa, which is probably our favourite spa anywhere. It was a nice way to finish the trip; to relax the sore muscles from the skiing and hiking.

We checked out of our room and headed downstairs to load up our van. I’m always impressed by the lobby here.

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Before leaving town, we decided to drive down the hill to Bow falls at the intersection of the Bow and Spray Rivers, just to see it up close in winter. There’s not nearly as much water flowing over the falls in the winter!

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Here is a short video panorama.

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And then it was time to drive to Calgary to head home.

Upon arrival in Calgary, we stopped for lunch, and saw that bad weather back east was causing havoc with airline schedules today. The weather was fabulous here, but the aircraft we needed was still delayed somewhere else. Our early afternoon flight was delayed multiple times, eventually leaving well past midnight. Fortunately, we were able to standby for an earlier flight, which was also badly delayed from earlier this morning, but ended up leaving not too long after our original flight was scheduled to depart. The list of delayed passengers hoping to get on the flight was long, so were very happy when the gate agent called us up before boarding. Not the smoothest travel day we’ve ever had, and we had to take an involuntary downgrade from Business Class (for which Air Canada was later good about refunding the ticket price difference), but we made it back home safely.

It was a great trip and a great skiing experience, and we’re excited to return next winter. Skiing the rest of the winter back home in Ontario is going to be quite the let down!

Day 11 – Skiing at Lake Louise (again)

Posted on February 15, 2016 by Dave Hodson

After doing a bit of hiking the past two days, we were determined to return to the ski hill today. Fortunately, the temperatures and ski conditions were excellent. And, perhaps more importantly, so were the crowds!

We arrived rather early to get parked close, and to be on the hills early. Here we are, ready to go, just waiting for the lifts to open.

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Once the lifts opened, we headed up to carve up the freshly groomed trails.

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Here’s a video of Nadine skiing down her first run of the day.

We spent the day skiing mostly the front side of the mountain, and a little bit on the back side. Unfortunately, we were unable to ski Larch, as it was closed the entire week we were here, as the lift was down and waiting for parts.

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Instead of returning to the Whitehorn Bistro for lunch, we decided to get food at the main lodge and eat it on the porch overlooking the base of the hill. We finished eating, and headed back up for a few more runs.

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The sun was nice and bright for most of the day. Below is a nice shot of the main lodge as we’re coming back down on our last run.

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After returning to the van, we once again headed over to Lake Louise, since the weather was a bit sunnier than earlier in the week. It’s getting late in the day, and the lake was mostly in shadow, but it was still a beautiful sight.

We walked around the main skating area and ice castle for a bit. When we return next winter, we plan to stay in Lake Louise instead of in Banff, so perhaps we’ll get a chance to go out skating, which I haven’t done in probably 30 years!

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Here I am, standing on the snow bank, gazing up at Mount Whyte.

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Before returning to the car, we watched a bit of a very typical Canadian sport played all across the country… pond hockey (but with more impressive background scenery).

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And here’s one final image of Lake Louise on our way back to the car.

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It was a tiring but very good day! We returned to Banff, had a nice dinner in the Gold lounge, and relaxed at the hotel for the evening.

Day 10 – Grotto Canyon

Posted on February 14, 2016 by Dave Hodson

The original plan for today, was to return to the Lake Louise Ski Area, for another day of skiing. On the drive north, the day was shaping up to be a nice one!

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We arrived at the ski area, and realized quickly that we had made a mistake in our planning. This is the Alberta Family Day weekend, and the ski area was packed. The nearest parking spot is a very long shuttle ride away, and the lift lines are massive. We quickly decided to change plans, and head back down the highway from where we came.

After hearing about Grotto Canyon, just a bit southeast of Canmore, we decided to check it out. Unlike yesterday’s hike along the side of the canyon walls, our hike today would be right up the middle of the frozen river.

The trip started out a little boring, making our way away from the parking lot, along an icy trail through the woods behind a very large and loud mineral processing plant.

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Eventually, we made it to the bottom of the canyon.

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As we made our way along the ice, it became obvious there were two types of hikers here… about half of us with ice traction devices and the other half without. Watching people try to make their way up the hills of ice with nothing but snow boots, and in some cases, running shoes, was certainly interesting.

As we continued up the canyon, the river bed was winding through increasingly taller walls on each side.

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We paused for photos all the way along. In places you could hear the water moving under the ice. In other places, you could see the ice was frozen solid right down to the creek bed below.

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We’re approaching the top of the canyon…

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Once at the start of the canyon, we explored the area, seeing where the water feeds the river from a few different places above and beyond the tall walls surrounding us.

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