Calgary Trip--Last Day, Banff

 I wrote in yesterday's post about the issues with getting shuttles/transportation.  Parks Canada wants to limit visitors to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. The cheap options are difficult, the easy options are expensive. I missed out on the pre-sale of Parks Canada shuttle buses--they sell 40% starting in April and then release another back 2 days before the date of trip--so to get July 8, I would have had to log on at 8am on July 6--and I didn't want to risk that because I didn't know where we'd be exactly and I'd have to do it on my phone instead of laptop. One tip I read is that it seems like it sells out at 8:02, but a lot of people are holding tickets in their shopping cart, and that expires after 20 minutes, so try again at 8:20. 

 I opted to try the ROAM 8X Reservable Super Pass. This pass allows you to chose your departure and return times, and includes the Parks Canada connector shuttle between Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. I had to wait until June 2, at precisely 9AM MDT. 

I logged in at 9:02 and already the early morning departures and late afternoon returns were sold out. The earliest I could get for departure was 10:15, with arrival at 11:12, and departure at 2:47, arriving back 3:41. This would not leave a lot of time. The connector takes about 20 min each way, plus there's time needed to line up before it, and before the return ROAM trip back to Banff.

I asked in a FB group about the best way to use our limited time. We were advised to get on the connector immediately and go to Moraine Lake. We could always come back to Lake Louise in the evening, or even take a later ROAM bus (but we'd be in the standby line). This is why we went to LL the night before.

We were up early due to the heat, and Rob and I went to Sav-On-Foods for lunch items. I think Lucy went to Starbucks.

We had a 30 minute drive to Banff, so the kids wanted to go to Rocky Mountain Bagel. We went to the location on Bow Valley Trail. If they could have walked there, it would have been faster than driving, but we thought we'd just stop in on our way out of town. Well. There was no parking available, so we sat in front of the dumpster while they ran in. It took about 30 minutes, for 2 simple bagel sandwiches! The kids weren't even all that impressed with them.

We got to the Banff train station and unloaded for the day. It was already quite hot, even though it was about 9:35am.  Just an FYI, there are portapotties in the parking lot, they were pretty decent. We headed towards the Banff High School to catch the ROAM bus. 

It's a pretty easy, level walk, but it was hot and sunny. We had to be there early, but we were probably earlier than we needed to be. We checked in, and when the bus arrived we got on, spread out over the 5 seats at the very back, and waited. We ended up leaving with the bus not even full. 

This was when we got to the high school, 9:47AM. I keep meaning to look up why the sky seems so much bluer out there. 

It was a nice drive to Lake Louise. The bus also stops in the Lake Louise village, and a couple people did get off. It doesn't stop there on the way back. We got to see the parking lot mayhem first hand. I really wish this bus also went to the Lake Louise Park N Ride at the ski hill. I'm not sure why it doesn't go there. As we arrived at Lake Louise lakeshore, the driver announced where to go for the Parks Canada connector bus and we went straight there--just ahead of the ROAM bus. 

We had to wait a bit for it to fill up and leave. It doesn't run on a timed schedule, so you can't exactly predict when you're going, but it doesn't take too long. The shuttle driver was great, giving us information on what you can see, how there's a quadruple plus (I don't know what the official label is) black diamond ski run that requires climbing the mountain, over the scree, to the top, and no, you can't helicopter in. There's also a cabin up there you can stay in. No thanks. The skiiers rely on the lake freezing because when they come down, they can't really stop at the bottom, and have to get across the lake to the road, which isn't open anyway, and ski out. Crazy. If you look at the Google Street view before it gets updated, you'll see a very different view of the parking. You used to be able to drive in, but now you can't--any time of the year. People with handicapped plates, or lodge guests, can park though. 

When we got there, we went for the outhouses. The lines were long but moved quick. Yes, they smell a bit, but hey, that's the great outdoors. 

On the road on the way in, we were passed by an emergency vehicle with lights flashing. When we went to the outhouses, they (the staff, not the actual vehicle LOL) and another Parks vehicle were staring at something across the lake with binoculars. 

We headed towards the lake and came upon photo spot #1, with a long line. The family ahead of us took so many photos. The guy behind offered to take ours, and we got 2 shots of all of us!

Megan's hair is a little wild LOL

Reading the info boards like good little students!

Tree piles. They come down over the winter with the snow.

We saw the "Rockpile" to the left. I had heard about it but never understood what it was. I wasn't expecting it to be so massive. There were a LOT of people up on it, so we decided not to go that way. I had read to go past the boathouse for more great views.  You can see the Rockpile below, in the centre. And if you zoom in, there are people visible.

Here's the Rockpile again, on the left.

I had heard to walk the trail past the Boathouse, so we went that way. We walked past the "cabins" and remarked how frustrating it must be to pay so much, but have all these people walking past all.day.long.  

Try taking photos with different devices, angles and settings. This one, above, was with my phone.  The one above it was on my camera, which I had set probably to the vivid setting. It made the sky washed out, but made the water more turquoise. The reality was some where in between!

It's busy, but be patient. Or, use a photo editing software to remove people LOL. It's not perfect, and don't zoom in too close, but it's much better than before!

We found a spot, right on the edge of the water, perfect for our lunch picnic.

Is there anything more Canadian than a grocery store sandwich for lunch, with your feet in the freezing water? It was NOT as peaceful as it looks though because the trail was right behind us and it was non-stop people.

You can actually see the imprints from skiers! 

We had a nice little break here and then kept going down the trail for a ways.

There was someone painting, down by the water. It was neat they were in a bright red, but due to people, it was hard to frame the photo. I also didn't want to be too obvious.

It's getting hard to know if I posted a photo--I'm dealing with Google Photos with pictures from my phone, and pictures from my camera. 

Shortly after seeing the painter, we came to a more open area on the shore, and decided to turn around. We got back to the entry area and went into the gift shop. It's a pretty tight fit in there. Somehow, I either forgot about the cafe, or we ran out of time. 

We got back to the shuttle pick up area to wait. There were more emergency response people there now, looking across the lake. We have no idea what happened. 

We had to wait on the bus quite a while before we left. We thought we'd get to Lake Louise much sooner, based on when we got on the shuttle, but even though it was nearly full, we didn't leave. There wasn't any commentary on the return trip, but there was a crying baby the entire way. That sucks but happens.

We got to Lake Louise lakefront, and we still had some time before we had to check in for our reserved 2:47 departure. We discovered there was a really nice washroom building near the bus shelter, with a water bottle filler. Don't know how we missed this the night before and went to a different bathroom building closer to the lake that was dark, damp and not very clean. The one at the parking lot also had a water bottle filler!

There is a covered area to wait, with one section for walk ups and one for reserved. When we got the shuttle we thought maybe we could even do walk on for the bus before ours, but the shuttle took too long before it left. When the ROAM bus finally came, we quickly got on, and again, had to wait. There weren't many with reserved tickets, but it was filled up with walk ups (they still had to have the reserved time type ticket, but they were scheduled for a different bus time. If you MISS your reserved time, you'll have to go in the walk up line). Apparently, like the Parks Canada shuttle, they don't open all the tickets at the time they open sales on June 2.

We got back into Banff at about 3:50. We walked around a little, went in a few stores, and Lucy searched up some restaurant ideas. We hoped if we went a bit early, we'd be able to get in somewhere.

BTW, the public bathrooms in Banff were really nice, with a button to press to alert staff if anything is wrong. However, I think they closed at 8pm. This pictures below is the old (and maybe current?) post office (no, Banff Visitor Centre now).

It's just so amazing how blue the sky is. The picture below is very accurate.

We decided to try Lupo, an Italian restaurant.  We climbed the stairs to the top, where the really nice young hostess told us there'd be a table ready soon as a party of 6 was just finishing up. She took Lucy's number and said she'd call when it's ready. So we went back down the stairs and just walked around the couple shops right there before the call came. 

Up at the top is the Banff Train Station, where you can park for free, for 9 hours. You walk down Moose Street to the main street.  Banff High School is the grey 330 Banff Ave, right across from Elk & Avenue Hotel. Lupo is the orange restaurant icon in the middle. 

We hadn't gotten too far when the call came and we hiked back up the stairs. We told our server it was our last night in Alberta, he asked where we're from. Ontario. He asked where. Greater Toronto Area. He said, elaborate. East of Toronto. He said Where--I'm from Clarington. LOL. He got a degree at UOIT (now Ontario Tech University), headed west to ski "for one season" and got hooked. He also worked part time in a job related to his degree, but serving was his primary job. Quite a nice fellow but I missed his name.

We ordered drinks and Megan and Lucy didn't have their ID. Megan had a photo of hers, which he accepted and we said Lucy was the middle child so obviously older. There had been an inspector in earlier in the week and so they were being very careful about checking. The drinks were very good!

We all got pastas, except Hugh got a pizza. The pastas were SO good. Freshly made pasta, fresh ingredients. I think they focus on fresh, local ingredients. The portions weren't huge either, which was a nice change.

The desserts looked delightful, but we had been wanting ice cream all week and had seen a Cows Dairy so we decided to go there. Except, the line up was SO long! After doing some more shopping, we decided to head back to Canmore and got for ice cream there.

In Canmore, we found the Old School Bus ice cream. It was fine. Don't think it was handmade, the flavours seemed just like Chapman's Ice Cream. There weren't any signs saying handmade, nor any branding signs. Parking in Canmore is crazy. 

This was at 10:11pm. We went for a walk, packed up, ate all the fresh food that was left and got ready to leave in the morning. Oh, and Rob was able to park outside in a visitor spot for the night, so no more dealing with that!

The day felt bigger, longer, busier than what it looks like from the pictures. We don't do many touristy things and were worried when we heard how crazy busy the tourist spots are. Yes, we waited way too long for the photo at Moraine Lake, but this is likely our last family trip. It was frustrating trying to figure out the shuttles/bus/online reservations etc (my watch even told me to calm down and do some breathing exercises LOL). It mostly worked out fine, though we didn't get as far up the Icefields Parkway as I had hoped--but I also didn't know that I wasn't going to be able to easily walk up the mountains and needed so much extra time. There is so much to see here, especially if you can do some hiking--even the gentle hiking can get you to some pretty cool places. I'm glad we could do this trip, before it becomes even worse of a tourist trap. I wish my kids could have seen it ten years ago. 

I also came to realize that I prefer smaller mountains that you can climb, or drive up. Like Mount Washington in New York, or Mont Massif in Quebec. These mountains are so majestic, but also, so aggressive!