Bill and I went out to see some of the sights, first stopping just past the bridge out of the pretty but very touristy town of Banff. Here's a look over the Bow River towards town and the mountain (Cascade Mountain?) that our campground is on.
The bridge over the Bow River. Check out the cool Indian head sculptures on it.
The Bow River (looking towards what I think must be Mt. Norquay).
Next stop was the Cascade Gardens, where the Banff National Park Administration is housed (nice building, eh?!).
Some areas were devoid of flowers because it was past their season, and areas that had obviously held water were dry, but otherwise it was a pretty arrangement.
Wildly colorful poppies!
And wow, look at all these flowers! Petunias, nemesia, and foxglove.
The Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. What a beautiful old stone building!
I think this is Sir William Cornelius Van Horne - builder of the hotel.
Entrance lobby.
Bill enjoying a collection of old photos in one of the hotel's galleries.
It was neat to see the hotel's early days and first visitors. A lot has changed since those days (first rendition of the hotel was in 1888, but it was completely rebuilt starting in 1911), but some still remains the same - like its charm, grace, elegance, and...the price tag! One of the photo captions read: "In the 1920s and 30s, the Banff Springs was a seasonal 'home away from home' where guests would arrive with letters of credit for $50,000.00 to pay for their three-to-four-month stay at the hotel."
Yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Scatterings of fall color, already in mid-Sept.
After dinner and before bed, we went back through town to hit the famous Banff Hot Springs. The water wasn't that hot (something we found to be typical of most of the hot springs pools in Canada), but that allowed us to stay in longer!
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