Banff to Golden. Only 200 km

At first Banff seems like too much of the popular tourist town it is. Too expensive, too slick and too many people, even if that’s just for May and just compared to our other stops.

Then Elly and I get startled by the deer, also out for a morning stroll downtown, and later the sun shines and every direction you look from the riverside greenspace the mountains and forests are brilliant, we chat with a nice couple from Washington DC and the place takes on its appropriate role. I think we need the “world class” Banff, with its multiple lanes of highways and train tracks through the Bow valley, its horde of trendy spots, and its visitors from all over the world. It lets the rest of the Rocky Mountain parkland, (and there’s a ton of it) be there own various degrees of wild, if that makes any sense.
Anyway we pulled out around 10.00 and leisurely toured outside town and along the more casual Bow Valley Parkway (not the TCH) to Lake Louise.


It was cold and spattering there but by the time we were finding new wildflowers in BC’s Yoho National park it was sunny again.



The Kicking Horse river gorge there, with the TCH and rain tracks running through it is as impressive a gorge as I’ve ever seen. This parks “Hoodoo” section is closed and I’m guessing it’s because of a recent forest fire. The colours were like a painted mountain.


Golden is nestled between mountain in the valley where the Kicking Horse river meets the Columbia.