Trudy and Dale Buxton, Publishers, Biggar Independent
Welcome to Banff, one of Canada’s most premier resorts.
Our ride has certainly been scenic, I could ride in and around the mountains all the time, knowing that is not quite possible. But when you get the chance, its fabulous!
Banff was created way back in 1885 when some rail workers found a natural hot spring on Sulphur Mountain, in which the name Sulphur Mountain wasn’t used until 1916 because of the hot springs that were found and the high level of sulphur in the area. This mountain was first known as Terrance Mountain, which was first used when mapping out the area in the late 1800’s.
Banff National Park is Canada’s first national park and home to the highest town in Canada; the town sits at 1,630 metres at its highest point above sea level.
Banff was named after Lord Mount Stephen who at the time was the president of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He chose the name after his home region in Scotland – Banffshire.
Before being named Banff it was known as Siding No. 29, the surrounding area was later set aside as a federal reserve and officially as Banff National Park in 1930.
The water at Banff is famous for its beautiful bright blue lake, which is actually called rock flour, a fine dust created by grinding glaciers that reflect the blue and green light. The most famous of all the bright blue lakes is Lake Louise, the other less famous lakes include Peyto, Moraine, and Bow Lake.
The region itself holds over 1,000 glaciers which feed the ice fields in the region.
One of the most famous people comes from the old stories about Bill Peyto, who was a legendary mountaineer and often called Wild Bill for his antics around animals, especially the stories of Wild Bill’s raising of cougar cubs.
One interesting fact about Banff was that there was an internment camp set up in 1915 in Banff, mostly for the imprisonment of Ukrainian immigrants. These prisoners were used as slave labour to help build many of the infrastructure buildings within the park. The camp closed down at the end of 1917.
Banff has been part of the First Nations culture for at least 10,000 years with many artifacts that have been dug up from tribe people that camped in the area.
If you are into hiking, Banff National Park has over 1,600 kilometres of hiking trails. Banff also has Canada’s longest cave, which is a limestone cave called the Castleguard Cave, and it stretches for more than 66,700 feet.
Did you know that Banff’s largest lake is Lake Minnewanka and spreads across 22 square kilometres. This man-made lake came about after the river was damned in the early 1900’s to ensure an adequate water supply. A bigger damn was built in the 1940’s.
The town itself is purely geared for tourism; Banff is the Number One destination for the Asian population due to lots of advertising and the dream of the Rockies. Banff has close to five million people visiting the town annually which makes it one of the busiest places in Canada for tourism. Trying to find a parking spot can be difficult, let alone trying to find a place to stay. Book early.
Banff is definitely one of those places to include on any bucket list to visit at least once.
Stay tuned next week as we continue our adventures home from Alberta.
