Banff Springs and Bow River

Today we continued our Banff Summer activity extravaganza. After mountain hiking/rafting yesterday we added golf and trail riding today. The crazy ones woke up early to watch the state of origin and first session of the cricket. The sane ones slept in until 630am before we all drove off to Banff. Expectations were high as Banff takes number one position on Malcolm's bucket list. It didn't let us down.

Banff Springs Golf Course...tick!

We formed a convoy of three golf carts and played the Tunnel Mountain 9 hole course which was just as pretty and well manicured as the championship 18 holes that it criss-crosses. We saw lots of Elk poo before finally finding the responsible Elk.

The quality of the golf didn't let us down. We played family Ambrose and went round with nine straight pars. The rental clubs were fantastic and we all had them working well by the end of the round. We saved our best tee shots for the final hole on the return to the clubhouse. We only had 140 yards left for our second on a 404 yard hole, but the adults managed to stuff up the final approaches. Fortunately, Elliot came up with a grandstand finish and knocked it on the green so we could end up even with the card.

And our convoy is off!

Jonah was content to "pretend" to drive

The children loved playing the beautiful course

Malcolm in action

Malcolm is also a hoon on the golf cart!

Elk!

Saviour of the last hole

Bow Falls

A quick barbecue meal of buffalo wings, burger patties, salad and sweet potato back in our hotel room was followed by a power nap for all. 1 hour and 10 minutes later Malcolm woke everyone up to hit the trail again. Our horse ride was along another pretty river, the Bow River. The only annoying thing was that they were running late hence we had to wait 45 minutes past our allocated time before we got started. There was some discussion as to what Malcolm's horse was actually named. Somehow, we didn't think "Tarago" was correct...Another highlight was that being on the golf cart and on a horse obviously was not detrimental to my step count which clocked in at nearly 13,000! Yeah!

My feet hurt from walking, my arms ache from rafting and my butt is sore from riding. It's a pity we couldn't do the road trip first and the cruise at the end! 2 more days and we have to return to reality.

Where we checked in for our trail ride

One of the gorgeous horses pulling the wagon 

Elliot and his horse, freckles

Jonah managed his horse, Caspar, really well!

Started off through the woods

Then walked by the water

Bow River

Heading back towards the stable

Sulphur Mountain and Kananaskis River

We dragged ourselves out of bed to get to the Banff Gondola at opening time. I was not entirely convinced it was worth the sacrifice of extra sleep but we did get a parking spot right in front and hopped on a gondola straight away. The gondola took us to the top of Sulphur Mountain which gave a bird's eye view of the National Park. Unfortunately, it was quite hazy as there have been several fires burning in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. We could imagine how much more spectacular the scenery would have been on a clear day. There were boardwalks leading to Sanson Peak, the highest point of Sulphur Mountain. We weren't sure if the children were tired from travelling or if it was the altitude but we needed multiple stops which was a change from a flurry of hyper-excitable children buzzing around us.

Another town, another mountain!

The gondolas going up Sulphur Mountain

More wildlife

Looking back down at the township of Banff. Tunnel Mountain in the middle of the shot and to the right of it. Banff golf course...tomorrow's activity!

A rest?!?! What?!?! Unheard of...

Its hazy everywhere but still amazing!

Yay! Reached the top! Not sure why the lady just stood there...

Plenty of these little fellas around.

Home made BBQ ribs. Delicious! Thank you Malcolm!

White water rafting was up next. We were outfitted with wetsuits, safety gear and an additional plastic top. The only person who declined the top regretted it as the water was a balmy 5 degrees! Our adventure down the Kananaskis River was a great experience. It was a balanced combination of gentle rapids (made more exciting with water battles) and challenging rapids (by our standards) that provided enjoyment for the die hards and chickens amongst us. The backdrop for our "float" down wasn't too shabby either! Unfortunately the photos that we purchased came in a DVD and none of us have a CD/DVD drive so no one will be viewing those shots until we return home to Sydney! Will update as soon as possible.

Banff

Unfortunately our resort had a power failure last night thus this post is one day late...

All good things had to come to an end as we packed up to leave Lake Louise but before we did so, we had a very important task to do...walking Marcus, the hotel dog! The children had been booked in to walk Marcus, the 6 year old labrador, who failed guide dog training. He was truly like a coin-operated machine, only walking when he received a treat. He was a lovely dog, but stubbornly refused to budge at all once he decided it was treat time again. At the end, we weren't sure if the children walked him or if he walked them...

The Lake at 5:30am

It was a great buffet breakfast! 

Time to meet Marcus

The friendly but "lazy" dog!

Marcus walks where Marcus wants to walk...

A bit worried when we were at the far end of the lake with only 1 treat left! We made it back to the hotel. Phew!

It was then time to move on to the pretty town of Banff. Boy was it crowded! We managed to squeeze in shopping and lunch and thought we would check out the gondola but the lines were horrendous. We stuck to our original plan of visiting Lake Minnewanka, another seemingly picture perfect blue lake. It is the largest lake in Banff National Park at 20km long and 2km at its widest. As it was so hot and crowded, we decided to give boating in a tinny a miss. No one really wanted to sit in the heat for 2 hours. Instead we shopped in a...supermarket! $10 for a 2kg punnet of big fat sweet blueberries?!?! I'll take it!

It was when we returned to our resort that we discovered there was a power outage. We were all forced to retire early which was probably not a bad thing as Malcolm has planned quite a few activities for us in Banff.

Banff

There was some dispute in the car as to how this should be pronounced...

Lake Minnewanka. Another beautiful lake

We saw these. Not sure what they are...goat? Apparently it could have been horned sheep?

Our resort for the next 3 days was in a small town, very small town. So small it is called a Hamlet...but it was cheap!