The day started with us having to complete our first maintenance job on the camper van, this consisted of checking gas levels, filling the water tank and then the lovely job of emptying the waste tank. After a job successful we decided to head out. Our destination: Sulphur Mountain located on the outskirts of the town Banff.
We decided to take the Banff Gondola to the top. After a short trip we arrived at the lift station to gaze at the wonderful views. The top of the mountain had a wooden walkway, slightly elevated above the surface. This led up to a now defunct 19th century 'Cosmic Ray Station' that sat atop the highest peak. This was basically just a small room that the operator would work, and sometimes live in. Below, and sometimes on the walkways were hundreds of chipmunks and their similar cousin the slightly larger 'ground squirrel'. They were unphased by all the people, and went about their business which seemed to consist of just scampering around and occasionally standing on their back legs whilst squeaking and chattering.
After visiting the station and taking in the views, we returned to the Gondola station where we decided that we would walk down the mountain rather than use our return ticket. With this in mind we decided to refuel with some crisps. The chipmunks at the Gondola station were more bold than the others, and after begging on the ground for a while decided to climb up Becky's legs and across to Jamie's lap. Feeding wildlife is actually illegal in Canada, but despite this the reaction from many onlookers was for us to share. We didn't.
After fending off the chipmunk hoards we began our descent of Sulphur Mountain. It wasn't long until we spotted our first deer, hiding in the forest just off of the summit. It disappeared into the undergrowth shortly after. The trail down was about 3.5 miles long, and descended almost 2500ft.
On reaching the bottom we overheard that two groups of bears had been seen in the car park just that morning. Unfortunate, as yet, our bear count is still zero.
Next, we parked up at Banff to have a look around the town. Like Calgary and Canmore, the Bow River snakes it's way through the middle of town and we followed this downstream to get a view of the Bow Falls. Unfortunately it seems we walked down the wrong side of the river and instead of getting a good view, we wound up off-trail in the woods. On returning to Banff we visited a few souvenir shops and then stopped at a steak house to have a proper meal. Shrimp, steak, and ribs, followed by a shared dessert of chocolate cake.
After two days of poor insect repellent application, the mosquito bite count was now getting high. We have bites all over; face, neck, legs, arms, including where they've managed to get through jeans. Most amusing is Jamie's elbow which now has a large red swollen ball on the end.
We arrived back at the campsite late for our final night. Tomorrow we head northwest; further into the mountains to the Lake Louise campground in northern Banff National Park.
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