Banff, Alberta...day 2!

On Saturday, we awoke early and, after a quick breakfast, drove out to Lake Minnewanka where the annual Dragon Boat Races were set to begin. Finding no problem locating a parking space an hour before the first race, we walked down to the water and found a rock on which to park ourselves. We watched as the Dragon Boat teams prepared for the day's races, mugs of hot coffee in hand, all chatting excitedly about the upcoming events. The sun was slow to peek out from behind the mountain and clouds across the lake from us, but once it did, the rays shot up and out in all directions. Beautiful.

Lake Minnewanka awaiting the dragon boat races

Eventually, just after 9am or so, the first team of racers paddled out from the dock and across our field of view to the starting line, accompanied by cheers from some of the audience. We watched this three more times as the other teams (each including 20 rowers, a coxswain at the bow and a driver at the stern) repeated the path to the starting line.

Dragon Boat Races 2012

Almost as soon as it started, the race was over. Within a couple of minutes three of the teams crossed the finish line, while the fourth team lagged far behind. We noticed that, just as the race began, the fourth team steered way off course perhaps because the rudder was dropped, causing the boat to turn sharply. With the rudder once again in hand, the team finally crossed the finish line.

Lake Minnewanka

The dragon boats are not what Ken and I expected. Perhaps the name led us astray. Perhaps having seen the Chinese New Year celebrations in Chinatown in Washington, DC, with their huge, multi-person dragons snaking down the streets unfairly warped our expectations. In any case, the dragon boats in Banff are very long, very thin sculls with a small dragon-like head at the bow and a few scales on a tail at the stern. No costumes, no pageantry, no Chinese lanterns. Oh well.

As such, we packed up and walked back toward the car. We noticed the stream of folks coming to watch were all well-equipped, complete with ice chests, picnic blankets, barbecues and lawn chairs. Maybe this is the Banff version of the 4th of July fireworks at the Washington Monument, an all day affair. Clearly, we weren't prepared for this. We drove along the edge of the lake and stopped at a couple of viewpoints before returning to the RV. We lazed around the rest of the morning, until lunchtime when we ate the picnic lunch we had packed for the races.

Banff hoodoos

Near the campground we found a trail to the area's only hoodoos, columns of earth left standing after the rest of the ground around them has eroded away. We remembered our time hiking in Bryce Canyon, Utah, many years ago and wondered how those could be found in a place filled with pine and spruce trees among giant mountains and deep canyons near the Continental Divide. Nonetheless, we made our way to the trailhead and found the first of several scenic overlooks. We discovered the hoodoos of Banff do favor those of Bryce Canyon, but were formed when the massive amount of erosion caused during the retreat of the glaciers left these few columns in place. The hoodoos we saw look completely out of place in their environment of green with the river of ice blue water at the bottom of the valley below.

Squawking squirrel!

Continuing along the trail, we found the other overlooks, each offering a slightly different view of the Bow River below, the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in the distance and the Canadian Rockies mountains all around. Strolling through the woods on the pathway, we heard the insistent chirping of what we thought was a bird until we finally saw a ground squirrel on a branch nearby shouting his alarms for us to leave his space. Apparently we upset the little guy.

We hiked back to the car and drove into town. We headed straight for the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, intending to actually see the inside of the hotel this time. With a bit of luck, we found a parking space and walked toward the massive stone structure. The entrance is imposing, with a steep driveway leading to a huge set of doors under a giant glass and steel overhang.

Fairmont Banff Springs hotel

Once inside, the hotel is a dizzying array of well- appointed hallways leading to more hallways, and signage with brass lettering announcing one event or another. We located the list of restaurants and walked upstairs to peruse the menus. Sticker shock led us out the back door and onto a terrace overlooking the pool area and the mountains beyond. We wandered back toward the front of the building and into a side door where we found some shops offering exquisite choices in clothing, wine and artwork, with prices to match. We exited and admired the stunning display of flowers planted along the hotel's foundation before making our way back to the car.

Quiviuk store

'Sleeping Buffalo' in
Banff park

Just as we crossed the bridge into Banff, we found ourselves a nice bench along the river to sit and read the newspaper we had picked up at the hotel. Several columns later and with the clouds gathering above us, we strolled back toward the shops to duck under the eaves in the event the light drizzle turned ugly. Thankfully, it didn't. We peeked in windows, giggled at the silly t-shirt sayings ('International Sarcasm Society...like we need your support') and touched all the knitted goods at the Quiviuk store before heading to dinner.

COWS Ice Cream Parlor

We selected Wild Bill's for the evening's meal with no more to go on than the menu and the irresistible barbeque smell wafting from its door. We were not disappointed. We started the meal with an appetizer of sweet corn fritters, followed by an entree of beef brisket with sweet potato waffle fries for Ken and the harvest-stuffed portabella mushrooms on a bed of greens for me. The brisket was outstanding and so were the fries. The mushroom dish was the best meal I've had in all of Canada, without exception. We were so thrilled to have such a wonderful meal again in the same town, and at reasonable prices. It seems our restaurant luck is changing the further south we travel through this country.

Two Jack Lake

With an early meal under our belts, we drove out to Lake Minnewanka again, this time well after all the racers and onlookers had left. With the sun behind us, we took pictures from the dam and then stopped at Two Jack Lake to admire the sun glinting off the water there, too.

Lake Minnewanka

We returned to the downtown and fought our way back into a parking space, the regular dinner hour now causing a dearth of available spots. We wandered around town a bit longer and then enjoyed an ice cream cone amid the throngs of tourists speaking every known language, most with small children, dogs or both. We returned to the RV for happy hour and some much needed quiet.

What a great day!