July 21-22, 2013, Banff and Jasper National Parks (continued)
Sunday we drove into the town of Banff. South of Lake Louise we saw a grizzly bear walking along the fence on the opposite side of the highway. The highway between Lake Louise and Banff is a divided 4 lane road and is very busy so, unfortunately, we were not able to stop to get a picture. We got to add another bear sighting to our list – that now makes six. In Banff we rode the Banff Gondola – an 8 minute ride to the summit of Sulphur Mountain. The gondola climbs 2,293 feet to an elevation of 7,486 ft at the upper terminal. When we reached the upper terminal Rex and Nancy took the summit walk, a 1 km boardwalk along the summit ridge to the Cosmic Ray National Historic Site of Canada and the Sanson’s Peak Meteorological Station. At the summit is a stone hut that was an historical weather observatory built in 1903. Below the observatory is a large concrete platform – all that remains of the Sulphur Mountain Cosmic Ray ...