Aussies Ride to Banff, Canada

We're in Banff this morning. We're staying here for three nights. Absolutely beautiful. There's heaps of cloud cover today so you can't actually see any of the mountains but there is, they're just surrounding us everywhere. This is the Bow River Bridge and when the springs here were found they installed a pontoon bridge but this current bridge, the Bow River Bridge, was built in 1923. It has all the river pebbles from the river. It's absolutely gorgeous. Behind us up here is the Banff Springs Hotel and behind there is actually our It's pretty cold today. This morning when we started our walk it was about six degrees. It's eight now so lots of layers on. Even wearing my bike jeans because it's that cold. We've met lots and lots of Aussies which is so funny to hear all the accents after so long but yeah enjoy. It's absolutely stunning and we love it. Well this morning we've left Waterloo Park in Alberta on the first leg of our Canada series. We finished the visit there with a tour of the Prince of Wales Hotel which is a beautiful old place perched high on the cliff and it's overlooking Waterloo Lake. We had pretty mixed weather. We arrived in Waterloo Park in very overcast conditions and quite cool but yeah believe today as you can see the sun's beaming down beautiful blue skies. Unfortunately however the weather has forecast to rain later on and we're going to have some cold riding ahead. So today we're heading for Banff. It's also in Alberta. We've been there a times before 2012 and 2014 but both of those stays were unfortunately only for one night. So this time we're going to stay for three nights so we can have a good look around. We're currently on Alberta Highway 6. We've got about four and a half hours or so of riding time in front of us. We'll stop first in Pinch and Cream for you know a bit of caffeine and then we'll head north on the 22 to Longview and then from Longview we'll make a left onto the 40 and that'll take us up through a very long valley with gigantic jagged mounds either side of the road so it'll be very very scenic. We hope to arrive in Banff mid-afternoon to get out and we'll start exploring. Well we've arrived in Pincher Creek and are on the lookout for coffee. Unfortunately we couldn't find any so kept moving on. The town was established in 1878 as a northwest mounted police post and farm on Pincher Creek. The town received its name when a group of prospectors lost a pincer in the small creek at this location. These pincers would have been used as a device for trimming the feet of the horses and thus had some value to the group. In 1874 the northwest mounted police came to southern Alberta. One of them discovered the rusting tools in the creek and then named the area Pincher Creek. Today agriculture and natural gas production remain important to Pincher Creek's economy. In addition the town is known as the wind capital of Canada. A growing number of wind energy projects are located in the Pincher Creek area. The wind farms, the town's proximity to Waterton Lakes National Park and its cultural and historical sites are all being promoted as tourist attractions. The Cowboy Trail Highway 22 is a famous driving route in Alberta that takes you from the town of Lundbrek north of Maythorpe 90 minutes from Edmonton. Making its way through the beautiful rolling foothills with views of the Rockies and farmers fields full of bright canola tall wheat or herds of cattle and horses flanking each side of the highway. This picturesque route holds parts of Alberta's past and some of the most interesting and beautiful scenery. We stopped at the town of Longview for brunch and coffee at the Little Apple Cafe before turning onto Highway 40 otherwise known as the Bighorn Highway. Alberta Highway 40 spans 1,000 kilometers. It stretches from Coleman a small town in the Rocky Mountains in southwest Alberta northward to Grand Prairie a city in northwest Alberta. The roads also referred to as Bighorn Highway and Kananuskus Trail. Numerous segments of Highway 40 incorporate a mix of paved and gravel sections and fortunately for us the section we're doing today only 150 kilometers is all paved. The road winds its way through the Canadian Rockies and road closures can be frequent during winter due to weather conditions. The road reaches a peak of 2,200 meters or 7,200 feet above sea level at Irewood Pass which we traversed today. Upon reaching that summit you travel at the highest elevation of any highway in the country close to the free line where pockets of snow persist even in midsummer. The road offers a highly scenic drive providing a wonderful opportunity to explore western Alberta with its breathtaking views. I mean just look around you now. Journeying along this highway you supposedly encounter abundant wildlife including bears, elk, moose, mountain goats and coyotes but unfortunately for us we saw none of them. Arriving in Banff we cruised the bustling streets to reacquaint ourselves within the town as it had been nine years since our last visit. We then found our hotel for the next three nights. Banff and Alberta which is where we would call home for the next three nights is a resort town in the province of Alberta located completely within Banff National Park. The peaks of Mount Rundle and Mount Cascade part of the Rocky Mountains dominated skyline. On Banff Avenue the main street boutiques, restaurants mixed with shadow style hotels and souvenir shops. The surrounding 6,500 square kilometers of parkland are home to wildlife including elk and grizzly bear. A quick check-in and change of clothes and we got out on the town while the weather was still sunny. Banff is such a scenic place with views of jagged mountain peaks in every direction. We had never really got to explore the town in our previous two visits as they were both only overnight. All the Aussie accents in the shop just sounded so weird after spending months in North America. My first purchase was a beautiful hooded sheepskin coat as the weather was predicted to get very cold for the next few days. After some exploring we had a delicious dinner at an Italian restaurant with the server, yes you guessed it, being an Aussie. Turns out her home in Australia was only an hour or so drive from where we live. After dinner there was some daylight still left so we decided to walk to the Bow River and the stunning Bow Falls. On the walk home we had to stop at the Rocky Mountains chocolate shop. Day two was a pretty sad affair, cold, wet, windy and gloomy. Day three we awoke to find the sun beaming down again so we decided to take the gondola and explore Sulphur Mountain. Morning everyone. This morning we've caught a gondola up to Sulphur Mountain. We're at the observation deck. We did walk up to Mount Samson. There's a weather gathering station up there that operated between 1903 and 1932 and it was named after Mr Samson and he'd climbed up that mountain before any of the infrastructure was in place over a thousand times so pretty amazing effort and deservedly so has a mountain named after him. It's just stunning up here. It's seven and a half thousand feet and there is just snow and capped mountains everywhere where you can see down below there's Bow River and a stunning golf course to the right. If you're visiting Banff, a trip up Sulphur Mountain is a must. There's a bus service from town to the base of the mountain to make things easy. The eight minute gondola ride whisks you up from the valley floor to a height of 7,500 feet and from there you can take 360 degree epic views of six different mountain ranges of the Rockies, Bow Valley, Bow River and the beautiful town of Banff. There's a timber sky wall that leads you to the Samson weather station and more spectacular views. We spent a good two hours up here soaking up the views and taking in the information from the interpretive displays inside the observation centre. a premier steakhouse on Banff Avenue. The steak here was of a level to rival the steaks we expect in Australia and of course Stu had to indulge in a huge slow roasted prime rib, medium rare, weighing in at 16 ounces or just half a kilo. I had the British Columbian salmon fillet with maple glaze which was delicious. All this was washed down with a few beers and margaritas. After all hydration is very important. Melissa's is a rustic western themed bar and restaurant and seemingly very popular, although when we walked in there was hardly a soul in there. When we left there wasn't a spare seat with a live band playing. We finished the night with a mandatory visit to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory followed by a slow wander back to our hotel to pack for the next day's journey to Jasper. We awoke the next morning to beautiful blue skies and another day's great riding ahead of us. Today we would ride to Jasper, 300 kilometers along the Icefields Highway, taking in sites such as Lake Louise, Pato Lake and the Columbia Icefield. Join us on our next episode as we showcase these iconic locations along the most famous roadway in Canada.