31st May 2025

Today, onwards to Bannf.  Packed up and did an unload of grey and black water. Refueled with some water.  Though we had electricity, there was no hookup for water.

We took the 1A to Banff. This was the main road, but has been bypassed by the faster 1.  Much of the 1A is restricted to 60 kph and was a tourist road.  It was very quiet, with lots of cyclists out, and hardly any other road traffic.  We stopped at numerous places along the route for views, plant photos and also breakfast burrito and a Canadiano.

One of our stops was Morant’s Curve. Here the river and rail line curve with the mountains behind.  This image was used in the 1900s on posters to advertise the Canadian Alps.

R found several flowers at other stops and photos were taken.

The road was busier as we progressed, with both more cars and more cyclists. This became more pronounced as we approached Johnstons Canyon. Johnstons Canyon features a stream and waterfalls. It has been decked out with platforms and steps.  I left R in a queue (!) at the bottom falls and proceeded to the upper falls. R queued for more than an hour to go through the cave to see the falls and sprays. People are so selfish taking ages to get the best selfie photograph.

The walk does continue above the Upper Falls to the Ink Pots, but I did not do these.

On leaving we found the road to Bannf was closed, so we had to backtrack to the entry on to highway 1.  Later talking to our campsite neighbours, we discovered the road was closed during the summer, except for pedestrians and cyclists. They had hired electric bikes and cycled up to the waterfalls.  The road west of the waterfalls is open to allow cars entry.  We had only to backtrack a few miles to where there was a road off to the main highway.  Getting on was chaos because of large yellow line (yes, yellow, not white) painter vehicles on the sliproads which had decided to stop, or to go slow.

Banff was chaos, I left R to buy food, drove on past and by chance found a free 15-minute park.  R was not happy with the shop, saying it was overpriced with a very limited range of food.

Our campsite was on top of the ridge looking down into the valley and the wood, and also out towards the mountains There was a female elk just below the campsite. Alas gone by the time I had my camera ready. 

We discovered there are local buses, with a frequent service from the campsite. Free to go down, but $2 to come back or for any other trip.