Written by: Clara the Exploradora

This last weekend, Patrick and I had three days off work for Labor Day. So what did we do? We zoomed right up to do Banff in two days! Banff is never, EVER a bad idea. It is always cool, always awesome, and always fun. Even over Labor Day weekend. This article will explain how we made the most out of our three day weekend!

Travel Hint:

Canadians celebrate Labor

Day too. Thus, Banff is

HECTIC. 

We left Bozeman at around 3 pm on a Friday…

and headed towards the Caraway border entrance, camped the night somewhere near Cowley off of highway 3, and then finished the drive to Banff  on highway 22 the next day. The drive there…. Amazing! You go through beautiful scenery and epic mountain views. You will have to physically restrain yourself from stopping every 10 seconds to take pictures.

Since we were doing Banff in two days, our first order of business, after buying our season pass, was to find camping. I had only ever been during the off season (April and October), two trips you can read about in two other blog posts I have written. I didn’t know it had the capacity to hold so many people! It was a miracle that we even found camping there.

We drove to Tunnel Mountain Camp ground and inquired. Of course, they were full, but they offered over flow camping for trailers. Our car is outfitted for sleeping so we qualified. However, they don’t take reservations for that. They assured us that they hadn’t seen the overflow fill up and that we could get a place to sleep when we came back.

Travel Hint:

Book lodging in

advance for places like

Banff in peak season.

Since we only had the afternoon to go do stuff we opted to walk around town.

You can walk by the river and appreciate it’s blue-ness. Banff is really convenient for walking. Just park wherever you can and you’ll be able to walk fairly easy. Apparently, Banff has a bus system. We didn’t use it but I am sure that it would have made doing Banff in two days a lot less stressful. 

For good WiFi and good coffee, go to Wild Flour. It is on the main street and is small but has a good vibe. We spent a minute there using the WiFi and Patrick drank some espresso. It’s always good to know where to go for reliable WiFi and coffee and this is the place I recommend. Lots of people love to hang out at Star Bucks but I say, support locals!

We ended up deciding to hike Sulpher Mountain.

It is a great hike with a really sophisticated building on top and amazing views. Try and avoid going during fire season (July-August) so your views won’t be obstructed by smoke.  The hike is actually not that easy. It took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes to summit and we are both pretty quick hikers. It is relentlessly uphill. But the reprieve at the top is nice. At the top you can continue on a board walk and go check out an ancient weather station with great views.

The true beauty of this hike is the gondola. At the top of Sulpher Mountain there is a gondola that you can take up or just ride down. It is expensive. Obviously, we hiked up and gondola’d down. It is around $30 Canadian for a one way ticket. That is a lot. Luckily, after 7PM, rides are free. We waited up there for an hour drinking tea and eating our hiking snacks and then got a free ride down.

Travel Hint:

It is cold up there.

Take a jacket,

maybe even gloves. 

We turned in early that night, got our overflow campsite at Tunnel Mountain Campground, ate a dinner of left over chicken soup and had a great nights sleep in the back of our Rav4 so we could get an early start on the next day.

When you do Banff in two days, you need your rest.

Up where the gondola drops you off there is a wonderful hot spring.

We wanted to go after our hike but the line was super long. Which is why we opted to go the next day.

That morning, we ate a delicious breakfast I had prepared; Apples, coconut milk, nuts, raisins, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Upon leaving our camping area, we asked if there had been any cancellations and there had! So we reserved our spot and went on our way.

By 8:30AM the traffic started getting obnoxious, but we made it to the hot spring by 9, waited in a short line of and soaked for an hour. The Banff hot springs are open from 9am-11pm and cost $8.30/person. The views are  awesome. They face a mountain and offer up beautiful skis. We enjoyed our time soaking in the hot springs with the other early morning soakers.

Definitely a a must do if you are doing Banff in two days!

Patrick has never been to Lake Louise…

So it was definitely high on our list of places to see in the area. We made one mistake; we forgot about Labor Day/seasonal traffic. It was aweful. It took us around 2.5 hours to get there when it should have only taken 45 minutes. After a whole lot of sitting in traffic, we discovered the Lake Louis overflow parking. It’s south on highway 1 a bit and has free shuttle bus’s to Moraine Lake or Lake Louise.

Travel hint:

There is overflow parking

with a free shuttle to the Lake.

Because it took so long to get there, we weren’t able to do the whole hike we had planned. We could only do half, but that’s better than nothing. After we out-hiked all the slow walkers we cooled down our speed a bit and quickly made it to the tea house in the Plane of Six Glaciers. It’s such a cool area. The hike isn’t hard, it’s just epic.

The tea house is nestled in the mountains and is the perfect place to get tea and home made things. There is no electricity or WiFi. It’s all cooked over wood burning stoves. Go there and enjoy a refreshing cup of tea and nice bowl of whatever they are serving (it changes regularly) .

You can, however, hike to both tea houses in a big loop. It’ll take you a while but it’s worth it. Espeicially if you are doing Banff in two days. The other tea house hike starts in the same place and goes up to Lake Agnes. If you have the ability to do this whole hike, you should. Have tea at one house and cake at another!

Travel Hint:

Don’t bring your own fire

wood to a park in Canada. They 

provide free wood for campers.

We got back to Banff by around 7pm…

Bought some supplies to make our camp fire kebabs and went to our site. One thing to know about Canadian National Parks is that they provide wood for free in the camp sites. It helps reduce the amount of invasive species in the area and is just a nice thing to do. We enjoyed steak and pineapple kebabs before playing a round of travel Catan, then went to bed.

We took the less scenic route home around Calgary. It’s still gorgeous though! The border that we passed through was in Cardston. Cardston is a quaint town in Alberta that has a temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints aka Mormon. It is a beautiful temple with a rich history that you can learn about in the visitors center right out front.

TRAVEL CHALLENGE: 

Please, when you go to Banff encourage people you see to not litter. I saw so  much litter there and it broke my little nature lovers heart. Litter includes, but is not limited to, cigarette butts, banana peals, plastic, tissues, and a multitude of other things. Clean up litter as you find it, ask people to not litter if you see it happening. I find that people take those requests better if it’s said in an educational way. Also, please help those who may not know the importance of trail etiquette that they should follow the trail and not create their own short cuts. It is increasingly more important for us travelers to spread the love and knowledge to our fellow people. I have some examples pictured below.

Go forth my travel people and have fun in Banff!