Pretty as it is, Banff – the town – wouldn’t be much without Banff – the national park, its raison d’être.
Quick hike up Tunnel Mountain. Back in the day (the late 1800s) when they were building a railway to Banff, they planned to put a tunnel through this mountain, hence the name. They didn’t go through with it, but the name stuck. And since it’s pretty much within town (the trailhead’s just beyond the Downtown strip), it’s a popular trail. To use a med school exam study saying, it’s a “high yield” hike – it’s efficient, you get lots out of it (the view, steep challenging points, loose scrambles) with relatively little time investment (about 45 minutes). Short and sweet.
But if that’s still too long… there are some shortcuts people have trampled in over the years, but are slowly getting covered up with the growing brush and grass. Fortunately Parks Canada has made them easy to find, just watch for the signs that say “No shortcutting here”
And though there aren’t signs to show you where you can get some climbing in, there’s a few that point out where you can hit people who do
For the cross-country trip I didn’t pack much. Had to bring my combat uniforms so I could show up for work when I arrive, but otherwise, didn’t bring much else. So I ended up using some military clothes for regular street wear – the less-obvious non-camouflage ones, like this olive-drab T-shirt. A nice choice for early morning hikes, yet still nicely fitted (like those fancy American Apparel T-shirts: tight collar, trim around the waist, and no sleeve flare!) to wear around town.
I thought about getting some more clothes on the way – no sales tax in Alberta – but everything was closed the night I arrived, and still closed the morning I had to go. Definitely a lot of options though – including some of the main home-grown Canadian retailers; since Banff ends up standing in for Canada to all the international visitors, chains go out of their way to set up shop here. Everything from the venerable Hudson’s Bay Company
to love-it-or-hate-it lululemon – usually they have these over-the-top flaky feel-good mottoes (“Move your body and your heart will follow”; “Dance, sing, floss and travel”) to go with the over-the-top flaky people who wear their yoga gear as regular clothes, but in Banff, an odd display in their window when I walked by, a knife-wielding bloodied mannequin
Turns out one of their staff got jumped, mugged and stabbed the month before, right on the main street
Alas, there’s a dark side to the place after all. Even legal assistance is in hot demand – lots of takers for those tear-off numbers
Back on the road – a nice little parting gift on the way out
