August 1, 2013: Banff to Fairmont Hot Springs via Kootenay National Park

We woke to threatening skies and a cool morning in the high 50's--much better than yesterday when we woke to temps in the 30's and no electricity to run the fan on the furnace.

We stopped at a Canadian Tire, a large chain store that carries that strangest mix of merchandise.  Tires, of course, and other automotive stuff, but also a large garden center, lots of kitchen stuff, including some nice high-end kitchen appliances along with picnic stuff, camping gear and even an small assortment of clothing.  Anyway.....we wanted to get a battery meter to check our batteries and the salesman was an expert in deep cycle batteries that RVs and boats use and we learned a lot, so hopefully we will not have to experience dead batteries again.

 We eventually got on the road making the short trip from Canmore to Banff to explore the town and the Banff Springs Hotel.  It is more like a castle and one of the early hotels built to attract tourists on the new trains that were crisscrossing Canada (same thing in America with historic lodges at Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, etc.)  We walked through the shops and checked out the terraces overlooking the valley, ringed by mountains and imagined ourselves to be one of those folks in the 20's who arrived with a letter of credit for $50,000 to spend the season.  Today you can get a bargain package of one night hotel stay plus one round of afternoon golf for $499 each.  Guess I need to start thinking about the lottery again.

As we looked around Banff, mainly just a tourist town with lots of shops and restaurants, we saw a pretty little chapel.  Next to the door was the services information about topic, times, etc.  What was really interesting is at the bottom, they had an scancode for smart phones and tablets (you can see it if you can blow up the photo).  Hmmm, anyone have any idea why?

Leaving Banff, we drove north on the Bowman Parkway from Banff north to our Route 93 turnoff to head west over the Rockies Continental Divide to Kootenay National Park.  The Parkway is supposed to be good for wildlife viewing; in fact, it is closed at night to protect the animals.  We did get to see a couple of huge bull elk, but traveling mid-day is not a good time because most creatures are napping.

I was hoping to make a couple of stops in Kootenay, but it was raining and the low hanging clouds obscured our views of the mountains, so we continued through the park to Fairmont Hot Springs to our campground for the night - with electricity.