Sulphur Mountain near Banff, Alberta, Canada

(pic taken from Sulphur Mtn...view of Tunnel Mtn. & Banff)
After hiking all the way up to the Tea House at Lake Louise we decided to take it easy the next day. Auntie Mary Lea and Uncle Rye treated us all to a luxury Gondola ride up the side of Sulphur Mountain to the top. We'd heard stories from Gord about the difficult hike up Sulphur Mountain...many switch-backs and instead of taking 3 hours to get the top it would probably take us 6 hours.

I must admit I was nervous to ride in the Gondola and the ride probably could have been more enjoyable if I had kept certain comments to myself, so I apologize for being grim on the way up. I didn't time it, but it was a long ride up. The Gondolas were very safe and I don't know why I was in such a funk.

I couldn't believe how many mountains we could see when we got up there! The view was astonishing. We visited one of the oldest weather observation stations. In 1903 the currator of the Banff Museum, Norman Sanson, was also a meterologist. He would climb to the peak (now named Sanson Peak) every 2 weeks or so to record his weather observations. He would make this trek even in winter storms, and sometimes the journey would take him 9-10 hours one way. He had a little kitchen and bunk bed in his observation station. In 1931 he made his 1000th trek up and in 1945, at age 83, he went to the peak to observe a solar eclipse. This is the view from Sanson Peak.

We soaked in the scenery and actually saw a couple of mountain goats.


Next we soaked in the Sulphur Mountain Hot Springs. Basically it was a really HOT pool. We had fun heating our worked muscles in the 104F water, then after awhile we'd take a cold shower and then go back in the pool for more heat. I think it would be a really neat thing to do in the winter after a day of skiing. These hot springs were really responsible for the creation of Banff as Canada's first national park. The natives there had told 2 fur hunters, Willard Younge and Benjamin Pease, about the springs and in 1875 they were the first non-natives to visit the site.