Banff, Alberta

I thought I had seen amazing mountains before, but I couldn't believe my eyes when we arrived in the Canadian Rockies.  The views are really incredible and the amazing hotel we are at is the top of the line.  The Banff Springs Hotel is a castle-like building set in a beautiful green forest with the highest snowed covered mountain peaks that practically touch the sky.  Pictures below.

On Thursday, when we arrived at this elegant hotel, we got to our room and I was greeted with chocolate strawberries, cheesecake and cookies as a birthday greeting from our travel agent and the staff here.  Notice the missing section on the plate that we devoured before we could wait to take a picture. 

We took a long walk along a path from the hotel to the main town of Banff and saw the most beautiful Bow River cascades, far surpassing anything I have even seen in California.  But I don't get around like Stan does in his hiking in the Sierras.  I uttered my typical GAAAAAD! at many junctures along the way.

Friday (today) we took the Gondola Ride up about 2,400 feet to an old Weather Station to get the incredible views of the Lake, Valley, surrounding mountains and our hotel.  Breathtaking.  The Gondola ride topped any other that I have been on.  We include a short video of our ride up Mt. Sanson.

 View from the grounds of the Banff Springs Hotel at 10 pm in the evening. It was light for another 1/2 hour.

 Video of Gondola Ride up Mt. Sanson overlooking the Bow Valley in Banff.

 On Mt.Sanson overlooking the Bow Valley with Lake Minnewanka in the upper right background.

View of Banff Springs Hotel from afar.

 On the veranda of the Banff Springs Hotel with Mt. Rundle in the background.

 
Finally, I forgot to include the picture of Calgary downtown that we took as we were driving out of town.