Birthday Adventure– Part 1

Day 29 – Thursday, July 11 – 2nd installment

The morning post for July 11 happened with the help of Starbucks at the Gondola station in Banff.  What a great way to start the day—good coffee and good internet—it just doesn’t get any better than that!

But….it really did get better!!   We embarked on part 1 of the birthday adventure and took our gondola ride. It was another OMG experience!  It took 8 minutes to scale 2,300 ft to the top of the 7,500 ft. Sulphur Mountain.  The gondola was enclosed, and felt sturdy, but there were quite a few butterflies as the ground moved further away.  Here’s a view from the gondola…looking up and looking down…yikes!

The views were quite spectacular.  At the top of the mountain, there was a boardwalk along the summit that led to a small building, the Cosmic Ray Station, one of Canada’s historic sites.  It was one of several meteorological stations in the 50’s and 60’s set up to study cosmic rays!

What a wonderful way to start a birthday and…I get to celebrate my birthday again the next two days with Part 2 and 3 of the birthday adventure.  Thanks again to J&K and T&H. 

After lunch, we took a drive along the Icefield Parkway, a route that spans the Continental Divide.  Every time we think we’ve seen the ultimate, we turn a corner and there is another breathtaking view!  You could see huge glaciers and icefields in the distance.

This is Crowfoot Glacier…look at the depth of the snow.  And..Bridal Veil Falls, and the Weeping Wall (note the waterfalls coming out the side of the mountain). 

We took a short uphill hike to Peyto Lake, which was worth every bit of the huffing and puffing of thin air to get there.  The lake was a bright turquoise color--the result of light rays reflecting off glacial “rock flour” suspended in the water. Breathtaking!!

We checked out the icefields, and will return for part 3 of the adventure on Saturday.  It looks like it is going to be awesome!