A ringing endorsement for Banff

It was a mobile telephone message at three in the morning that forced me out of bed.

A friend had messaged from Australia not realising that I was sleeping soundly half a world and several time zones away in the Mount Royal hotel In Banff, a town touched spectacularly on several sides by Alberta’s Rocky Mountains.

 Banff is a town of 8,500 permanent residents where young Australians come to work and play in the seven-month-long ski season.

 It’s a town where they name their streets after wildlife. You can weave your way through Carribou, Beaver, Otter, Muskrat and Buffalo Streets before finding yourself on the main commercial boulevard, Banff Avenue.

 “There was a bear here last week. It swam across the river in broad daylight and ended up in the park,” a lady in Cows ice cream shop tells me.

 I was also told you must be born in Banff, or to have  lived in the town for five years, before you can build and own a house here. And such is the scarcity of land for building, and the need to restrict the town’s housing density, a new home can only be developed by knocking down an existing property.

But back to the mobile phone message. I peered sleepily at the screen, read the message and was heading back to bed when I glanced out of the window.

The snow was falling gently in Banff Avenue, lightly dusting the trees and, in the moonlight, the street took on the appearance of a Christmas card scene.

It was worth the 3am phone just call to see it.

Snow in late May in Banff  is not unusual, nor spring avalanches in May and June when the weather is warming up. 

Walking around Lake Louise late one afternoon there was an almighty crack followed by a thunderous roar. Ten metres ahead of us on the track rubble and blocks of ice were tumbling into the lake.

A warning sign at the side of the track asks whether your group had the skills, knowledge and training to travel in avalanche terrain, and whether you have a self-rescue plan. We decided it was time to retrace our steps along Lake Louise, where the winter ice was breaking up and the emerald shades of the translucent glacial lake were beginning to reveal themselves.

 Lake Louise, situated in Banff National Park within a UNESCO World Heritage site, is named after the Princess Louise Caroline Alberta (1848–1939), the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and the wife of a former Governor General of Canada. Her picture is displayed prominently in the public foyer of the imposing Chateau Lake Louise, built on the eastern shore of the lake by the Canadian Pacific Railway in the early 20^th century.

These railway hotels were built to encourage wealthy Europeans to visit Asia by crossing the Atlantic by ship and then taking the newly-build Canadian Pacific Railway to cross the country from east to west, resting  along the way in luxury European-style hotels, before  arriving in Vancouver for onward passage to Asia.

Everyone had to be patient, however, as it took 30 years from 1855 to 1885  to complete the rail line.

Today the Chateau Lake Louise attracts an eclectic bunch, headed by overseas tourists on luxury rail and coach tours, and dog lovers who are encouraged to bring their pooches to the Fairmont -managed hotel by reserving a pet package. 

All pets staying at the hotel are greeted in their room with a customised welcome letter from the Director of Pet Relations, plus luxurious dog amenities and freshly baked dog biscuits.

There are also doggy toys placed close to the reception desk to allow Fido and friends to amuse themselves while their owners check in or out of the hotel.

One man walked across the foyer with three Scottish terriers on leads, while a woman was clutching two poodles, heading perhaps to feed them freshly baked biscuits.

The sister hotel of Chateau Lake Louise is the Fairmont Banff Springs, built in 1888, and occupying a commanding position on the edge of town overlooking the Bow and Spray rivers. 

It’s not hard to fathom why it’s referred to Canada’s Castle in the Rockies. Styled after a Scottish baronial castle, its Gothic, red and grey brick turrets may be an acquired taste for some, but with a championship golf course and world-class skiing close by, the hotel has no problems attracting high-end business.

Banff has plenty going for it even in the months when the ski runs are closed, the husky dogs are resting after their winter sledding activities and the helicopters re-schedule their operations to focus on summer sorties.

The area’s original hot springs can be visited at the Cave and Basin National Historical site although the site appears to be work in progress.

 The year-round Banff Gondola offers spectacular views of Rockies from 698 metres while boats on Lake Minnewanka, the largest lake in Banff National Park, gives visitors a different perspective of the park’s wilderness and wildlife

 Locals see wolves crossing the ice on Minnewanka in the depths of winter, but in spring or summer you’re more likely to see elk or coyote or the small squirrels that fuss among the  leaves.

 Bears, of course, are what every visitor to the national park wants to see. We had to wait a while, and it wasn’t until we were on the outskirts of the town, heading to Calgary on the Trans-Canada Highway, that we saw two black bears.

One was lolling around the railway tracks by the side of the road and the other crossed the busy highway, squeezing under a roadside barrier and heading off a cross a meadow.

I called my friend in Australia. “I’ve just seen a bear,” I shouted.

“So what,” she said. “It’s three in the morning here.”