Monday, July 5, 2010 Banff National Park

Wake up feeling really tired and battered with a slight headache so decide to start the day doing something that doesn’t involve a long drive or a long hike. Very short drive to the Cave and Basin Historic Site (first pic) which is the “find” that initiated Banff National Park, actually the entire Canadian National Park System. Even though the cave and hot springs at this location had been noted years before by various explorers, they were more thoroughly explored by two Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) employees (the railroad was being built nearby) who decided there was a money-making opportunity here. They envisioned a bathhouse where tourists could “take the waters” while they took the tourist’s dollars. However, there were other folks claiming the land in the area so the Canadian government stepped in, settled the land disputes, and placed the cave and springs in a 10 square mile reserve. I read all this on the signs that sit in front of the interpretive center but didn’t get to actually SEE any of the exhibits, restored bathhouse, etc. cause all that was CLOSED starting that very day so that further restorations could begin. That didn’t help my headache. However, there is a wetland area that is part of the complex and that is crisscrossed by a boardwalk with interpretive signs and that is open so I decide to explore that. Glad I did. The songs of the birds, the babble of the warm stream that feeds the wetland, and the abundant wild flowers tamp down the headache. The very warm spring fed stream flows year round and provides a warm environment for wildlife even in the dead of winter. Some species of birds that would normally go south for the winter find refuge here. Next 4 pics are from the wetland area – spring-fed stream that supports the wetland, flowers within the wetland (the pink ones are wild roses – Alberta license plates say ‘Wild Rose Country’ and these types of roses are everywhere), and the wetland itself. This mini-ecosystem is completely out of place here and due, entirely, to the hot springs. It was sort of otherworldly to look across the marshy wetland that looks like many wetlands I’ve recorded in East Texas and see snowcapped mountains in the background. I trek back to the car and motor the short distance to the Banff Springs Hotel which is also a CPR vestige. The railway constructed luxury hotels along the arduous route through the mountains (Rockies, Selkirks, etc.) to allow patrons time in the natural environment and to allow the CPR time to siphon off more of the patron’s funds. See my post from July 2nd regarding Glacier House in the Selkirks. Capitalist that I am, I have no issues with that. It’s very developed, commercially, around the hotel so it was difficult to “step back” far enough to capture the grandeur and immensity of the place in a photograph, but a couple of feeble attempts are included. Headache back with a vengeance. Escape to the hostel to sit in the peace and quiet