Going to Banff National Park next week - what should be on the bucket list?

In My Humble Opinion
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What purely quincentennial Canadian things should we experience? A food, beverage, beer, whiskey, salmon, maple syrup, etc, thing? For example, should eating at a Tim Horton’s be on a bucket list? Obviously, we’re gonna do some National Park stuff, a bit of Banff the town, but what else that is Canadian?

I looked at the weather (some rain) and my lack of preparedness, and we’re going to spend Saturday night in Kamloops, BC. Any suggestions there?

Any recommendation for Mt Ravelstoke National Park or Glacier National Park as we drive thru on Sunday to Banff National Park?

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Tim’s is so ubiquitous that you don’t need to put it on a to-do list. It’s at most major gas/rest stops in tourist areas. It’s dependable and consistent, and sells sandwiches that aren’t all deep-fried, which makes it better than McDonalds or other fast food places in my view.

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I don’t know of any, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. I’m sure that they do, however.

One local place tried “Family Sundays,” where kids were allowed up until 9 p.m. on Sundays (the VLTs were covered by sheets, and not allowed to be played), and only adults after that time; but this place recently renovated, and is no longer doing it.

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I agree with Northern Piper on Tim Hortons. They’re nothing special, and they are all over the place. Stop into a Tim’s, certainly, but don’t expect to find too many uniquely Canadian offerings there–the best you might be able to find are Nanaimo bars and butter tarts. I think they may also do poutine too, but I understand there’s better poutine elsewhere.

Other than that, Alberta is a carnivorous province–Alberta beef is well-known across Canada as among the best beef available in Canada (as my beef farmer buddy in Ontario grudgingly admitted on a visit out here), so treat yourselves to an Alberta steak or prime rib dinner. Bison and venison are also available, in various forms.

Alberta has seen many craft breweries start up in recent years, and they’re all fine products. You might want to try one of the Big Rock or Wild Rose beers (both from Calgary), or something from Coulee Brewing (Lethbridge), if it’s made it that far north by now.

Psst … it’s Revelstoke.

Nothing comes to mind, but be aware that Revelstoke, Yoho, and Banff all back up against each other, so you’re pretty much driving through a chain of national parks. As such, every now and then, you’ll see a sign for an attraction: “Giant Cedars,” “Skunk Cabbage,” and so on. There will be a parking area, and you can walk the trail through whatever it is. The trails are not difficult, and there are interpretive signs that tell you what you’re looking at. None of these take too long to explore (in my experience) and can provide a nice break from driving.

Cannot help you with Kamloops, I’m afraid–yes, I’ve been through there, but if I stopped, it was for nothing more than lunch at Tim Hortons. :wink:

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Actually, I’m more interested in Banff National Park must see’s or neighboring Park must see’s than anything in Banff city.

We just finished a nice Korean dinner in Kamloops on Canada 5. Man, there is sure a whole lot of nothing between where we crossed the border and here. Beautiful country but sparsely populated.

Still have about 500k/300 miles to go tomorrow.

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Pssst…Banff is a town, not a city. Now you know! Have a great holiday!

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The proper terminology is “Banff townsite.” Why “Banff town” doesn’t work, but “Banff townsite” does, is inexplicable; but the fact remains, that it’s “Banff townsite.”

Have a great time in Banff, and let us know how your trip goes!

Addendum: There is no “Canada 5” highway. All highways in Canada are provincial; there are no federal highways, like Interstates. Thus you were on BC5–the Coquihallah Highway. Into Kamloops, and you’ll take Highway 1 to head to Banff. You’ll take BC1 from Kamloops to Alberta, where it meets Alberta1, and on in.

It gets even more confusing in the eastern provinces.

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Have fun!

Melissa’s is good food, Eddies Burger Bar has delicious burgers and avoid Bruno’s. I never seem to get very good service there and the food is only ok. Coyote’s was good breakfast but I haven’t eaten there at other times.

There’s some nice trails around the townsite. One of the things we do every time we go is get some maple walnut fudge. There’s several museums around if that’s your thing. Whyte Museum, and there is Cave and Basin (we haven’t been yet but I keep wanting to! One of these days…)

The gondola at the top of Sulphur mountain is kinda neat. You can hike up of pay to go up. The interpretive area was interesting when we went a couple months back, but we were there at night so we didn’t get the view. It was recently renovated and has several levels and a viewing deck now.

Beautiful park/gardens at the top of Main Street that you can wander through. Check out Banff Springs Hotel, it’s gorgeous.

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Are you still there? I’ve been twice, and all my favorite stuff has been mentioned. But I’ll second:

Drive to Jasper. Stop many times to take photos. (There are ample designated places to pull your car over.)
Leave enough time in that trip to visit the glacier. There’s a bus tour that takes you onto the ice. It’s worth it.
Make it up to Jasper and check out all the minerals for sale.
Go to the Grizzly House (back in Banff) and eat bits of lots of animals you’ve never eaten before.
Go to lake Louise, take lunch with a view of the lake. Then hike up to one of the little tea houses above the lake, and have tea there. Agnes sounds right, but I wouldn’t sweat to it. It was really nice.
Climb Sulpher Mountain (of take the tram) and hike around at the top a bit. Take the tram down.
Spend a little time in the hot springs below sulphur mountain. It’s sort of a shallow swimming pool full of people, but it’s hot water from the springs, and it’s open to the air, and on a cold do it’s really neat to soak in hot water outdoors.

Speaking of water – the municipal drinking water in Banff is glacial runoff, and is some of the tastiest water I’ve ever drunk. Drink the water.

Oh, and it’s gimmicky and you can do it in other places, but my kids and I enjoyed the conveyor-belt sushi place.

Have fun!

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Banff is interesting.

One time I was standing on a residential street corner, all lawns and small houses, near the road that led to the conference centre. I was reading a sign that said something like, “It’s mating season. Do not approach the elk closer than 50 metres. They are aggressive and may attack.” I turned around, and there was an elk, twenty metres away. Now what do I do? :open_mouth:

I eased myself around the sign and slowly walked away from the elk. Fortunately it did not move, and let me escape…

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Elk attacks in town, 2017.

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Things to do in Banff from Trip Advisor.

Too bad the old wax museum is gone. The moving eyes on Rocket Richard was unnerving.

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If your group can do it, go horseback riding (https://horseback.com/ are great! Absolutely recommend them.)

I have driven from Seattle to Banff once and many times from Seattle to the Okanagan. (head south from Kamloops on your way back.) I usually drive through Canada - it’s very pretty. (On the Canadian route, you can see their version of the Golden Spike).

There’s also a whole lot of nothing on the US side. It’s very calming.

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That would be at Craigellachie, British Columbia, site where the Last Spike was driven in the CPR in 1885.

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Lessee, 13 hour drive back today. Smokey as all get out given a couple of fires in the area until well west of Kamloops. Drive wasn’t bad except for thundershowers in the mountains and the layers of smoke.

Monday climbed Ho Ling peak. Used to be called “Chinaman’s peak” but renamed later for the actual individual. It was nearby but outside of the park. Actually, it was terrible. The trail was not maintained and very confusing. Crossed lots of slate outcrops that, IMHO climbing experience (which ain’t shabby) was downright unsafe. I should have known better but got sucked into "well, we’ve already climbed 30 minutes, and ignored the guy that said “the trail gets worse”. We kept going. only 1000 meter elevation climb but went’ straight up. The view from the top was good but not worth the shitty climb (I’ve climbed a lot of peaks with spectacular views, and this was merely a “good” view). Coming down really sucked as the trail was complete shit, lot’s of slippery slate, and my youngest twin (13 years old),doesn’t do well on uneven surfaces. So, even though it was a one person wide trail, I had to hand hold her down. At the same time, coach her exuberant twin that doesn’t like being coached to come down safely, and then also talk 18 year old big sis was “bad” ankle became bad during the hike. The mountain was immediately dubbed “Bullshit Mountain” and has already become part of family lore.

Seriously, it was a shit, unmarked and poorly maintained trail that an 80 year old volunteer at the Banff Information center recommended. I was seriously kicking myself for not throwing in the towel 1/3 of the way up, and literally pretty concerned I wasn’t gonna get all 3 girls down safely. That said, Bullshit Mountain it is and forever more shall be.

Tried to go to Radium Hot springs, but 93S closed due to forest fires. So we went to Lake Louise instead. All I can say is thank whatever diety that my youngest qualifies for handicapped plates. Even the overflow parking was mighty full, but on the second circuit got a handicapped spot. Trail was much more civilized and what I expect in a national park. Downside is that horse tours go up much of the same route, and the road apples were ripe! Mirror Lake is the lake on the way to Agnes. It’s so low these days, it no longer is a mirror. Getting to Agnes was great, and the teahouse really was a nice spot.
Did Lake Louise, had snacks in the tea house, passed “mirror lake” (which is

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so low, it no longer acts as a mirror. Apologies but I keep losing posts so will break this up instead of a longer screed.

Day 3 tried to go to Radium Hot Springs, but again forest fire. Heading north for Bow Lake and the Icefield glaciers. Fantastic. At the Icefield, the bambinas said "are you crazy? Of course we want to go the Jasper Hotsprings (Miette Hot Springs) another 2.5 hour drive one way. we did. got clean. spoke to various Europeans. Heard virtually no one speaking English. My kids demonstrated that they have learned slight more French than I did during 2 years of high school. Saw a big herd of mountain goats, several of which decided to demonstrate a biology lesson of how little goats are made in the parking lot. Good thing was we left so late there was no traffic between the Jasper Hot Springs and Banff. Saw two separate black bears by the side of the road, one big horned sheep, multiple mountain goats and deer. Made it back to the campsite and boiled up totelinni as the day turned for dusk to smoky black.

Thursday hung out in Banff pretty much most of the day. Hot. 90+ F. Kids depleted the thrift stores in town. I got a swifty in one of the bars.

Friday we did white water rafting on the kicking horse river. Really great. 17km. The 45 minutes to do the second half rapids felt like about 2 minutes. My youngest, on the austism spectrum, is a water child, and the first to dive overboard and last to come back. water temp was a balmy 6C. Hella fun.

Will add more observations of Canada tomorrow if anyone cares.

And appreciate all of the replies and suggestions…

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That weather is really, really unusual for Banff. It normally isn’t anywhere near that hot.

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I’d like to hear more. Glad that you got to Lake Agnes, and enjoyed it, by the way.

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Spoons - Lake Agnes was great. Christ almighty though, even the overflow parking 5km away with a shuttle looked full. My youngest is entitled to handicapped parking so the second time around the Lake Louise parking lot were able to get a spot. As the park brochure stated, “the most civilized was to enjoy the Rockies with a well maintained trail”. The teahouse was quite enjoyable with good food and reasonable prices.

Soooo, Canada. First time to get out and about. Have been to Vancouver a dozen times, both for conventions and for lunch or overnight trips. Wonderful place. Also been to Calgary, first when too young to remember the stampede and a couple of times the past 2 years for work.

NEXUS cards are awesome to cross the border. GPS took us through real US farmland near Blaine to a little used border crossing. Along the way we passed a gem of restaurant that featured the combination of Chinese, Italian and Mexican cuisine! About two cars going north in the Nexus line and about 2 miles back up going south into the US. Took Transcan 1 and 5 to Kamloops for the night.

Found it odd that TransCan 1 is not a 4 lane freeway. Canadian drivers really only use the left lane for passing, and then cut back into the right lane very close in front of whomever they passed. And there’s no “wave” as in drivers don’t wave when you let them in or get to close or anything like that. Also, Canadians don’t speed nearly as much as the US, and tend to follow the speed limit in construction zones. There is no “pull over” law either. In the US, most states require a slow vehicle to pull over and let the cars behind pass when there are more than 5 trailing behind. Not in Canada. Passing lanes where it is a two lane road can be as short as 1 KM. Not much passing you can do there. And the “rest” stops on TransCan are ahem rustic ahem. The toilets were a hole in the ground and some missing seats! My kids, who were born and spent formative years in China (not known for great toilets) were “I can wait the 127KM to the next town.”

I was behind a real fucknut for about 45 minutes. Driving below the speed limit until there was a passing lane, and then speeding up as I tried to pass. I was driving a honda mini van towing a pop up tent, so need to get some momentum going to pass someone up hill. I was almost getting irritated with the dickweed finally pulled off at one of the very infrequent towns. Which reminds me, distance to destination signs are few and FAR between. I mean, you could drive an hour without seeing a sign to a major destination like Calgary with the remaining distance.

I’m exaggerating but the number of businesses with “Canada” in the name was prolly 25%+. Canadian burgers, Canadian gas, Canadadream, etc. Really stuck out. I slap a maple leaf somewhere like McDonalds just shoved one into the base of their arches.

I think I bought one of the ugliest “Canada” baseball hats possible in the Kamloops Dollar Store. I did see a 5 year old on the Lake Louse trail wearing one as well.

We stayed in one of the main campgrounds, and one of two in the entire park with electrical outlets, next to Banff township. There was actually a city bus service but it was about 3km into town. Not sure if it was being so near Banff, but at least 50% of the campers came in late, spent one night and left early. We were there for the week. My experience in US national parks is that people tend to spend at least a couple of days in one spot. A lot of folks from Quebec. Guesstimate that maybe half of the campers were Canadian and half from other parts. Lot’s of folks with a rented RV out to see the sights. People were friendly. Guy came over with his power drill when he saw me wrenching down the tent trailer and stuff like that. Lot’s of well behaved dogs that were well trained.

Really hardcore on leaving stuff out. We went out the first morning to town to the visitor center. Came back to a cleaned out campsite. The rangers took ALL of our stuff - “anything with scent”. I had to go get it, apologize, get warned 2x that next time the police would be involved. To their credit, there were signs everywhere including on the picnic table for a “bare campsite”. They were literal. Day 2 I double checked if it was okay that I hadn’t packed up everything with scent while my kids were sleeping, and was informed that was not kosher.

The Parks Canada folks were pretty nice and helpful. I find that to be pretty true for most camping places. They all spoke French and many with an accent that suggested French was their first language. (I was a crappy high school French student and speak maybe a dozen words these days).

Banff was a nice, compact tourist town. Bambinas loved the thrift stores. I’m sure these are filled with hotel left behind items. One church had a deal where if it fits in a plastic bag, it’s $5 for the bag. We ate at the campsite or out on day trips.

Never made it to a Tim Hortons. Had to try A&W veggie burger that was prominently advertised across our entire route (not bad for a fast food veggie burger).

Canada wasn’t “cheap” even though the Canadian - US exchange rate favors the USD. Just a gut feel, seemed like a lot of stuff was at least 20% more expensive than the US. Although we got a deal on a motel in Kamloops that was only USD$50/night for a basic clean 2 queen bed room. And we found a decent Korean BBQ place for dinner.

Canadian micro-brews are lack luster.

Strange that generally alcohol is only sold in specialized stores.

Canadian English is definitely not the same as American. Some folks were really difficult to understand (but friendly).

Heading back to the US, we stopped in Hope Canada for gas and Kinder eggs. Had a good ol time with the folks working there. My eldest observed that “I can buy a gun in the US, but not a Kinder egg with the prize inside”. Note: Kinder Eggs are chocolate eggs. One version has a really large capsule that contains some stupid little prize. These are no longer sold in the US because they are choking hazards (these capsules are not quite golf ball big), but we finally found them in the Hope truck stop. They also had a “change” option on transactions, so whatever change is left over can be applied to the gas purchase. It was perfect. I unloaded a pocket full of loonies and toonies ($2CAD) and the rest of the cash for snacks, a dozen contraband Kinder eggs, and enough gas to where the “low gas” light came on literally as we pulled into our house. Sadly, we had to leave Hope behind.

There’s more but the above are quick observations. We had a great time. I’m sure this trip, Bullshit Mountain, Horse Kicking River white water rafting and more is now in the family history DNA.

Again, it was great and appreciate all the info provided in this thread!!!

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I hope the forest fires in the area are dying down. I see there’s been a fair amount of rain. We literally had to drive west of Kamloops or more than 400 miles to get to blue skies. Revelstoke had a new fire burning nearby and man was that smokey!