We had to make a choice this morning. The forecast called for 50% chance of rain. We knew we had to do laundry today or tomorrow, or we’d have to start wearing shorts and sandals for cold-weather hikes. We decided to do laundry today and go hiking tomorrow. The weather forecast called for rain for most of the afternoon (if any) and, well, we are on vacation, so why not take the slow day?
Now, you would think that being in a five-star hotel, we would get access to some form of a laundry room, and, in another time, you might be right, but in these pandemic times, you would be terribly wrong. The best the concierge could do for us was point us to Banff and say they have a laundromat there. If you’re not up to date on your Rockies geography, Banff is a 45-minute drive back toward Calgary. In the end, what should have been about half an hour of laundry and an afternoon of lounging about turned into a fun drive around the mountains.
We first made our way to Moraine Lake. It’s a short drive (20 minutes) from our hotel and, even if it wasn’t exactly on our way, the weather was still fair, so why not? We found a spot that’s usually crowded with busloads of visitors. There are hordes of people to direct traffic, but no traffic. The upside of travel in pandemic times really showed itself there. We got gorgeous, if cloudy, views of the lake, with almost no one around. In a similar spot in New Zealand, Karine had to elbow people to take a picture, and I didn’t go because it was so densely packed. The site of Moraine Lake had all the indications of being made for large crowds, but nobody came. That was awesome.
After our detour, we made our way to Banff with a couple of obligatory stops for pictures. I told Karine a couple of times that I would enjoy the drive to Montréal much more if it had the same landscape.
Banff is a typical ski town. Outside of the ski season, you can still buy everything to go skiing or dress way too warmly for the weather. I must point out, however, that we did see people wearing puff jackets and even one Canada Goose at +19℃. Still, we found a good breakfast there, and the laundromat was clean, if on the expensive side (5$ for a single load in the small washing machine). But that’s as much as I can say about the town.
After Banff and a quick drive back to the hotel to hang our laundry to dry, as most things we wear would scream and die in a dryer, we drove on towards Jasper to see the sights.
That drive allowed us to discover two things: one, the region is gorgeous; and two, our one-year pass for Canada’s parks didn’t have a date sticker. The former made our day; the latter reminded us how a little 2-cent sticker could make our $140 purchase worthless if we couldn’t find the original receipt. Good things, the view is worth the money.
Tomorrow is hiking day, and we're discovering teahouses around Lake Louise.