The Legacy Trail : Canmore to Banff National Park

When we headed out to breakfast it was a very cool, clear morning and the sunlit slopes of the mountains stood out in great detail.  We stopped to watch a few of the rabbits grazing along the dual sidewalk/cycling lane, and then enjoyed a delicious breakfast of yogourt parfait and coffee at the nearby café Beamers.  We were amazed and encouraged to see the residents of Canmore, including about 50 youth, commuting skilfully to work and day camp on bikes.

After breakfast we headed north out of town, following the city sidewalk until we reached the Travel Alberta Canmore Visitor Information Centre.  Realizing that we will be in the back country without cell service for the next 7-10 days, we were hoping to obtain more detailed paper maps of the Goat Creek,High Rockies, and Elk Valley Trails, particularly with distances, elevation profiles, and campground information shown. Sadly, the staff didn't seem to understand our request, or to have any additional information on the multiple trail closures we'd heard mentioned on the radio while in the Laundromat yesterday.  Once again we were in an information centre which lacked information, did not know about the Trans Canada Trail, and whose best advice was to use the centre’s free wifi to look up the provincial tourism website.   Thankfully however, we were able to identify and purchase a map of part of the route, which will hopefully prove useful.

Outside the Visitor's Center we picked up the 26 km long, 3 m wide, Rocky Mountain Legacy Trail.  This biking, hiking, horseback riding, inline skating, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing trail runs parallel to the Trans Canada Highway, and links the communities of Canmore and Banff, two of the most popular tourism destinations in the Rocky Mountains.

The Rocky Mountain Legacy Trail was built to commemorate Parks Canada's 125th birthday, and it was officially completed in the fall of 2010. Since it opened it has understandably been extremely popular, with an average of 200 users per day, and more than 1.9 million users in total.  The daily count is posted at both ends of the trail on digital signs, and when we set out around 9:30 am we were trail users 101 and 102 for the day!

The trail runs through the forested Bow River Valley, sandwiched between Highway 1 and the railway line.  An 8 ft high wildlife fence separates the trail from the river, creating a barrier between any elk, mountain sheep, mountain goats, wolves, or grizzly bears that trail users might be lucky enough to spot.

Along this route the best part of the trail by far is the spectacular scenery.  The Bow River Valley is bordered on one side by the Fairholme Mountain Range and on the other by Mount Rundle.  The Cree name for Mount Rundle is Waskahigan Watchi, or House Mountain.  It was renamed in 1858 by John Palliser after Reverend Robert Rundle, a Methodist invited by the Hudson's Bay Company to do missionary work in western Canada.

Much of the scenery is visible from the Trans Canada Highway, but the experience of being able to take it in slowly, and to stop whenever you wish for a photo is priceless.  The magnitude and scale of the landscape defies description, and to be entirely honest I have I was seriously tempted to stop writing and just insert photos for the remainder of this entry.  Our words cannot capture this region, but our photos might scratch the surface.

However, as always, there was more to the day.  During the first few kilometres the trail was very busy, with most cyclists heading towards Banff.  At one point we heard a persistent, whiny, begging call, and soon spotted an Osprey nest a few meters off the trail.  A very large juvenile in the nest was repeatedly and pathetically calling to a second Osprey perched on the utility pole above it.  Many cyclists stopped to take a look when they saw Sean photographing it.

Around 7 km into the hike we saw the sign on Highway 1 telling us we were entering Banff National Park.  Arguably one of the most internationally well-known Canadian parks, Banff is also Canada's oldest National Park, established in 1885 as Rocky Mountains Park.  It is 6,641 square kilometres, and encompasses several mountain ranges, many glaciers and ice fields, waterfalls, canyons, limestone caves, dense coniferous forest, and alpine landscapes.

Together with Jasper, Kootenay and Yoho National Parks, and Mount Robson, Mount Assiniboine, and Hamber Provincial Parks, Banff has been designated as a Class II UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Together these sites exemplify the outstanding physical features of Rocky Mountain Biogeographical Province.  Textbook examples of glacial geological processes, including ice fields, remnant valley glaciers, canyons, erosion and deposition can be seen across the region.  The nearby Burgess Shale Cambrian and Precambrian fossil sites also provide valuable information about the Earth's evolution.

As we progressed down the Banff Legacy Trail, the views seemed to get more and more spectacular, and we certainly weren't alone in admiring them.  We met a cyclist from Québec, who had retired from the Canadian Armed Forces and was riding his bicycle from the Gaspé Peninsula to Victoria, BC.  He estimated he would reach his destination in five days.  We think it will take us 60 days, if all goes well.  What a difference a set of wheels makes! It was wonderful to chat with another fellow traveler, who also loved hiking.  He even showed us his tattoo, which said Hike or Die.  As he noted, at one point in his life he just wanted to get away from all the craziness in the world, live and explore.  For him both hiking and cycling were his means to that end.

A little further down the trail we came to the Valleyview lookout and rest stop.  Picnic tables shaded by tall, tangy smelling pine trees were scattered along a bluff, high above the Bow River, providing stunning views down the valley. 

From our elevated vantage point, the conifers below gave the forested valley floor an interesting, spiky texture.  Opposite us the mountains rose up in a shear grey rocky wall.  Looking southward down the valley, the jagged blue peaks of Mt. Rundle disappeared into the hazy distance like vertebrate. It felt like we were standing beside the spine of a continent.  In a way I suppose we were.

Looking down the valley in the other direction, the mountains had a completely different feel. They appeared more rounded, less jagged, and perhaps a bit more treed. 

We took a break at one of the unoccupied picnic tables, marvelling at the magnitude of the rock formations surrounding us.  They had such a strong, quiet, immovable presence, and yet we could see how weather, gravity, and time were slowly softening and changing them.

I scanned all the peaks and ledges with binoculars, but failed to spot any mountain sheep or goats.  We did however enjoy watching a Hairy Woodpecker hopping up the trunk of a nearby pine.  A  Red-breasted Nuthatch was also giving its signature toy horn call, hoping for attention in the shrubs behind us.

We continued on, heading towards Cascade Mountain, which became ever more impressive the larger it loomed before us.  This mountain has the highest peak adjacent to the town site of Banff, at 2,998 m.  It was named in 1858 by James Hector, after the cascading waterfall on the southern flank of the peak.  Although we approached the mountain from the south, we didn't spot the cascade, but perhaps this is because it runs dry in late summer.

Around 14.5 km into the walk we crossed the Cascade River on a narrow bridge.  The high wooden railings made it difficult to see the rocky riverbed, but it seemed to be running very low. On the opposite side of the highway was TransAlta's Cascade power plant, the only power plant development in a National Park in Canada.

Just after this point the trail curved sharply westward near Anthracite, a ghost town that was named after a type of hard coal that was once mined there.

A couple kilometres after this we came to an electrified gate.  Cyclists were allowed to ride through the open gate in the middle of the trail, passing over an electrified mat.  Walkers were instructed to manually open a metal gate at the side, and close it again once through.  Presumably this system allows the gate to remain open, while keeping wildlife from straying onto the trail and highway.

Just after this point the trail dipped below the level of the highway, and we found ourselves walking beside a crystal clear, blue, fast-flowing mountain stream.  Not too long afterwards the trail came to a junction, and we were offered the option of continuing straight towards Banff or visiting the CascadePonds.  Of course, we took the detour.

We found a lovely green park at the base of Cascade Mountain, with plenty of picnic tables and fire pits, and several picturesque bridges spanning between the ponds.  It was a very peaceful and beautiful spot, and there were a lot of people out enjoying it.  A few hearty souls were standing in the turquoise water, which I assume was very cold, and several others were SUPing across the still surface of the ponds.

After taking a break at a shady picnic table, we made the final push towards Banff.  We passed back under the road in the wildlife corridor, and then rejoined the main cycling trail, where we came to another electrified gate.  The pedestrian bypass on this one was slightly stuck, but luckily there was a second gate nearby that let us avoid shocking ourselves on the mat.

Instead of following the Rocky Mountain Legacy Trail straight into the Banff town site, a short distance later we turned off onto Tunnel Mountain Rd.  The result being that in the extremely hot afternoon sunshine we climbed up this long winding road to the Tunnel Mountain Village I campground.

We didn't have a reservation, but when we arrived the incredibly nice and helpful Parks Canada staff gave us a site that was close to the entrance.  After the long, hot climb up the hill we were very grateful for their consideration! Although the site was at a road junction, it was treed and relatively quiet, being located at the farthest point from the highway.

We collapsed at our picnic table and took a break for a few minutes before setting up the tent, going for warm showers (what luxury!), and hand washing our laundry.

After this wonderful break we decided to deposit our food in the bear proof lockers and take the free transit bus down to the town to explore.  The Roam bus system operates throughout the National Park, as well as connecting Banff to Canmore, and we would highly recommend it!  It is a great way to get around without having to worry about parking, and buses come every 30 minutes during the high season.   It is free to take into town from the campground and only $2 to return. 

When we got off the bus we found a resort town that was quite full of people.  We wandered the streets for a while before deciding to have dinner at a small restaurant located on a quieter side avenue.  The salad and pizza were delicious, and we quite enjoyed being in an international crowd of people once again, where we heard languages from all over the world and stories of personal travels were shared openly.

It feels quite strange to think that we have walked to this amazing place, which people come from far and wide to visit.  It has taken us 490 days and nearly 12,000 km of walking across the country on the Trans Canada Trail to get here, yet the beauty that surrounds us at this moment is in some ways right here in our own backyard.

Canada truly is a vast and amazing place.  As we lie here, looking up at the dark outlines of the mountains silhouetted against a blanket of stars, smelling the wood smoke from countless campfires around us, and listening to the whistle of a train down in the valley we feel completely blessed to be walking across such an amazing country.

 

See you on the trail!

Remember to follow our entire adventure here : www.comewalkwithus.online