Today we went to Banff to celebrate Christmas. It has become a Christmas tradition for us to make the 70 minute drive to Banff from Calgary. We walk around in the mountain town, do some touristy stuff and have dinner at one of the many great restaurants in town.
It never grows old watching the mountains get bigger and bigger on the drive to Banff.
It takes about 50 minutes to get to the mountains, then Banff 20 minutes into them.
We went to the Cave and Basin today, the lower Hot Spring is why they made Banff Canada's First National Park. It wasn't busy and they let you in for free if you have a Season's Pass to Canada's National Parks. I don't remember ever going there before and it's worth a stop, there is a hot spring in a Cave and a bunch of other things to do. Since this is a Christmas post, I will save those pics for another day.
It was minus 8 so we we kept close to town on our walk and went in and out of shops. They have a Christmas Store with various ornaments and holiday gifts. To the best of my knowledge it is open year round, they have all sorts of stuff from various vendors making it a great spot for finding something special.
The hedgehog with the BBQ sauce caught my eye, how random!
This was my favourite photo of the day, taken by the Banff Train Station. It's one of the main Free Parking lots in town. The other is in the Bear St parking garage right downtown Banff and it's where we usually park.
We had dinner at a Brewery which I'll share about one Beer Saturday and then made our way back home to the cats!
Have a Merry Christmas Everyone!
