Alberta, Canada Road Trip: Day 2 (Sulphur Mountain Gondola)

In hindsight, it's silly to refer to Sulphur Mountain Gondola ride as the highlight of the Alberta road trip; but at that time it was - at least for me, because I didn't know what incredible views and experiences still awaited me in this road trip. It's advisable to book ahead of time online. And we did. We were rushing out of the restaurant to get to the gondola to catch our scheduled Upload Time of 6:10 pm. However, when we got there we were immediately ushered into the waiting gondolas. We just flashed our printouts and they were scanned (I think). Four per gondola was the norm and as we rode up I tried to conquer my fear of heights. What helped was that I had my back facing the mountain and of course the spectacular views of the valley below and the mountain range. I was getting ribbed but I survived. By the time we got off my legs and my whole body were a bit shaky and unsteady. Yet, excitement won and I was ready to climbed up 3 levels of stairs to the viewing area. We passed by a wedding reception on one of the leves. What a splendid idea to have the wedding reception here.

The viewing deck upstairs is the place to enjoy a panoramic view of the surrounding peaks and the green valley below. Words are not sufficient to describe the beauty. And photos are not enough to capture all of nature's glory, but of course that did not stop us from trying; hence, all the many photos.

There's a boardwalk that connects Sulphur Mountain to Sanson Peak. I don't exactly know for sure how long the boardwalk is between the two peaks; one site say it's 1 km and another 600 m. However, at the time I thought it was an insurmountable challenge to my stamina, strength and energy level. At this point in my weight loss program, I had shed 20 lbs, which at that point was huge, and I was relishing in my new-found energy level. But I knew then that this would be a true litmus test for the new me. Besides that, I was anxious not to be the killjoy of the group, the one that lags behind or rains on their hiking parade. But alas, I made it without lagging behind and with still so much energy. And the cherry on top would be the fact that I was NOT huffing and puffing as I climbed up.

All smiles at the destination. I made it!!!!

The building on top of Sulphur Mountain from Sanson Peak.

We still had energy left not only to walk back to Sulphur Mountain but to monkey around while hiking.

It's impossible to get one's fill of the scenery, but we have to leave at some point and that point is our Download Time. When you book your ride online you get to choose the time you go up and the time you go back down. Sadly, our time was up so we had to go. However, in my experience and this is early June, not peak season, the Upload and Download times were not of much importance. It might be a different story when it's peak season and the place gets crowded and they might be strict with adhering to the time table.

The ride down was not a source of anxiety for me. As a matter of fact I enjoyed it. And because there were very few of us going down, they let us go 2 people per gondola.

On the way out of Banff, we passed by the BANFF sign with only a couple of people there. Earlier in the day when we passed here, there was a crowd. Thankfully we managed to find this place all to ourselves, well you know.

Once we got back to the hotel - Canmore Rocky Mountain Inn - we finally got the check in done. The reception area has coffee/tea set up. I discovered the hot chocolate packet. My goodness. A warm bath, hot chocolate and that's all for Day 2. What a day!!!!

Oh my goodness, another Thanksgiving Day is here. Happy Thanksgiving to all. As they say, there is always, always something to be thankful for. I am thankful for the continuous support you have given my little site on the wide web world. Thanks!