Alberta, Canada Road Trip: Day 2 (Surprise, Corner, Hoodoos Viewpoint, Bow Falls, Vermillion Lakes)

This second day of the road trip was full of sightseeing activities. The friend that made our itinerary made sure we hit all the must-sees. For this part of the trip we were hitting the Hoodoos Viewpoint, the Bow Falls, and the Surprise Corner. All three were close to each other so it was easy to hit all of them in one swing. So, the first one that we hit was the roadside viewpoint where you can get a wonderful view of Fairmont Hotel. It's the photo you see all over the internet when you search Banff. Definitely, this was one of the stops I looked forward to very much.

Of course we had to take this selfie, hmm, groufie.

There she is, Fairmont Hotel. It was a drizzly day.

We crossed the street and found Surprise Corner after a little miscue following the wrong path.

I'm usually camera shy but I decided why not, right?

We reached Surprise Corner via Hoodoos Viewpoint and we took the trail for more sightseeing.

Same Bow River from Calgary as seen from Surprise Corner.

Hoodoos Trail.

Hoodoo. So different from the hoodoos I saw in Bryce National Park, post here.

We reached Tunnel Mountain and decided it's time to go back. We have more things to do.

Now, we were thinking that we could see Bow Falls from either Hoodoos Viewpoint or Surprise Corner, but that was not the case. However, after a short while we were successfully pulling in to the parking lot, which surprisingly was built so close to the falls. On some spot, you don't even need to leave the car to see the falls. However, the rain has made a splashing appearance just as we were pulling in. Thus, we all agreed that we'd take the mandatory shots of the falls then back to the car we go to escape the wet and the cold.

Since it was raining hard, we thought we'd just take a drive through this area, around the Vermillion Lakes along Trans Canada Highway. However, the fickle-minded weather opted to clear out and so we were able to make many stops along the way for photos.

At this time we decided to have a meal before going to the Banff Gondola ride, which was supposedly the highlight of this day. Every place was a highlight in my opinion. We picked out a restaurant nearby, in downtown Banff called Park Distillery and Restaurant. While the restaurant was nice and has good food and cozy ambiance, we were rushing because we had to catch our reservation time for the gondola ride, which you had to buy/reserve in advance and you must select your time to go up to the mountain. Thankfully, the servers at the restaurant understood our predicament and got our food as quickly as they possibly could. In all honesty, this is a place I would linger if time was not an issue.

Downtown Banff

Still dieting, hubs and I split a soup and bison burger. The combination was very filling and yummy.

The green salad with tuna was huge, but my friend finished this.

Another got the fish taco trio, which I was told was delicious.

The day is not over yet. We have the big one to look forward to next. Photos were from Google Pixel and Iphone.