Day 6 Tuesday - Sunshine Meadow

I was feeling rough this morning but we had the rental car to pick up at 10 am from the Banff Fairmont Hotel, which is built in the style of a Scottish Baronial Castle and costs around £700 a night! Lots of rich American tourists around as expected. I will get a photo when we return the car. Bethany went to hire bear spray.

We navigated out of town okay and then headed to Sunshine Village, about 10 miles out of Banff with a gondola operating in summer to take passengers up to Sunshine Meadow, a high altitude alpine hiking area. They got their first snow fall on 30 August although that melted; by 20 September they close and start to prepare for skiing which starts in November.

After the gondola there's a chairlift and at this point you reach 8,000 feet above sea level and there's 360 degree views of the Rockies, and paths run through the alpine meadows and around three beautiful lakes.

It's a magical place and the weather got sunnier and warmer as we hiked through the meadow with amazing views in every direction. 

After leaving Sunshine Meadow we drove to Lake Minnewanka and Two Jack Lake which are about 15 mins out of Banff. We parked easily and walked along the shoreline. They are both very scenic and quite peaceful at that time of day, around 5pm.  After this we went back to Canmore and had an early night.