Our Honeymoon: Day 2

We slept in late the next day in our lovely hotel room overlooking the mountains. We were pretty tired from the wedding planning, our wedding day, and traveling. So we thought we earned it.

Considering the weather from the day before we didn't know what to expect but to our pleasant surprise it was a beautiful and clear day. Lucky us! So we decided to start the day off by taking the Banff Gondola to the top of Sulphur Mountain, which has a fantastic view of the town of Banff and the surrounding mountain ranges.

We took the boardwalk and stairs up Sanson's Peak, the location of a historical weather observatory. Imagine having to hike to up to this meteorological station in the winter! It's a three mile trail with an elevation gain of more than 7,400 ft! Park meteorologist Norman Sanson did it over 1,000 times during the early 1900s. Amazing.

We hiked around a bit to look for wildlife and play in the snow. I was pretty excited when we came across a Hoary marmot running along a trail so I sent Eric after it. No luck in catching it though. They are fast little suckers. But the marmot would be only the beginning of a trip filled with wildlife! Heading back to the gondola we saw this Rocky Mountain goat hanging out on the side of the mountain. Sweet!
On the way back to the town of Banff we stopped by Canada Place, which is an exhibit about Canada's culture, land, and accomplishments (Do you know that the electric light bulb was invented by a Canadian who sold the patent to Edison?!). There was a gorgeous (and classic) view of the town of Banff from the Canada Place property.

After lunch we decided to explore Lake Minnewanka, which we could see from the top of Sulphur Mountain. It is the longest lake of the mountain lakes in the Canadian Rockies. As we drove towards the lake, there was something in the road walking towards us. I really thought it was just two people walking in the middle of the road, but as we got close, it turned out to be two female Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep! We slowed down to let them pass safely next to us as I took some pictures.

But then as we got further down the road, we ran into two male Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep! They were licking the salt out of the road. Eric rolled down his window to take some pictures. Then all of sudden they charged each other. Eric managed to take this picture before he freaked out and rightfully so... they were really close to our car and a bit pissed off. Not the best combination. But thankfully we left unscathed.

There were some hiking trails by Lake Minnewanka that went into the surrounding forest. It was very peaceful. We came across an old beautiful wooden bridge. Since it was starting to get late, we wrapped up our hike and headed back to Banff for some dinner.


Tomorrow we are off to Lake Louise!