Around the mountains of Banff

Sat. 25 September: Circuits of Mt. Rundle and Sulphur Mountain[continuation from Tent Ridge/Tryst Lake blog]

All night the wind roared through the tree-tops, swirling through my Tunnel Mountain campsite in Banff, buffeting the tent. The bright moonlight reflected the dancing pine branches on the inside of the tent. This wind blew all day, often with violent gusts. But it was a warm wind, and welcoming to a biker wanting to travel eastwards from Banff to Canmore, as I will relate.

Today was quite a marathon. In one busy day, I made a 48 km circuit of Mt. Rundle, and then a trip over and around Sulphur Mountain. Along with the shapely Cascade Mountain, Rundle and Sulphur are perhaps the best known mountains in the immediate vicinity of Banff townsite.

Rundle is actually a long range of high ridges running along the south side of the Bow River valley between Canmore and Banff. Its most famous profile is seen from a position due north of Banff, where its razor-sharp ridgeline soars above the Banff Springs Hotel. My plan today involved some complex logistics. I would start above Canmore, using my mountain bike to travel down Goat Creek to the Spray River and so into Banff. Changing to my road bike, I would then bike all the way back to Canmore beside the Trans-Canada Highway on the new “Legacy Trail” bike path.

The one tricky bit was to figure out how to get from Canmore up to the start of the Goat Creek Trail, without having to slog over a thousand vertical feet up a gravel road from the town below. Good research had revealed that there is just one taxi company in Canmore that will take you up there for a fee, and this worked perfectly.

The red sky over the Bow Valley was breathtaking as I drove east from Banff to Canmore early Saturday morning. Having dropped off my bike up at Goat Creek, I returned down the hill and parked at a handy hotel, the Rocky Mountain Canmore Inn. My Cougar Creek taxi driver arrived within five minutes and we had a great chat about the local trails as he drove me back up the rough gravel road.

It would probably be a rare day – especially a warm sunny Saturday - for a person to bike the Goat Creek trail and never encounter another person. I achieved this today. This is almost the perfect trail for amateur mountain bikers, since it is downhill all the way. Of course, nothing is that perfect, and there were a few uphill sections along the 19 km route, but it was a fun ride down a steep-sided mountain valley.

There were a few small bridges along the way, with pretty streams or rivers running under them. The occasional splash of autumn color from some of the trees added a beauty to what might otherwise be a green corridor.

I was soon crossing the Spray River, and onto a better forestry road, making very good time the whole way. Reaching the second Spray River junction – which I had visited this time last year - I kept on the west side of the valley, below Sulphur Mountain. I was almost at the Banff Springs Hotel when I met a long string of horses carrying an assorted collection of tourists. I dismounted and politely let then amble past, before continuing on into Banff.

The town was alive today, with what I later learned were 4,500 runners competing in the annual Melissa's road race. Thousands more people were collecting along the roadside, barriers had been erected, a band was playing in front of the museum, and everyone looked to be having a wonderful time. Runners with numbers pinned to their vests were heading down to the pleasure grounds for the start of the race. I negotiated this happy crowd safely, and detoured up onto the Tunnel Mountain road for a long uphill journey through Banff. It was then a pleasant downhill glide past the trailer campsites back to my tent. The 25.5 km journey by bike through the mountain valleys had taken me only two and a quarter hours.

After only a short break at my campsite, I changed bikes and set off down the road to Canmore. With a blustery wind at my back, this was one fast trip. The Legacy Trail bike path was really only just completed yesterday. On my journey west I had noticed the final touches being made to the half dozen bridges and the last sections of paving were being finished off. So I was one of the very first people to travel the length of this brand new trail.

What an improvement from hugging the shoulder of the frantic Trans-Canada Highway. The path follows the highway closely but stays off the shoulder. Thanks to the wind, I was pedaling in the highest gear as fast as my speedy bike would go. There were quite a few people coming in the other direction, struggling against the wind, as I raced past them at lightning speed. As a result, my journey from one end of the trail to the other, ending at the Banff Park gates, took me only 34 minutes, and the whole 22.5 km trip from Banff campsite to my car in Canmore took only sixty four minutes.

Biking time for the 48 km journey from Goat Creek to Canmore town centre, via Banff, was a mere three hours forty two minutes.

But I was far from finished for the day. Back at my campsite in Banff, I changed into my hiking gear and was soon off in the car to the Sulphur Mountain gondola. Sulphur Mountain is a long, high forested ridge which overlooks Banff. Sulphur and Rundle form the two sides of the Spray River valley. The Spray River and the Bow River meet just below the Banff Springs Hotel.
The gondola up Sulphur Mountain is a major Banff tourist attraction, and sure enough it was a busy place this afternoon, especially on such a lovely sunny day. But it didn’t take me long to buy my ticket and there were no line-ups for the cable cars. My plan was simple – to take the easy route to the top of Sulphur Mountain, and then explore the “back side” of the mountain where a fire road would take me back down to the original Banff Hot Springs (called "Cave and Basin") and from there back to the gondola.

A gale was blowing on the mountain top. I joined the crowds of international tourists as they shuffled along the sturdy boardwalks connecting the circular restaurant with the observatory on the summit of Sanson peak. They have gone to a lot of trouble to erect an extensive network of broad wooden steps and viewing areas which was impressive to observe, and nice to walk along. The fierce wind tried to blow everyone off the mountaintop, but the views were spectacular today, with perfect visibility.

This observatory has also, in the past, acted occasionally as a fire lookout, which is why I wanted to visit it this year. It is a tiny stone building which sits right on the highest point of the ridge. There is a glass door so people can look inside. They have recreated the cabin as it once used to be – a bunk bed, table and chair, stove – a minuscule room but actually quite cosy. It would be a better place to have lived than the typical wooden lookout buildings which were (and still are) the usual home for lookouts.

Halfway down the boardwalk I now turned off onto the old fire road for my return journey down the west side of the mountain. I instantly left all the tourists behind me, and passing a middle aged couple, I had the trail to myself from top to bottom of the ridge. This road was in good shape and mostly free from undergrowth at the higher elevations. Lower down, some bushes had grown along the surface, but this was a luxurious descent compared with many of my fire roads this year. The road descends to the Bow Valley in one main diagonal cut down the mountainside – a route plainly visible from the Trans-Canada Highway as one approaches Banff from the west. A few trees in Fall foliage made this a colorful scene, with spectacular mountain views the whole way down.

At the base of the mountain, about 3000 vertical feet below the ridge-top, I joined the paved road leading down from Sundance Canyon to Banff. It is closed to traffic and so was a quiet route along the forested valley floor. This road runs between the northern edge of Sulphur Mountain on the right, and the Bow River on the left. It’s a wonderful place for a stroll. The path leads to the famous Cave and Basin, site of the original Banff hot springs. It closed this July for some major renovations, and won’t be open again until 2012. Quite a long but leisurely stroll took me through the woods back into Banff townsite and up to the Banff Springs Hotel. The town had quietened down a bit from this morning’s bedlam, but it was a lively place with people enjoying the scenery or hurrying to their next shift at one of the hotels.

The final part of my trip took me up the steep forest trails back to the gondola car park. This was the same route I took last year on my way up Sulphur Mountain the hard way. It had been an active day and so I was glad to return to my campsite and relax in front of a fire. All day the wind had been blowing strongly in the treetops, and it was only during the night that it finally died down a bit.

After a good sleep I was on the road early next morning. Today the red sunrise was even more spectacular than the previous morning. Luckily the traffic was light as I snapped away with my camera. I was home shortly after 9 a.m.


Statistics Mt. Rundle Circuit
Sat. 25 September

Total Dist. 48 km (bike)
Height Loss (1100 ft.)
Max. Elev. 5450 ft.
Time on trail 3 hrs. 42 mins.


Statistics Sulphur Mtn. Circuit
Sat. 25 September

Total Dist. 13.5 km (hike)
Height Gain 700 ft.

Height Loss (3000 ft.)
Max. Elev. 7486 ft.
Time on trail 3 hrs. 13 mins.


Statistics - TotalRundle/SulphurSat. 25 September

Total Dist. 13.5 km (hike) + 48.0 km (bike) = 61.5 km
Height Gain 700 ft.
Height Loss (4100 ft.)
Max. Elev. 7486 ft.
Time on trail 6 hrs. 55 mins.