Larry and Denise Herr's Thank You
From `Umayri to Banff Springs
Larry and Denise Herr
[The following account of our dig-gifted weekend in the Canadian Rockies contains a few photos. Many more are on our family web site (http://142.59.115.81:85/); click on fourth album, "Banff Springs Hotel Trip 2008" for the regular pictures and "Banff Springs Hotel Trip 2008 pans" for several partial pans. The pan album labeled "Original Size" has pans that are very large so you can zoom in.]
Denise and I want to thank the 2008 dig participants for the "retirement" gifts they gave us. The gifts given to us in Jordan now adorn our house. But three of the gifts we were to "open" in the future. We "opened" all of them during the weekend of September 19-21: 1) a night at the Banff Springs Hotel; 2) Sunday brunch at the hotel; and 3) the purchase of a fossil ammonite (most easily done in our area at the shops of Banff). A "fossil ammonite" is, of course, not an ancient Ammonite, those people who inhabited `Umayri during the Iron Age! The fossils are considerably older!
We chose that weekend because the Canadian Rockies, only about a three-hour drive from our house, are often at their best in the second half of September when a deciduous conifer called larch, turns golden high on the mountains at tree line. We used our own money to add an extra day to the stay.
We go to the Rockies often. It’s one of our favorite places on earth and is one reason we have stayed in Alberta for over two decades. And the crown jewel of the human contribution to the Rockies is, without doubt, the Banff Springs Hotel. A magnificent castle structure rising above the valley below Mt Rundle, it was built in 1880 as one of several hotels along the newly-built Canadian-Pacific Railroad that stretched from Montreal in the east to Vancouver in the west. When it was built, the main attraction, believe it or not, was not the scenery of the mountains where Lake Louise and Moraine Lake hold court farther to the north, but the hot pools at Banff.
We had always wanted to stay in this hotel, but, because of very high prices, never had. Our reservation there, made on-line, requested a large room with a king-sized bed and a "valley view". We were on the seventh floor of the "main castle" and had a stunning view up a valley we had cross-country skied a few years earlier. But this hotel is different from most. Though our room was everything we had asked for, it was certainly not plush, in spite of the high price tag. But this hotel is much more than a simple room and a restaurant or two attached.
It includes a golf course, several restaurants at various places on the "property," a convention center, large castle-like rooms, a shopping arcade with about a dozen high-class shops and art galleries, and several different lounges and bars, all of a different and very elegant character. In fact, it took us over two hours just to explore the "public" parts of the main hotel. 
One of the shops sells garments made from Qiviuk, the world’s softest fabric, combed from the inner hairs of musk oxen that inhabit the farthest regions of the arctic; they like it best when it’s 40 below! When you touch the fabric (or the hairs), you hardly feel it, and there is absolutely no itch or scratch when you wear it next to the most sensitive parts of your skin. But even a standard sweater costs $700. Something to expect under the tree next Christmas!
For supper we had reserved a table at one of the restaurants outside the main castle. The Waldhaus celebrates the heritage of the German-Swiss guides that helped open the Canadian Rockies to tourism in the early 20th century when the very wealthy would come to the hotel with $50,000 and spend the entire summer relaxing in the hot pools and hiking in the mountains with guides and carriages. How elegant! We felt very elegant, too, as we had a pheasant appetizer followed by wonderfully tender venison for the main course.
The next day dawned without a cloud in the sky, the perfect kind of day to hike up to tree line and walk amid the larch, the perfect foreground for views of the Canadian Rockies. So, after a breakfast of a southwestern style omelet at a small restaurant in town, we drove north for 30 minutes to Lake Louise and did a 16 km hike that we call the Two Teahouse Loop. We’ve done it several times and it’s always fantastic. This time was no exception .
(this picture shows the area of the first part of the hike above the Lake Louise Chateau—another CPR hotel)
We had to march through the bus tours of thousands of Japanese, Chinese, European, and North American tourists gathered in front of the Lake Louise Chateau to view the wonderful colors and symmetry of the lake (see the partial pan on the web site). But when we began the 3.4 km climb to Lake Agnes, north of Lake Louise, the crowds quickly disappeared. The first teahouse is here at Lake Agnes, a small lake surrounded by a cirque of mountain cliffs and dramatic lighting. The golden larch made it even better. We sipped a house brew of tea in the coveted corner table on the deck overlooking the lake.
The next stop was the top of Big Beehive, a beehive-shaped mountain that dramatically rises above the northern bank of Lake Louise. 
It was another 2.2 km away. To get there we hiked along Lake Agnes and through the larch, then climbed a steep slope, again through larch, and made our way across the top 
of Big Beehive for lunch high on the cliff overlooking Lake Louise with its turquoise water. The color is caused by extremely fine silt ground to powder by the glaciers upstream of the lake; the particles remain suspended in the water for months during the summer and gradually fall to the bottom while there is ice on the lake in the winter.
The next stop was 4.5 km away, the Plain of Six Glaciers near the foot of the large glacier on the face of the mountain behind Lake Louise (Mt Victoria). We hiked along angry piles of moraine gravel, deposited by earlier glaciers, now melted away in our warmer climate. After rounding a corner, again in the larch, we came upon the Plain of Six Glaciers Teahouse, complete with Tibetan prayer flags, where I had some soup and Denise had apple pie, everything homemade, of course. What a civilized way to hike!
The teahouse was very busy, but we could still count the six glaciers (check out the 180 degree pan on the web site) and watch four avalanches crash down the cliff face on this very warm day. We see avalanches almost every time we come to this area of the mountains, but we have never seen the start of one. First, we hear a mighty rumbling roar, like thunder, but it keeps going for 15-20 seconds as the ice pours over the cliff much like a waterfall.
The hike back down to Lake Louise is rather boring, but there are always views of the glaciers and the larch on the mountains above us. The worst part of the hike is the last 2 km when we hike along the lake and the numbers of people begin to increase again to the thousands as we cross in front of the chateau. But what a great day the rest of it was!
That night we went to several artsy-craftsy stores along Banff Avenue, the main street of shops in Banff. All of them had ammonite fossils. We ended up purchasing one at the Rock and Gem store that had been Garrick’s favorite store in Banff during his childhood. They had hundreds of many different types to choose from. We ended up getting one that had been cut through so you can see the chambers. That night we had baked spaghetti at another favorite restaurant, the Athena, along Banff Avenue.
What can we say about the Sunday brunch at the Banff Springs Hotel that would do it justice? "There is nothing like it in the world?" "The variety of food is mind-boggling?" "Even the vegetables are prepared in a special way?" "Where else can you get bison, caribou, venison, arctic char, and three different types of lamb?" Or all of the above? Who wants omelets?! And unlimited fresh-squeezed orange juice! All this while looking through large windows at the Canadian Rockies. Maybe you can find a better place to eat, but there is nothing anywhere near us.
It was a great weekend, and we want to make sure to thank everyone who made it possible. We will think of you often during the next season in 2010! You sent us out in style.
Many more pictures of the weekend are on our family web site (http://142.59.115.81:85/). Click on Banff Springs Hotel Trip 2008 and Banff Springs Hotel Trip 2008 Pans (for five partial pans).