Today we spent the morning watching the Wimbledon Gentlemen’s Finals. After lunch we decided to explore some places we have never been to. First we drove down Highway 1A toward Calgary. This is the old highway and retains the old two-lane charm. That’s about all it has as you leave the mountain soon after leaving Canmore. It wasn’t nearly as exciting as the mountains we are seeing every day.
Next we drove to Banff town to see an art exhibit we had read about in the Banff Springs Hotel. This is one of the old castle-like hotels built during the Victorian era. The art exhibit was in the Mountain Galleries shop in the hotel. It was a wonderful showcase of Canadian artists. Some of my favorites were Alice Helwig, Mel Heath, Graeme Shaw, and Linda Wilder.
We finished our afternoon with a jaunt into the wild lands behind the Banff Springs Golf Course. This is an area we visited and painted in a few years ago and it hasn’t changed. You wind several miles on a gravel road into the woods along the Bow River. We saw wild flowers and elk along the road and stopped for a while at the place we painted before.
On the way out of town we stopped at Bow Falls. This is quite the tourist attraction. It is a small cataract in the middle of Banff town. We walked the trail along the river to the top of the falls and took pictures of Mt. Rundle, the river, surrounding mountains, and a beautiful rainbow in the mists.
Paul
Travels With Picasso 