The Banff Springs Hotel was our ultimate destination of the day.  The hotel was originally built in 1888 by the Canadian Pacific Railway. The idea for its creation is credited to William Cornelius Van Horne, who was the president of the CPR.  He is said to have stated, “Since we can’t export the scenery, we will have to import the tourists.”  The original Banff Springs Hotel was a wooden structure and was damaged by fire in 1926.  The current building opened in 1928.  Blueprints for the original hotel had not been labelled north/south so the hotel was built backwards resulting in the staff having better views than the people paying for rooms.  This was corrected when the building was rebuilt following the fire.  The Banff Springs Hotel is similar in design to a castle and is sometimes referred to as the “Castle in the Rockies.”  The hotel closed during World War II because of travel restrictions.  After the war, the hotel was renovated and then re-opened in 1945.

We took a guided tour of the hotel.  Self-guided tours are also available.  The first three pictures are of the exterior of the hotel.  The third picture is the part of the hotel designated as a conference center.  These are followed by three pictures of the Grand Lobby.  With all of the stone, the lobby certainly looked similar to a castle.   A focal point of the lobby is the Grand Staircase which is made of marble.  Also pictured is the Conservatory.  It has its original windows and the lattice which was once used for growing plants.

These are a few more pictures of rooms in the Banff Springs Hotel.  The first picture is of Rundle Lounge and the next is the Sir William Wallace Room.  The next two pictures are of Mt. Stephen Hall.  It was named after the first president of the Canadian Pacific Railway.  Interestingly, he was from the town of Banffshire, Scotland which is how Banff got its name.  Some of the original elements  in Mt. Stephen Hall still remain including the limestone floor, the oak beams in the ceiling and the windows.  Many of the windows included a coat of arms.  There was a beautiful rainbow visible from the dining room windows as we ate dinner.

During some of our free time, we took the Banff Gondola up to the summit of Sulphur Mountain.  We ascended about 2,300 feet until we reached the Summit Upper Terminal at a height of 7,486 feet.  It was a cloudy day, but still pretty.  We looked at the views from the observation decks.  In addition, there are hiking trails – an easy one and a more challenging one.

While on the observation deck, we literally watched for potential breaks in the clouds and, with camera in hand, waited for them.  These are some of the pictures I was able to get.  I felt very lucky to get ones of the Banff Springs Hotel.  The river you see in several of the pictures is the Bow River – it flows behind the hotel.

We also took a trail that is very easy to get to from the hotel that lets you walk along the Bow River into Banff.   I have included a picture we took while walking the trail.  The very last picture was taken from the window of our hotel room.  The Canadian Pacific Railway certainly knew what they were doing when they chose the location for the Banff Springs Hotel.  The scenery is beautiful!