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Only in Banff PDF Print E-mail
Written by Deb Cummings   
Monday, 12 July 2010 10:36

When it comes to road tripping with kids, remember this: be flexible. The one reason you’re in the car in the first place is the freedom it provides. If you’re going to stick to a timetable, why not fly?

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Photos courtesty of Travel Alberta
The second thing is don’t believe the travel writers who tell you that getting there is half the fun. Obviously they haven’t been travelling with a carload of screaming neemies. You need a cooler of snacks, a backseat survival kit and a nearby destination you can bribe ’em with . . . like Banff. Even if you never stray from Banff Avenue, the little mites will squeal about its old-time candy shops, the Fudgery, Cow’s Ice Cream, its funny buses wrapped in wildlife murals, the elk that nibble up golf courses, and on and on.

Combine the predictions that fewer Americans will visit Canada this year, along with Banff’s 125th birthday events, and Banff becomes an even more compelling place to take your brood. So, pack up your tent (there are more than 1,500 sites near the town), fluff up your sleeping bags and get ready for campfire skits, s’mores and

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Visitors to Banff can enjoy (clockwise from bottom): viewpoints of the Rockies, a ride on the 2816 Empress Steam Train, and the gondola that goes to the top of Sulphur Mountain.

20 adventures you can have only in Canada’s first national park: Banff.

  1. Only in Banff on July 3, as part of its Canada Day celebrations, will you find Matthew Barber, Hawksley Workman and the Spirit of the West play outside under those craggy peaks, in the Cascade Gardens from 4:30-9:30 p.m.
  2. Only in Banff, on July 2 and 3, can you explore the 2816 Empress Steam Train, basically a rolling museum, which will have chugged into town to party.
  3. Only in Banff will you find photos of Buddy the polar bear. Back in the early 1900s a small zoo existed on the grounds where the Banff Park Museum is today.
  4. Only in Banff can you hike around the Cave and Basin and discover the Banff springs snail, which is found nowhere else on Earth.
  5. Only in Banff can you see a “Merman” at the Buffalo Nations Luxton Museum. This petrified, three-foot, half-man, half-fish curio sits in a glass case and is thought to have been shipped from Japan in 1915. Neil Young, William Shatner, Julia Roberts, even Joe DiMaggio have paid the Merman a visit.
  6. Only in Banff will you find characters like Anne Ness, who trekked up Tunnel Mountain more than 8,000 times over a 40-year period, averaging 200 ascents a year.
  7. Only in Banff can you ride a gondola to the top of Sulphur Mountain and then hike to Norman Sanson’s Cosmic Ray Station National Historic Site. Between 1903 and 1931, long before the gondola was built, Sanson made more than 1,000 ascents of Sulphur Mountain.
  8. Only in Banff will your clan find six magnificent Indian heads sculpted on to the sides of Banff Avenue Bridge.
  9. Only in Banff on July 26 at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. can you see the magnificent RCMP Musical Ride.
  10. Only in Banff would we suggest you go on a bit of a snoop in the Fairmont Banff Springs Heritage Hall, where you’ll find photographs of Marilyn Monroe on location in our Rockies while shooting River of No Return.
  11. Only in Banff will you find the ashes of famed wildlife artist Carl Rungius scattered on Tunnel Mountain, one of the easiest hikes in the park.
  12. Only in Banff can you rent a historic bathing costume at the Upper Hot Springs. You’ll look like a flapper – it’s the perfect family Christmas shot!
  13. Only in Banff will you find numerous candy shops that stock nostalgia. Licorice snaps, kits, wax bottles, necco wafers, BB bats, bubble gum cigars and more can be found at the Sweet Shoppe and Welch’s Chocolate Shop.
  14. Only on Banff’s Bear Avenue will you find concrete bear heads jutting out of the walls of a parking lot.
  15. Only in Banff will you find the largest collection of Byron Harmon black and white photographs that capture the beauty of the Canadian Rockies.
  16. Only in Banff, on Canada’s National Parks Day (July 17), is admission free.
  17. Only in Banff will you find Canada’s longest running summer arts festival, at the Banff Centre, which began as a drama camp in 1933. Plenty of performances are family-friendly.
  18. Only in Banff can you watch Cinema Under the Stars in Central Park, during Banff’s Culture Walk on Aug. 7.
  19. Only in Banff, on Aug. 8 during Doors Open Banff, can you visit art galleries, heritage homes and museums for free.
  20. Only in BNP will you find the Valley of the Ten Peaks (best seen from the shores of Moraine Lake), which graced the back of the $20 bill in 1969 and 1979.


Deb Cummings is a freelance travel writer, and a part-time journalism instructor at Mount Royal University.
 
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