Day 27 Good Golly Gondola

Seems like every mountain town around here has a sky or gondola ride. We chose to go up Sulphur Mountain in the very popular Banff Gondola. The lower base terminal is at 5,184 feet and you are transported up to 7,486 feet then you can climb another 332 feet to Samson’s Peak which houses the historic Cosmic Ray Station. This station originally collected weather data but was abandoned. In 1956, a neutron monitor was installed and Canada used it along with 8 other stations to study cosmic rays until 1978. This National Historic Site was most important because of its altitude. We climbed the steps to the station to view the mountains from a different vantage point instead of always looking up at them. The air was thin and there were a million stairs but we made it. The gondola ride itself boasts unlimited views of Banff and miles of valleys and mountains.  After our sky high adventure, we returned to the Irish pub for a chicken and leek pie, Mac and cheese and a local hazy IPA. We’ve been blessed with perfect weather though the temperature varies greatly during the day. Yesterday we had a 52° change; woke up to 32° and by 4pm it was 84°.  Layers! It’s also been a little odd to go to bed in full daylight since the sun doesn’t set till 10pm and it doesn’t get dark till 11. Tomorrow is unplanned so we’ll see what surprises Canada has in store for us. 

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