Calgary to Banff, Alta. to Spiral Tunnels and back to Banff
Distance: 180 miles / 290 km
Time: ~4h15m
What I believe to be a circumscribed halo (?) in the morning in Calgary.
The Canadian Pacific Railway, or now, CPKC.
Asian themed tacos in a Calgary food court. Canada’s recent Asian immigration influx worked in my dietary favor on this trip. I failed to mention it in earlier posts, but this place is also a Guy Fieri-featured eatery.
Plastic money… OK. No $1 bills, and no pennies. I can work with this.
The skyline heading into Banff.
Trees… lots and lots of trees. I will pretty much be in one continuous deep, dark forest for the next seven days until I cross the Brooks Range onto the North Slope. It will also rain most of that time. In the center of the forest on the far hill, just near where the hill is obscured by the foreground trees, you can almost see my photographic goal for this two hour stretch… Almost… sigh.
I had really hoped to see something of the Spiral Tunnels. Tunnels built inside of two mountains that allow the CPKC to climb a mountain in a non-linear fashion at a shallower grade than going directly over the mountain. The spiral lessens the grade while lengthening the climb in a compact area. It’s pretty fancy engineering. But it’s impossible to see from the road. This roadside model helps. The Lower Spiral is in the bottom left and the Upper Spiral is in the top right.
Lower Spiral showing curved tunnel inside the moutain.
Upper Spiral seen in the cutaway at right. I did get to “see” a train go through the Lower Spiral. It was more heard as wheels squealed in the tight curves than it was seen through the trees. If you’re planning a trip, stay in Banff. Watch it on YouTube. I did, however, briefly cross back into the Pacific Time Zone and cross the Continental Divide on this excursion.
Banff! Picture taken from an Indian restaurant of all places. See again my earlier comments about immigration to Canada and it’s positive impact on my diet on this trip.
Enjoy your internet while our birds of prey feast upon your souls!
A Viking’s Walkabout: | Prologue | Day 01 Calif. to Az. | Day 02 Az. to N.M. | Day 03 N.M. to Colo. | Day 04 Colo. | Day 05 Colo., Kan., Neb. | Day 06 Part 1 Neb. | Day 6 Part 2 Neb. to S.D. | Day 07 S.D., Wy., Mont. | Day 08 Mont. to Alta. | Day 09 Alta. (Banff) | Day 10 Alta. (Grande Cache) | Day 11 Alta. to B.C. | Day 12 B.C. to Yukon | Day 13 Yukon | Day 14 Yukon to Alaska | Day 15 Alaska (Coldfoot) | Day 16 Part 1 Alaska (Atigun Pass) | Day 16 Part 2 Alaska (Deadhorse) | Day 17 Alaska (Prudhoe Bay) | Day 18 Alaska (Fairbanks) | Day 19 Alaska (Anchorage) | Day 20 Alaska (Anchorage) | Day 21 Alaska (Tok) | Day 22 Alaska to Yukon | Day 23 Yukon | Day 24 Yukon to B.C. | Day 25 B.C. (Prince Rupert) | Day 26 B.C. (Prince George) | Day 27 B.C. (Vancouver) | Day 28 B.C. to Wash. | Day 29 Wash. to Or. | Day 30 Or. | Day 31 Or. to Calif. | Day 32 Calif. |