A Viking’s Walkabout – Day 09 – Viking Navigation LLC

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.

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!