We hit the National Gallery last week, because they had not one, not two, but three special exhibits on that were must-see shows for me.

There was the Alex Coville retrospective, which was fantastic – lots of famous art, lots of things to learn, and best of all, snippets of great movies that had been inspired by his work (did you know that FOUR of his paintings appear in The Shining?).

There’s a Marc Chagall exhibit, his drawings from the book Dauphnis and Chloe, and he’s my all time favourite artist, although there was a LOT of explaining to the kids why everyone was naked all the time, plus one of my kids asked loudly, “WHAT’S A HYMEN?” in the middle of the exhibit, so you know, maybe think twice about bringing the kids.

There’s also a small feature on Mary Pratt and her famous paintings of pots of jam, and I’m now an enormous fan of her lovely, bold, brilliant work.

But the most interesting part about going to the art gallery is all the warnings. We are like, on the Most Wanted list at the Art Gallery, it would seem. I think we received a stiff warning from every single guard we encountered.

Too close to the art. TOO CLOSE TO THE ART. Lady, I’m going to have to ask you leave if I have to warn you one more time.

No running in the gallery. NO RUN! I will ask you to leave if there is running.

Only one person working with the interactive art at a time. I have told you this once already.

No pictures in here. Don’t touch the water in the fountain, it is part of the artwork. No backpacks allowed.

That last one is interesting to me, because no backpacks are allowed, but purses are allowed. I have seen ladies bring in purses that could easily conceal the Mona Lisa, and I have been there with my little leather “fashion” backpack, about 10 inches square, and been made to check it simply because of the way it is worn.

I prefer to bring a backpack with me when I go out with the kids for comfort – I always travel with a ton of allergy meds and other emergency supplies – and the gallery, to their credit, will give me an exception for my backpack for medical reasons. But here is the weird thing: even though they give me a backpack exception, I am not allowed to carry it on my back. One-strapping is fine, or I can wear it on my front. I am allowed to carry it in my hand. But two-strapping, in traditional backpack style? No.

I got called out on this like, five times by the security guards. You must wear your backpack with one strap. It says so right on your security tag. I wasn’t trying to break the rule, it was just habit – every time I took it off I slipped it back on two-strapped, then got warned about 30 seconds later by a guard. Each time, I apologized and immediately corrected the situation.

But now I wonder…why? Not that I’m looking to create a problem here, it’s a simple enough rule to follow, but I just don’t get it. Why can I have my backpack, but not wear it like a backpack? Is it that I’m more likely to bump into something? Is it some sort of security risk? Is it that the gallery staff think backpacks are ugly, and they offend any sane person’s artistic sensibility?

It’s a mystery.

On our last day of our Alberta trip, we drove back down the Icefields Parkway to Calgary, where we were flying home the next morning. We had all day to explore the Parkway so we scheduled a few stops along the way, and also pulled over at several of viewing spots set up along the highway.

Our first major stop was at the Athabasca Falls. The falls are so stunning that it’s impossible to take a bad shot of them (we were also helped by the fabulous weather). In fact, of these pics below, can you tell which of these were taken by my eight year old daughter, using her “camera” that is little more than a $50 toy?

(Answer: the first and third are kid shots.)

There’s a dry riverbed here, where the Athabasca River used to run but doesn’t anymore, which means you can walk right through the old canyon. The dry canyon comes out at the river below the falls, which has a distinctive milky look to it from (of course) glacial rock flour. The canyon was pretty much the only place on the whole trip where we saw a few mosquitoes – I’d brought bug spray everywhere but didn’t use it once. Not sure if that is typical of the area, or we just got lucky, but I was pretty happy about it.

Back in the car, we stopped at a few places (like the Saskatchewan River crossing, where there is a rest stop where you can get a burger for $14.95 – pack a lunch on Icefields Parkway day!).

Eventually we ended up at Bow Summit. Bow Summit is the highest public road in Canada – it’s a little side road to the parkway that takes you up to the top, where there’s a lovely view of Peyto Lake and its glacier.

Then it was, sadly, time to say goodbye to the mountains and head home. The next morning when we got up for our flight, it was pouring in Calgary – and later they had flooding and handfulls of hail. So we like to say Alberta was just as upset to see us go as we were to leave. We’ll be back soon, Alberta – kay?

One of the things I was interested in doing in Jasper was driving out to see Mount Robson, which is the tallest peak in the Canadian Rockies at 3954 metres (12 972 feet). It’s about a one hour drive west from Jasper and to get there you actually have to cross the border into B.C., and also cross over the continental divide.

While I was poking around for a Maligne Canyon tour I found this train tour run by SunDog. You take a VIA train from the little station in Jasper, out through the rockies to a small town in B.C. called Dunster. Then a bus picks you up and takes you back to town, stopping at Mount Robson along the way. Train ride through the rockies? Yes please!

The train didn’t leave until midday so we had a chance to check out Jasper, which is cute, and small, and not quite as quaint as Banff (but nowhere near as busy, either). There’s mountains all around, but more space to the town too. We had fun at the Old Fire Hall which has been turned into a Parks Canada information centre, where they do skits and have games and crafts about wildlife and plants in the park. It’s worth stopping by if you have kids.

Once we were ready for the train we hopped aboard. The train had an engine, two coach cars, and a dining car with a bubble roof for looking out. It was pretty awesome.

Along the way we got good views of the Frasier River and Moose Lake, and we could see Mount Robson in the distance, too. The train slowed for pictures at major spots and even managed to slow down so we could all get a glimpse of a black bear crossing the tracks (didn’t quite capture it on film, though).

Once we arrived in Dunster and its World’s Smallest Train Station we headed back by road to Jasper. Our tour guide, Bert, was also a Jasper native and had great stories to tell on the road home about recreation in the area, and local plant and animal life.

Our first stop was at Rearguard Falls, on the Frasier River – this is the last stop for chinook salmon coming upriver to spawn. We were a little early to see actual salmon – they usually show up in mid to late August – but the falls were still amazing.

Then we stopped at Mount Robson. You can’t actually get close to it without a 5 km hike, so we just took some shots from the visitor centre. We were quite lucky in that only about 10% of the peak was hidden by clouds – a relatively clear day for Mount Robson, which is often completely obscured. Apparently it’s only completely clear for about 10 days a year, and when it is clear, it’s such a big deal that it makes the local news.

Also on the drive home, we saw a beaver dam and talked about how beaver activity affects the area; crossed the continental divide, where water flows east, west, or north within a few metres of each other; learned about fireweed, the provincial flower of the Yukon; and stopped to check out some elk that were snacking along the side of the road.

Yeah, Jasper is pretty awesome.

For our first day in Jasper, we wanted to drive out to see Maligne Canyon and Maligne Lake. “Maligne” is the French word for “evil” or “wicked,” so named because the river tossed a French priest from his horse many years ago. It’s pronounced in the French way – “Ma-LEEN” instead of “Ma-LINE.”

I actually booked a guided tour for this part, with the Jasper Tour Company. It’s basically a one-man show – Joe Urie, who is a Jasper local, has a 15 passenger van and takes small groups out on various driving tours. I can’t say enough good things about Joe – he was so personable and had great stories and really made the whole area come alive for us. He knew where to best spot all the wildlife, and he knew the history of the area (for example, unusually high water from three years ago had had lasting effects in places), and best of all, as a Jasper local, he had lots of insider info on what it’s like to live in a National Park and the politics of preservation. Fascinating.

Joe picked us up at our hotel and first drove us out to Maligne Canyon, which is a canyon of soft rock that has been carved out by (of course!) running glacier water. It was GORGEOUS. Joe new lots about the history of the area, and was able to show us video of what it is like in winter; he also knew exactly where to spot fossils that were embedded in the rocks along the path.

I could have spent all day there, seriously.

Next we drove out past Medicine Lake. This is a lake that is glacier fed – but the porous bedrock underneath the lake means that in the springtime, the lake is full of water, but by fall, the water has magically drained away (and feeds into the canyon, some 20 km away).

Here we learned that we were quite lucky in that a major forest fire had surrounded the lake just a couple of weeks before our arrival, and in fact the road to the lake had only been reopened for a week. It gave Joe a chance to give us a fascinating talk about how fire renews the forest and is actually required in nature (this one in particular was naturally started with lightning). The burn marks along the forest, running along the side of the lake, were amazing – ugly but beautiful too. The coolest part was seeing how the fire had burned some trees, but not others, leaving pockets of green behind for no apparent reason. Nature at work – incredible.

From there we drove on to Maligne Lake, which is another lake surrounded by mountains but seriously, is so, so beautiful. Maligne Lake is famous for a very small island about halfway down its 14 km length, called Spirit Island (actually more like Spirit Peninsula, as low water levels meant it was actually connected to the mainland while we were there, something that happens often). Spirit Island is famous because a photo of it won a Kodak Kodachrome photography contest back in the 30s, and as a result was blown up to billboard size and hung in Grand Central Station in New York City. That started a sudden flood of New Yorkers coming to Jasper in search of the mysterious Spirit Island.

We hopped on a boat tour (the only place motorized boats are allowed in the region) and cruised out to see the famous island, and the views were dazzling. Seriously dazzling. Right when we arrived at Spirit Island, there was a deer casually grazing on the peninsula – perfection.

Even though this is a popular tourist destination, it was very quiet on the lake – lots of people in canoes, lots of quiet campers on the edges, only one or two motorboats out at any given time – and so it felt very peaceful and calming. It’s a definite must do, even if you’re not normally a touristy kind of person. This is the kind of place that makes you think about moving to Alberta.

Day eight! Time to drive up to Jasper on the famed Icefields Parkway – one of the most scenic drives in the world. It’s just beautiful – pictures cannot do it justice. I was snapping away in car the whole way. You can basically take an amazing shot just by randomly pointing your camera out the window and clicking, but no matter how gorgeous the photo it’s still not as incredible as being there.

There are dozens of spots to stop along the drive, for lookouts or hikes or to see fascinating features like waterfalls. But for our drive up we only had one stop in mind – the Glacier Adventure, which allows you to actually walk on the Athabasca Glacier.

So we drove out for a bit:

And then we stopped at the Glacier Adventure centre, which is about two and a half hours up from Banff. We had pre-bought our tickets online, because the tickets are for a specific time and we didn’t want to get there only to find we’d have to wait around for another three hours to actually go out. It was very busy there but they were sending out tours every 15 minutes and so I don’t think we actually would have had to wait for very long, but whatever.

We got on a shuttle bus that took us out to the ice bus, the massive vehicle that actually goes out onto the ice. Then we headed over to the glacier itself for our designated 20 minute walkabout. It was short, but it was enough – my feet both got soaked (it was a very hot day, so there was a lot of meltwater on top) and it was windy and chilly (we had jackets and gloves, and used both).

The ancient ice has a the same blue-turquoise colour of the glacier fed lakes and it was just so beautiful. The best part was when my brother in law scooped up a bit of meltwater in his water bottle for us all to try – impossibly cool and clear and delicious. Verdict: must do.

Side note: visiting the glacier definitely does make you think about preserving nature, and what is and isn’t good for the environment. Most of the Banff and Jasper national parks are fiercely protected by law – you literally can’t touch anything or take anything without penalty. So to have thousands of people walking out on this glacier that is rather quickly melting away felt a little out of place. The company that runs the glacier tours was grandfathered in – they were running these tours before the area was a national park – and that’s why they can do it. Also, I do want to mention that the glacier is melting as part of a natural warming cycle to the Earth, and not because of people walking on it. But it still felt like we were almost trespassing, and I know the Jasper locals do not have a good opinion of Brewster, the company that runs the Glacier Adventure. Food for thought, in any case.

After the glacier walk we also went out on the Glacier Skywalk – a clear glass floor thing that goes out over a canyon for a view. We went because a) the kids really wanted to, what IS their thing with glass floors?, and b) we figured, we’re here, we’ll never be again, let’s do it all. But really, the skywalk is quite skippable – the view is nothing different than is available for free at several other points (the skywalk is like, $30 adults) and of course, I had another panic over the glass floor. I’m sure, given the same scenario, we would do it again – the kids did like it, we saw more bighorn sheep there and also a mountain goat, and we always would have wondered about it if we had skipped it. But definitely: skippable.

Next up: on to Jasper!

I had originally planned to do Lake Louise and Moraine Lake on two days, but it was such a long drive from our hotel (about an hour and a half) that we combined them into one day, which actually turned out to be plenty. That left us with an extra day to explore the Banff area, which turned out to be great.

First we went to the Hot Springs. It’s basically a giant hot tub fed by water heated from its pass under Sulphur Mountain. The girls were really afraid it would be stinky like the Cave and Basin but you actually could hardly smell the sulphur. It was absolutely delightful – this was, I think, my most favourite thing on the whole trip. So, so deliciously warm, with the mountains all around you – bliss.

Tip for the hot springs, in case you are ever there: bring some moisturizer. Afterwards we felt rather shriveled and ended up buying a $21 tub of moisturizer at the Body Shop on Banff Avenue in desperation. I should also note that we made it a point to get up and get to the hot springs first thing in the morning – it opens at 9 a.m. – and as a result the pool was quite empty (about 30 people in it, when the max is over 200). Definitely more pleasant.

After that we decided to drive the Lake Minnewanka Loop, which is a driving trail with several small hiking trails branching off of it. You can also go for a boat tour or a canoe on the lake itself. Our major goal was to see Bighorn Sheep – Gal Smiley loves sheep and we’d heard that a sighting was practically guaranteed on Lake Minnewanka.

First we did a little hike, up the Upper Bankhead Trail, to see an old abandoned coal mine. The mine was cool, the view was stunning, there were literally lumps of coal just sitting around for you to pick up, and I almost had a second heart attack on the climb up. Fun!

See that black stuff at the bottom of the lake view photo above? That’s literally just coal, sitting there. The Captain wanted to fill his pockets and make his first million but we convinced him to leave it where it was.

Then we drove on to the lake, and as advertised there was a herd of sheep right along the road. We pulled over and had an amazing close encounter where the sheep walked right in front of us before leaping up the mountainside with amazing grace and agility. We hung around and skipped some stones in Lake Minnewanka for a bit before heading home.

Verdict: I wanted to basically live at the hot springs, so yeah, definitely worth it. If you only had two days in Banff, I think you could squeeze in a hot springs somewhere and skip Lake Minnewanka, but it was worth it for us for the sheep factor.

Just a small interruption in our ongoing travelogue of Alberta to dish on dance show. We’re up to the top 10, which means I can now let fly with the super intense analysis, which is good because I really thought I might burst if I had to hold this in any longer:

PAULA ABDUL PLEASE MOVE TO OTTAWA AND BE MY BEST FRIEND. I can kick one of the kids out if you need a place to crash. Pie will be waiting.

Whew, glad that’s out.

Seriously – I love Paula. She’s so relentlessly positive, yet she tries to say meaningful things. Plus, there’s this from this week:

Nigel, regarding Adriana and Alexia’s fish dance: “You were nothing more than a dead fish on a slab.”

Paula: “Ooookay, now I’m going to attempt to say something that’s actually useful.”

BURN.

Also still liking Jason Derulo. It was big news when he announced his college degree is in musical theatre. Jason Derulo, the next Jean Valjean? Just putting it out there.

Other important things I have to say: Cat’s rainbow dress this week was THE BOMB, I am totally getting one just like it.

The group numbers every week continue to dazzle – the opening numbers have been solid, but it’s the stage/street numbers from the end of the show that I am LOVING. Still not sure about this stage/street thing but I have to say, the group numbers are almost enough to sell it. Lastly, there continues to be a wide range of choreographers this season and I’m super happy about that – last week (the top 16 show), every single number was so freakin’ amazing I didn’t see how they could possibly eliminate anyone. In fact, here’s an idea: just keep everyone!

But of course, they can’t do that, so let’s talk rankings for the top 10, shall we? The elimination of Alexia broke my heart – she was my favourite on team stage – so the whole ranking will have a bit of a bittersweet tang, but so be it. Also, I’m not sure if they will continue with this one-stage-one-street elimination right up to the end – does that mean the final two will be for sure one stage, and one street? Or once they are in the top 10 is it a free for all? I’m ranking based on free for all, but we’ll see how it goes.

1 – Jaja. I love her, you love her, we all love Jaja. She’s shown she can handle all styles well, and in her own style she KILLS IT. She’s so cute and charming. But she’s not a guaranteed win, because…

2 – Jim. The people love Jim. I have been impressed with his ability to sell hip hop and of course, when it comes to contemporary he’s the king. But so far I haven’t had a “wow” moment with him – I know it’s in there, but it needs to emerge soon.

3 – Megz. The more I see Megz, the more I love her. I love her shoe fetish, I love her hair, I love her facial expressions both on and off stage. But mostly I love how committed she is – in last week’s performance with Edson (the contemporary number with the shirts), she was just so into the piece, she totally sold me.

4 – Virgil. I think Virgil has the sparkliest personality on the show right now, and I just love love love seeing him dance in just about anything. Wasn’t he so fab in that Broadway number with Gaby from two weeks back? And that robot number with Hailee? And everything else he’s done? Hm, maybe he should be higher on this list – a problem this year because team street is just SO fantastic. Speaking of which…

5 – Neptune. I’m still waiting for that wow moment from Neptune, too (although this week’s performance with Gaby was lovely), but there’s no doubt he has the chops and the personality to really bring it. Now bring it, big guy.

6 – Hailee. I was unsure about Hailee during Vegas week but she really continues to win me over. Her interviews are adorable and her dancing has really impressed. So far I have liked her best, though, when she has a great partner, and her best performances have been team efforts, as opposed to her shining out boldly. So we’ll see.

7 – Edson. I actually love Edson as a dancer. His moves are so lovely – this is going to sound sacrilegious, but I’d actually rather watch him than Jim most days. But what Edson needs to work on is his maturity and ability to really sell a character. If he can make that click, he’ll be golden.

8 – JJ. I do think she’s the weakest on team street right now (that’s like saying she’s the shortest member of the American Basketball Dream Team) but her smile is just so charming, and her top knots so adorable, and like Megz, she has really committed to styles that are way outside her comfort zone (unlike the judges, I actually thought she did really well with the sailor girl pinup number this week). Although I personally love her I kind of think Yorelis deserved the top 10 more than JJ, so if JJ is the one to go home next week, I’ll be okay with that.

9 – Gaby. There’s always one on dance show that the judges really, really sell hard, and this year it’s Gaby. They are always showering her with praise and I just do not see it. Sure, she can dance, but she doesn’t dazzle me with technique or personality. Since Vegas week she’s been a workhorse dancer for team stage – able to handle any style with competence but not standing out. I thought her best number so far was the Broadway she did with Virgil, but other than that she’s always the last person on stage that I actually look at – everyone else takes attention away from her when I’m watching, which is not good.

10 – Derek. What is with the Twitterverse and Derek? You saved him last week when he didn’t even dance, and then again this week over my beloved Alexia. Is he holding down the tweenage girl cute-guy vote? Does he have an enormous family with hundreds of tweeting cousins? I just don’t get it. Much like Gaby, Derek is competent but nearly invisible onstage. Remember when he was a military guy, dancing with Jaja and Alexia? I didn’t even SEE him on stage – he was like part of the set. Add to that a week of non-participation and I’m not sure what people are basing their votes on.

Ah, dance show, I can’t believe I thought I was once over you – not sure if it’s the new judges or the new format or Cat’s rainbow dress, but I am super pumped about this season. Can’t wait for next week!

On our sixth day we drove from Banff (actually Canmore, a much less expensive town just outside Banff where we were staying) up to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. Both are very famous lakes, noted for their beauty and their famous turquoise water. The water gets its colour from “rock flour” – ground up bits of rock suspended in the water that comes from glaciers. Both lakes are glacier fed and as a result, are cold – but gorgeous.

Driving up gave us our first really good look at the mountains, and they were also lovely. We also passed under several of the bridges pictured below – these were built for wildlife to get over the highway and have reduced the number of highway animal deaths by 80%.

Unfortunately, this was the only rainy day we had on the trip, and it was cold too, so it wasn’t the best day for sightseeing or photos – but it was still well worth it. Speaking of the weather, Calgary and the Rockies have the craziest weather ever. We learned over the week to stop paying attention to any kind of weather forecast. On any given day it was cold, warm, cloudy, sunny, rainy, drizzling with sun, pouring, clear, hot. Often inside of a one hour time period. Just pack a bag with a waterproof jacket, gloves, shorts, a hat, sunglasses, a fleece, and extra socks, no matter what the forecast. Chances are you’ll need all of it.

Both lakes have tiny parking lots and are crazy, CRAZY busy with people. If you can, get there as early as possible, because they actually close the road to the lakes down when it gets too jammed with traffic – by lunchtime you might not be able to get in until the crowds clear after dinner. Much later we found out there’s actually an overflow parking lot and a shuttle for Lake Louise, but for Moraine Lake you’d be out of luck.

We went to Moraine Lake first – it’s a very secluded lake surrounded by mountains, famous for having been on the back of the $20 bill in the 80s. We hiked an easy trail around the edge of the lake to the head where the glacier water actually flows in.

Yeah. Not much more to be said about that.

We didn’t want to rush the kids at Moraine Lake so we took our time, but that meant that when we wanted to move on to Lake Louise, the road was already closed (and I should mention, this was on a Wednesday during the day – Banff is so tourist-intensive that “work days” don’t really have any meaning). So we bummed around in Lake Louise (the town) for a couple of hours, having lunch and checking out the souvenir shops. There’s also a gondola in Lake Louise we could have taken up but I was still a little shell shocked from the first one, so we skipped it. Insider tip: make sure you go to the visitor centre in Lake Louise, where you can get inside dish on all the secret ways to get to the lake, from hiking paths to shuttle buses.

We were lucky that it started pouring rain, which I think drove out a lot of other tourists, and by 3 the road had reopened so we headed up to the actual Lake Louise. We did an uphill hike here to the Fairview Lookout, which overlooks the whole lake and the Chateau Lake Louise, and I’m not going to lie here – 2 km straight up almost gave me a heart attack. Holy cow do I ever need to work out more.

After that we wandered around the edge of the lake for a bit, but it was raining and we were tired so we eventually called it. Lake Louise is really extremely beautiful, though – totally worth it, despite the crowds. If you want a more secluded experience, you can rent a canoe and head out on the lake – there weren’t many doing this, so it was quite quiet on the water – or take one of the longer hikes that take you farther from the parking lot, which fewer people do (even on the Fairview Lookout, there were few other people).

Verdict: Did you see those pics? AWESOME.

On Day Five we said farewell to Calgary and headed for the mountains. There was a lot of squealing and snapping on the way to Banff.

We arrived in Banff mid-morning and it was already crazy with tourists. You definitely want to go to Banff. You just want to get there as early in the day as possible, because: NUTS WITH PEOPLE. Also, they are very, very serious about parking regulations in Banff. If you’re in a three hour lot, they mean three hours, BUDDY.

Here’s something we didn’t know about Banff: because it’s in a National Park, you have to have a Park Pass to be able to visit. Jasper is in a National Park, too. You can buy a daily pass but because we needed, between the two towns, seven days worth of park pass it was financially better to just buy an annual pass. An annual national park pass will also get us into any other national park, like Algonquin, and it also gave us free admission to a few local museums that turned out to be quite interesting.

We wandered around the main strip – Banff Avenue – and it’s very quaint. In fact, I thought it had a very “designed” feel to it – like, hey, we want to make a quaint mountain town, let’s design one! – but my sister tells me that no, the buildings actually grew up organically and just look like that. The roads all have names like “Beaver” and “Bear” and “Caribou” which is pretty freakin’ awesome.

We popped our heads into the Parks Museum, which features a lot of taxidermied animals and birds, which is kind of cool and kind of creepy, although the kids liked picking out things they had seen at the zoo. The most interesting thing, really, is the building itself – it was built right at the turn of the 20th century and there was no power in Banff at the time, so it features tons of windows and skylights so that the museum displays could be clearly seen.

Later that afternoon we took the gondola up Sulphur Mountain which a) gives you a great view of the town, b) has an interesting old weather-prediction station at the top (which is a bit of a hike up), and c) is the secret source of the science that powers the hot springs. Definitely worth seeing, despite the expense. It was a cool and cloudy day down below, and at the top it was pretty darn chilly – we were happy we had brought jackets and gloves.

The gondola, by the way, was the site of my second major freak out of the trip. Sir Monkeypants actually took a video of me having a total meltdown on the way up, then an even bigger one on the way down, and no, you cannot see it. I do not really consider myself afraid of heights but man, apparently I am very afraid of gondolas and glass floors.

We finished up the day with a visit to the Cave and Basin historic site. This is a spot where there is a natural cave full of hot, sulphurous water – warmed by its passage down under Sulphur Mountain. There’s also a large basin where the hot water collects. There used to be a hotel/resort here, where people would come to soak in the hot springs for their health. But since it was discovered that the basin is the home to an endangered snail, the whole place became a protected area. At the site now you can see the cave and the basin, as well as a small museum about the old hotel and the history of the explorers who first found the site and set up the resort. It was fascinating, and beautiful, and, as Little Miss Sunshine will tell you, smelly.

We probably wouldn’t have bothered with the Cave and Basin, but it was free with our annual park pass (as was the Parks Museum), and turned out to be totally worth it. In fact, verdict on all this Banff stuff: WORTH IT.