Home»All Photographs»2021 Hikes»Philosopher's Knoll & Sundance Canyon 06-19-21

With my second Covid-19 immunization shot scheduled for Friday afternoon, I anticipated being a little under the weather on Saturday. As such, I arranged for a smaller hike of about three hours to Philosopher's Knoll and Sundance Canyon. Sure enough, I woke up feeling just "meh", and was glad to have made the plans I did.
I arrived to Banff a little early for my 7:00 am meetup with Clayton, so I went to the Cascade of Time Garden next to the Administrative Building. This is an impressive garden in the heart of Banff townsite - definitely worth a visit. Banff is such a peaceful place at 6:30 in the morning!
After driving down the road a short distance to meet up with Clayton, we headed down a path that led to a horse trail. We took this rough trail to Philosopher's Knoll, an overlook of the Bow River.
From there, we headed west to Sundance Canyon, a dramatic slot canyon where crystal clear water carves it's way through the bedrock. A nice little loop trail here takes you over bridges and up steep little sets of stairs before continuing through pine forest. We ate lunch at a picnic table and headed back.
At the parking lot, Clayton departed and I changed into comfy footwear and headed back to check out Cave and Basin National Historic Site.
Interpretive panels lined an open air museum, explaining the significance of this site as the birthplace of Canada's National Parks. I saw the tiny Banff Springs Snail - these springs hold the entire world's population of this wee mollusk.
I then left the Cave and Basin and headed down to wander the Marsh Loop, an interpretive trail where the sulphurous water trickles down into the surrounding fenland. Here, you are allowed to touch the water and indeed it was warm - probably around upper 30's. Truly unusual in these parts and many unique plant and animal species are in this marsh because of that warm water. There are even tropical fish from Africa and Southeastern USA here - tsk tsk people, don't free your aquarium fish into the natural habitat!