Canmore, Alberta.

The Three Sisters watch over Canmore

Canmore is a cool town I'd describe as peaceful, classy, scenic, low-key and convenient. It is located about an hour west of Calgary and about 10 miles east of Banff.  All three communities are on Trans-Canada Hwy 1.  When we did research for our trip, we learned that Canmore is a highly recommended base for outdoor activity in its own right.  It is convenient to Banff, but also less much expensive for accommodations and dining.   So we reserved a motel in Canmore for our trip's second night. It was nice to know we had a place already lined up for the evening as we departed the worst campground ever that morning in Saskatchewan.  (See blog entry Overview of Banff and Jasper Trip).  We stayed at the Bow Valley Motel and had a nice dinner at the Grizzly Paw Brew Pub.

Our motel was on the Bow River.

The Grizzly Paw Brewing Company was right next to our motel! 

Some of the locals apparently eat rocks regularly.

 The next morning we rented bikes at the Nordic Trail Center, which was developed as a venue for the 1988 Winter Olympics.  It now a first-class public recreation area and also home of the Canadian national biathlon team, who were training on a paved trail using skate skis when we were there.  The weather cooperated perfectly and we biked for about 2 hours.  We liked our Canmore so much and thought our motel was a good value that before we left we booked a room for our last evening in Canada. So Canmore provided the "book-ends" for our time in t he Canadian Rockies. It was good place to 'land' when arriving in the area and a great launching off point for our long drive home.   

The Nordic Trail Center.

The view from the mountain bike trails.

Cristin tests her nerve on the skills course.

Click here to return to the blog entry Overview of Banff and Jasper Trip.
Click here to continue to the blog entry Banff Townsite.