Among the Canadian AlpsBurpee, Lawrence J. (Lawrence Johnstone)
History
Among the Canadian Alps
Burpee, Lawrence J. (Lawrence Johnstone)
Canadian Rockies (B.C. and Alta.)
With a fishing rod, and any other congenial companion, an enjoyable
canoe trip may be had to Vermilion Lakes. The way lies up the Bow to
Echo Creek, and by this miniature waterway to the lakes. As an
afternoon's paddle nothing more delightful could be imagined, and the
fishing is excellent, but the really serious fisherman will prefer the
longer trip to Lake Minnewanka where lake trout are to be had of
fighting temper and phenomenal size. Fourteen fish of a total weight
of forty-three pounds represented one day's catch of a couple of
sportsmen in this lake; sixteen caught the following day weighed
forty-eight pounds. These, however, were pygmies beside the gigantic
trout landed by Dr. Seward Webb in 1899, which tipped the scales at
forty-seven pounds. To silence the incredulous, this monster is still
preserved in a glass case at the Minnewanka Chalet.
A drive of nine miles from Banff, skirting the base of Cascade
Mountain, lands the traveller on the shores of Lake Minnewanka. On the
way he may visit a herd of about 25 buffalo, and enjoy the view from
the rustic bridge down into the Devil's Canyon. The lake is some
sixteen miles in length, and one may explore it either in a boat or by
chartering the launch provided by the Canadian Pacific Railway. It
swings, in the shape of a great sickle, around the base of Mount
Inglismaldie, whose dizzy precipices soar some thousands of feet into
the sky, with the glorious pinnacles of Mount Peechee in the
background.
Another delightful drive leads past the Cave and Basin and around the
northern end of Sulphur Mountain to Sundance Canyon, a weird little
gorge through which Sundance Creek rushes down to its junction with
the Bow. The plateau above the gorge was at one time a favourite
Indian camping ground, and the scene of the barbaric Sun Dance.
On the northern bank of the Bow, high up above the river, stand a
number of those fantastic natural monuments called Hoodoos, an
excellent view of which may be gained by taking the drive around the
Loop to the foot of Mount Rundle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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