We hoped to stay just outside Banff near Lake Minnewanka but the campground was full. No problem, after enjoying the Minnewanka scenery we headed to the Banff campgrounds. There are 3 of them and collectively they have 1200 pitches! We got a spot easily and the price included as much free wood as you could burn! The day was young so we headed out to hike up Tunnel Mountain. No glaciers in sight unlike Lake Louise but the views were still delightful. The sun was shining it was summer once again. With our exercise over for the day it was onto chores. Donna headed to the laundrette or laundromat as they call them here. I went to library to try and catch up on a backlog of blogging. Then we both went in search of groceries. The one shop at Lake Louise was so expensive and limited, our fridge and cupboards were almost bare. Oh, what choice we had at the IGA supermarket, we only had a mad dash to buy odds and sods to keep us going - we would be back. We stopped off at the wood pile before parking up in our camp spot. No time for a beer or relax. The evenings get cold early on and we planned to barbeque. Donna was over the moon to have a night off from cooking. I got a roaring fire going to keep us warm whilst dinner was sizzling on the Barbie - steak baps, spicy chicken and chips (and a beer). Instead of the temperature plunging around 6pm it stayed warm just like a summers night. A night off from editing photos and scrabble, we just sat by the fire letting the darkness descend around us. Even going to bed we didn't experience the late-night chill as we have over the last few weeks. Just like in Jasper there is a gondola here that will quickly transport you up a mountain with just a very short walk to the summit. Did we pay for this pleasure, of course not, it was just a 2 hour walk to ascend Sulphur mountain. The top still has a small building at the summit which was a manned weather station in the early 1900's. No longer in existence is the more recent building that was constructed in the 1950's to study cosmic rays. This was demolished in 1981 when no longer required. The walk from the upper Gondola station to the summit is board walked to accommodate masses of tourists who seem incompetent at tackling the mountains natural environment. We were surrounded by mountains which just appeared as faint silhouettes because of smoke from as far away as Washington state, USA. It was a shame the views were obscured but we still had a great hike up and down. At the start of the trail is Banff hot springs and I had promised Donna we would go for a soak. On seeing that it has been transformed into a modern type swimming pool (with life guard) Donna lost interest and we saved a few dollars. To make things even more unnatural if they run short of hot spring water they add hot municipal water. Glad we had already stopped at Liard hot springs back in the Yukon. Back at the campground it was wood collecting time in readiness for another fire and Barbie. Great weather again lasting into the evening. Burgers, a rack of ribs and chips, oh and a few beers. To our dismay we learnt that we couldn't get our propane cylinder filled anywhere in Banff. You can exchange for a full one but we don't have a standard cylinder. Just 20 minutes' drive away in Canmore is a propane refill depot. Canmore is a sizeable place so we opted for a flying visit for propane, new socks, Barbie gas cylinders and groceries from Safeway with even more choice than the IGA in Banff. Back in Banff for lunch, with the morning rain out of the way we had a 2-hour paddle in the sunshine on the Bow river - amazing scenery. Leaving here tomorrow so we fitted in a stroll along the river around the parks and a bit of browsing in the shops. I wanted to get a photo of the Indian trading post and decided to pop inside for a nose as well. Wow, what an interesting shop - walls adorned with moose, bison and bear heads. Native American clothing, jewellery, unusual gifts. After taking lots of photos inside we thought ought to buy something - the full sized stuffed black bear was just too big though! The campsite closes totally in just a few days and the log pile is not being replenished. The walk from the parking area to the fire wood gets longer every day - that's a hell of a lot that's been burnt in the last few days. This doesn't really come as a surprise as when the light dims we can see flames flickering all around the campsite. One more barbeque, Chicken burgers and chips - not vey adventurous but still tasty and cold chicken burgers left over for lunch tomorrow. It's hard to believe that the summer season is almost over as Banff seems to be overrun with tourists and campgrounds are full. After Lake Louise & the Icefields Parkway our expectations were low but Banff turned out to be yet another great destination, somewhere else that we don't want to leave. Lots of hiking trails here that we don't have time to explore. Summer seems to have returned briefly but we have to move further south soon and there are still more places in the Canadian Rockies we want to visit. Everywhere around here is simply stunning for us mountain lovers.