Stay & Play
Stay and Play at a Mountain Island in the Sky at Sunshine Village
Article and photography by Jennifer Merrick
In the heart of Banff National Park, the Sunshine Gondola whisked us up almost three miles on a 20-minute ride through surreal mountain scenery. Not only was it a ride to remember just for the views alone, but it was also the method of transportation we needed to use to reach our accommodation at Sunshine Mountain Lodge.
Sitting at 7,200 feet, the 84-room resort is the only high-alpine accommodation in Banff and is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Up here, as far as the eye can see are the Rocky Mountain peaks, including Mount Assiniboine, Canada’s Matterhorn.
The Sunshine Mountain Lodge is better known as a winter destination, with ski in/ski out access to 3,300 acres of terrain across three mountains and 145 trails blanketed with its famous natural ‘champagne powder’ snow.
But we arrived in the summer with hiking poles instead of ski poles. Would this award-winning international ski destination be an equally exceptional off-season getaway? We couldn’t wait to find out and signed up for a guided hike offered by the hotel.
We took the Standish Chairlift, which began where our gondola ride ended and went up an additional 625 feet to an altitude of 7,825 feet. Here, we stood on the border of two provinces –Alberta and British Columbia. Looking out at the horizon and the sea of mountain peaks was awe-inspiring. But there was also beauty when we looked down.
“People come from all over to see the wildflowers,” said our guide, Harry, as we started walking. He pointed out some pale yellow blooms. “The Western Anemone are really special,” he said and explained how their spiny stalks allowed them to crawl through the snow. Further along the trail were meadows blanketed with bright yellow glacier lilies. As we stopped to take pictures, the not-so-camara-shy Columbia ground squirrels popped out of their burrows, cheeping loudly with their bird-like whistles.
As we continued our hike, we crested the Great Divide, the spine of the Canadian Rockies that separates two watersheds. For recreational hikers like us, it was thrilling to do a high-alpine hike without first chugging miles uphill.
“It’s such a privilege to have access to backcountry at this altitude,” said Harry. With the gondola and lift, mountaintop trails are available to every ability from strollers to hard-core back-country climbers.
But no matter if you’re a soft or hard-core adventurer, there’s the ‘apres-hiking’ to look forward to when you’re staying at the lodge. The Mad Trapper’s is an institution and it’s as eccentric as the character it was named after. It’s housed in the original Canadian Pacific log cabin, where it all began. The walls are filled with memorabilia and photos, the beer is cold and the food is pub grub at its best, especially the poutine. There’s also the Chimney Lounge for more upscale cuisine and Java Lift Coffee Bar, perfect for a morning java fix and to-go hiking snacks. The sauna and the large outdoor hot tub soothe tired muscles and are the ideal complement to any outdoor adventure as are the suites in the hotel. With a balcony, fireplace, large soaker tub and floor to ceiling windows, the accommodations are a retreat themselves.
Coming back down the gondola at the end of our stay felt like we were leaving a glorious mountainous island in the sky and returning to earth. But our reality was now filled with mountain memories and a sense of tranquility we didn’t have when we went up.
