let it be sunday: silverton falls, bankhead, & the maple leaf

September 29, 2014

let it be sunday: silverton falls, bankhead, & the maple leaf

happy sunday (or rather it was sunday)

hopefully last week was a productive one, one filled with laughs, greens, a nature walk perhaps, and maybe a little something sweet.

as i look to the week ahead, and once again ignore house chores with the hopes that some magical cleaning fairy will come in the night, i instead gather the family unit, pile in the car bound once again for the mountains, and perhaps our last true fall hike of the season.

today we are headed to silverton falls, a short tranquil hike, with waterfall views that is often over shadowed by johnston canyon.

the name comes from an old silver mining town, silver city, that sprang up in the area in 1883. although there were small amounts of silver in the area, the minute quantities were never enough to justify a full-scale mining operation as the promoters of the town grossly exaggerated. once the fraudulent claims were discovered, the more than 3000 silver-hungry prospectors quickly left and silver city became a ghost town two short years after its initial boom.

because our hike today was a short one we decided to make a quick stop at lake minnewanka before heading to bankhead, an old mining town where today only few structures remain.

popular in early 1900's the towns population was close to 1500, including 300 mine workers. bankhead supplied coal for the locomotives of the canadian pacific railway, however the poor quality of product is what caused the mine to close in 1922 and many of the residents chose to move, including their homes, to banff.

today only foundations remain.

today post hike brunch took us to one of my favourite restaurants in banff, the maple leaf . the best thing about dining mid day on a sunday is the option to have breakfast food or lunch food, today breakfast won.

cheers. xo.