One week or even one month would not be enough time to fully enjoy and appreciate all Banff National Park has to offer. Because of this, we, vacation-goers, need to be strategic about making the most out of one of the most incredible national parks in a short timeframe. In this post, I'll be sharing two places that I went to in Banff which I wish I would have skipped. These two places were on most travel blog's "must visit" lists but were simply over-rated for me. Two places that could have been replaced by better, more fulfilling activities.
1. Cave and Basin National Historic Site
Cave and Basin National Historic Site is advertised to be the "birthplace of Canada’s national parks." In 1883, three Canadian Pacific Railway workers found a skylight entrance into a cave and 'discovered' a series of national hot springs inside. They quickly saw this as a business opportunity and the next year built a cabin looking to promote the area. In 1885, the area around the Cave and Basin was set up and named Banff Hot Springs Reserve. This is claimed to be the birth of Canada's National Parks.
My problem with this story and many parts of the museum is that for centuries, indigenous people lived in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and the natural hot springs were a sacred place of healing for them. The Cave and Basin museum white-washes the indigenous history by claiming these three Europeans 'discovered' the hot springs when in fact all they did was monetize it and kick the indigenous communities off the land. I understand wanting an origin story for Banff National Park, but if you're going to make a whole museum about it, maybe include the full story.
On top of this, the hype around the actual cave is underwhelming when you're there. The cave itself is tiny and the small skylight at the top doesn't allow for adequate sunlight to fully be able to see everything. The one nice aspect of this museum is the boardwalk outside. You're able to walk around and look at different hot springs while reading about the history of the museum.
Boardwalk at Cave and Basin National Historic Site
My suggestion is to skip the Cave and Basin National Historic Site. That being said, if you love history and are fascinated by the timeline of Banff National Park, maybe give Cave and Basin a shot. The information was extremely interesting, but do take the origin story with a grain of salt.
2. Banff Upper Hot Springs
This was by far the most disappointing part of our trip to Banff. After a long day of hiking nothing, truly nothing sounds better than getting into the hot steaming water of a naturally occurring hot spring. Every article I read about Banff and every video I watched advertised going to the "world-famous" Banff Hot Springs. Unfortunately, we didn't even last 20 minutes there before deciding to just go back to our hotel and take a hot shower instead.
Banff Upper Hot Springs in August 2019
It was extremely overcrowded and worst of all, the water wasn't even steaming - it was merely warm. Coming in with such high expectations and raving reviews, I took one look at the packed pool and it made my smile turn upside-down really quick. It was hard to find a place in the pool where you weren't overhearing 3 conversations at once or not abnormally close to someone else. Thinking about this during COVID times makes it just 10x worse and even more unsanitary.
Maybe if you go right when Banff Upper Hot Springs opens it will be better and less crowded, but I would suggest just saving the money and going somewhere else.
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