Cave and basin- the birthplace of Canada's national parks

Saturday we visited the Caves and basin area of the National Parks. It is the birthplace, the site where it all started for Canada's National Park system. We arrived just in time to join a ranger-led tour of the area. There is an interactive self-tour, but this was more interesting and the ranger had great stories to add. He was great. Three guys decided to try and stick it out in the Banff area the entire winter and they saw steam or smoke rising up from the mountain. It was a natural hot spring. They tried to gain the rights to the area but the government realized that thuslukd bring tourist and money to Banff, so the hot springs bathing area was born. We went into the cave where the spring originated and the upper pools. Banff has a public hot springs. There is an admission fee and it looks like an indoor pool. No more rocky sides and bottom.
After the tour we hiked passed a marsh area and along the river to Sundance Canyon. The rushing water flowed along steep , moss covered rock walls on one side. A very pretty hike and not too hard. A nice break from the previous day.
We drove up to Lake Minnewanka. It is another long, glacier fed lake surrounded by mountains. We did a short hike along the water to a small canyon. On the way back, a small herd of mountain sheep took over the road and caused quite a backup. They were eating something on the shoulder, maybe salt. They did not care about the cars at all. Got a few pictures and had to carefully drive on.
Many areas here are closed or have hiking restrictions due to bear activity. The area had lots of rain and warmer temperatures this summer which yielded a great berry crop. The bears are loading up calories in preparation for winter. Some of the upcoming hikes we want to do we will need to wait at the trailhead and hope other people arrive because you need a minimum group of four. We are Aldo able to rent bear spray. We could buy some but we would have to leave it here because it is not allowed on an airplane. I would love to see a bear from AFAR.
Sunday. Woke to heavy rain off and on and snow in the upper peaks. It was 34 when we left and we could see our breath. Even though it was very cloudy and many peaks were hidden, you could see all the fresh snow. At the gondola station on top, you could see the new snow and the pine trees were covered. Snow is now present at a much lower elevation.
What do you do on a rainy day? Shop. We roamed all around town. Had lunch at Saltlik. Excellent food! No more rain predicted for the rest of our stay. We may actually have a lot of blue sky. Looking forward to that.