Tunnel Mountain

Elevation: 1692 m
Elevation Gain: 260 m (from upper parking lot)
Tunnel Mountain was originally referred to as Sleeping Buffalo Mountain by the Stoney people. In 1858, James Hector appropriately named the small peak “The Hill.” Later in 1882, a team of surveyors working to complete the Canadian Pacific Railway proposed building a 275 m tunnel through the mountain to do so. The tunneling idea was ill-conceived and described as the “most extraordinary blunder ever known in the way of engineering.” Although the tunnel was never built, the peak was officially named Tunnel Mountain. Today, the peak is a popular hike from the Banff town site.
My Ascents:
August 18 2023, November 11 2017, December 13 2015, November 15 2014, December 22 2012
Trailhead: Tunnel Mountain Upper Parking

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again. For three straight years, we’ve attempted to organize a multi-family camping trip with our friends and fellow Team YYC 🐎 Grey Cuppers: Andrea, Korwin, Eva, Kaden, Chris and Jenn. In 2021, the former four couldn’t join because they were hosting a friend from out east, while in 2022, the latter two decided that staying home with COVID was more fun than camping. 😷 Finally, the stars ⭐ aligned, and everyone was able to make it out to Banff’s Village I campground for a mid-August weekend in 2023!

LEFT: All too rare of a sight: Team YYC all together (and not at a Stamps game or a Grey Cup)! Ever since we secured our reservations for this trip in March, we’d been looking forward to spending a full weekend with our best friends, who we don’t see often enough.
RIGHT: The trip also promised to be "interesting" as it would be Andrea, Eva and Kaden’s first time actually camping. (Sorry, nights spent in an Ottentik or in your backyard don’t count!) Our family, obviously, loves camping, ❤️ so we were looking forward to sharing the experience with them. While 9-year-old Eva and 7-year-old Kaden were jacked for their first camping trip, their mom Andrea was a little more apprehensive. Fortunately, she devised an excellent strategy to calm her nerves (and is showing it off in this photo). 🙃

LEFT and RIGHT: The group’s littlest camper (our 11-month-old Lillian) shows the rest of Team YYC how it’s done, enjoying good company and stories around the campfire on night one of the trip. She even had a bottle or two like the rest of us! 🍼 As the night grew late, we eventually retired for the evening. Normally, you’d expect the parents with the baby to get to worst night’s sleep but, unfortunately, that honor went to Andrea, as her first night in a tent proved a restless one. 🥱 Like they say, however, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again!

LEFT: While campfires, 🔥 bottles, 🍼🍾 and restless nights 🥱 are important parts of the camping experience, hiking is also essential. 🙃 After a lazy start the next day, Team YYC, therefore, rallied for an afternoon hike. The objective of choice: Tunnel Mountain. Why? Because it was there? I dunno. Why not? We were tired – at least, the adults were anyways. As you can see, the under-10-year-old contingent had plenty of energy and gamely led us up the busy trail in search of summit cows. 🐮
RIGHT: 7-year-old Mera tried her best to turn Tunnel Mountain into a scramble but even she couldn’t succeed…

As we neared the summit ridge, the kids enjoyed more open views while the adults enjoyed surreptitiously “mooing.”

LEFT: Eva, Mera and Kaden were our little hiking stars ⭐ on this day. Indeed, the only complaints that anyone heard came from the adults (and Penny 🙄).
RIGHT: Kaden and Mera work on their Instagram poses at one of the hike’s more scenic viewpoints.

For her part, Lillian was too tired to care how she’d look on social media. 😴😂

LEFT: Jenn and Chris (happy not to have COVID this year)!
RIGHT: Onward and upward… That 260 vertical meters wasn’t going to climb itself!

LEFT: Just below the summit, the kids all enjoyed another lookout, with wonderful views 🤩 towards Mount Rundle and the Banff Springs Golf Course below it.
RIGHT: The view from the viewpoint proved even better without kids in it! 😝

Siblings Eva and Kaden #ShareTheChair(s) near the summit. Tunnel Mountain isn’t a particularly arduous hike but, hey, Adirondack chairs are comfortable so why not lounge a little?

“CONGRATULATIONS! You have made it to the summit of a mountain in the Canadian Rockies!” 😂

A very, very, very busy summit in the Canadian Rockies… Despite the crowds, however, we failed to find any summiteers of the bovine variety. 🐄😔

Tunnel isn’t my favorite mountain, but it is a bit of a rite of passage for our kids. In fact, it was both Mera and Penny’s first summit. Lillian is obviously more advanced than her older sisters since Tunnel ended up being her 12th summit! 😊

LEFT: Lunchtime for our littlest hiker.
RIGHT: While the adults and the baby ate, the 5 – 9-year-olds quickly found something else to climb on the summit. I guess they need more than 260-vertical meters next time?... 🤔

5-year-old Penny (left) and 7-year-old Mera aren’t used to seeing trees on summits 😂 and made quick work of any that were remotely climbable.

While Tunnel is dwarfed by the surrounding peaks, it nevertheless offers a pleasant view over Banff and the surrounding Bow Valley. Peaks visible here include (from left to right): Mount Bourgeau, Black Brett, Mount Brett, Pilot Mountain and Mount Norquay.

Beyond Mount Norquay (left), the view to the north included Mount Brewster (distant center left) and Cascade Mountain (which is visible from just about everywhere in Banff – right).

The one perk of an overcrowded Banff summit? It’s easy to find someone to take a group photo for you. After we secured this rare photo of Team YYC without Stamps jerseys on, we began to make our way down.

LEFT and RIGHT: Tunnel Mountain is a pretty boring hike, but Eva and Mera found ways to amuse themselves on descent (log-balancing, wearing full-on winter gear in August etc.). 😂

The Team YYC Caravan enjoying a rare view towards Sulfur Mountain and the Banff Springs Hotel on descent.

LEFT: Tunnel Mountain is a pretty small hike so, even with our late start, we were down in plenty of time to enjoy “happy hour.” 🍺 While we might not have earned our refreshments on Tunnel Mountain, we certainly did after navigating the disaster that is attempting to find a parking spot in downtown Banff on a busy August afternoon!
RIGHT: While the adults enjoyed their refreshments, Eva was just happy to have a baby to play with. As you can see, Lillian didn’t mind the attention… By this point the adults were less smiley, having become aware of the score in the afternoon’s Stampeders game (sigh).

LEFT: Fast-forward a few hours and Lillian was still going strong at the evening’s campfire (this time on Jenn’s cozy lap). 🔥
RIGHT: A 7-year-old who’s up way past her bedtime… While we eventually succeeded in getting Eva, Kaden, Penny and Lillian to bed, Mera was having none of that “sleep” nonsense. 😂
At least not when there was a magnificent spectacle unfolding overhead…

When we’d booked this camping trip months earlier, we’d selected this weekend simply because it fit into everyone’s busy summer schedules. In a happy accident, it also turned out to be the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower! 🌠 While the day dawned overcast and the afternoon even featured a sprinkle of rain, the sky completely cleared during the evening and Mother Nature awed Team YYC’s veteran and rookie campers in equal measure. Sitting around a warm fire well after the campground’s “Quiet Hours” cutoff, we all craned our necks skyward and spent a perfect, once-in-a-lifetime summer night literally counting stars ⭐ (shooting and stationary alike).

As midnight neared, the adults and the remaining child (Mera… 🙄) all retired, one-by-one, for the evening. 😴 The next morning, the group’s most apprehensive camper (*cough* Andrea *cough*) was already discussing plans for next year’s group camping trip. 🥰

Some things, she realized, are worth losing sleep…

⭐ Lately, I've been, I've been losing sleep... ⭐