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With some of the world's most spectacular mountains on your doorstep, sightseeing in Banff might seem an absurd undertaking, yet it's good to have some rainy-day options. The downtown Banff Park Museum at 93 Banff Ave on the right before the Bow River bridge bulges with two floors of stuffed animals, many of which are indigenous to the park (June-Sept daily 10am-6pm; Oct-May Mon-Fri 1-5pm, Sat & Sun 10am-6pm; $2.50 or $7 with the Banff Heritage Passport which also allows admission to the Whyte Museum and the Cave & Basin National Historic Site ; tel 762-1558). In many ways the museum chronicles the changes of attitudes to wildlife in the park over the years. Many Victorians wanted to see the park's animals without the tiresome business of having to venture into the backcountry: what better way to satisfy the whim than by killing and stuffing the beasts for permanent display? The hunting of game animals was eventually banned in the park in 1890, but not before populations of moose, elk, sheep, goats and grizzlies had been severely depleted. Game wardens only arrived to enforce the injunction in 1913, and even then they didn't protect the "bad" animals - wolves, coyotes, foxes, cougars, lynx, eagles, owls and hawks - which were hunted until the 1930s as part of the park's "predator-control program". Many of the stuffed victims in the museum date from this period. Sixty years ago a hapless polar bear was even displayed in the park behind the museum, one of sixty species of animals kept in the Banff Zoo and Aviary between 1904 and 1937. Until as recently as about twenty-five years ago, hotels were organizing trips to the town's rubbish dumps to view foraging bears. Oddly enough, the museum - a fine building whatever your views on what's inside it - might have gone the same way as the animals. In the 1950s, changing attitudes saw the exhibits condemned as dated, and plans were mooted for the museum's demolition. In the event, it survived as a fine piece of frontier Edwardiana, distinguished, in particular, by its preponderance of skylights, essential features at a time when Banff was still without electricity. The lovely wood-panelled reading room - a snug retreat, full of magazines and books on nature and wildlife - makes a perfect spot to while away a cold afternoon. In summer, by contrast, the beautiful riverside park behind the museum is ideal for a snooze or picnic (people also sleep here unofficially at night - you might get away with a sleeping bag, but certainly not a tent). Nearby, the excellent Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies (mid-May to mid-Oct daily 10am-6pm; mid-Oct to mid-May Tues-Sun 1-5pm, Thurs till 9pm; $4 or $7 with the Banff Heritage Passport which also allows admission to the Banff Park Museum and the Cave & Basin National Historic Site; tel 762-2291, www.whyte.org ), next to the library at 111 Bear St, contents itself, among other things, with a look at the Rockies' emergence as a tourist destination through paintings and photographs, and at the early expeditions to explore and conquer the interior peaks. Pictures of bears foraging in Banff rubbish bins and of park rangers grinning over a magnificent lynx they've just shot give some idea of how times have changed. The museum, which opened in 1968, forms part of the Whyte Foundation, created in the 1950s by artists Peter and Catherine Whyte to collate and preserve as great a range of material as possible relating to the Rockies. The gleaming complex is also home to the 2075-volume Alpine Club of Canada library and the 4000-volume Archives of the Canadian Rockies - the largest collection of artistic and historical material relating to the mountains. The museum also hosts temporary exhibitions by local, national and international artists, as well as presenting lectures and walking, nature and gallery tours. The Natural History Museum , upstairs in the Clock Tower Mall at 112 Banff Ave (daily noon-5pm; free; tel 762-4747), is a rather throwaway venture that concentrates on the Rockies' geological history, with a sketchy account of its forests, flowers and minerals. Across the river, dated displays of native history, birds and animals fill the Luxton Museum , an aboriginal peoples-run enterprise attractively housed in a huge wooden stockade, 1 Birch Ave (mid-May to mid-Oct daily 9am-7pm; mid-Oct to mid-May Wed-Sun 1-5pm; $6; tel 762-2388). The museum takes its name from Norman Luxton, a local who ran a trading post here and forged a close relationship with Banff's Stoney native population over the course of sixty years. The exhibits aren't exciting, but the museum shop has some good craft and other items if you're in spending mode.
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