Canadian Rockies - Banff, Jasper, & Yoho

After my whirlwind tour of Chicago, I made back to the airport with plenty of time to spare. I got into Calgary about 9ish, and was a bit dismayed that my luggage didn't make it and the only convenient way into the city from the airport was a $40 cab ride. Oh well. I checked into the hostel and the first thing I did was look for my friend who showed up the day before. Took me a while to find him but find him I did & boy was I glad that he didn't take off without me :) Although it was late, we went out for a bite and a drink to catch up. The next morning we got up early to get our rental car and head to Banff. Here was how the rest of the trip went:

Day 1: Banff - Castle Lookout

It was probably noonish by the time we got into Banff on this day. We grabbed a bit of lunch, saw the Fairmont, and walked around a bit looking for a change of clothes for the night so I can put my only set in the wash (else I would have had to borrow my friend's clothes again). After hanging around the town a bit, we headed out to do a 3 hr hike up to the Castle lookout (~520m) and back. It was not the most spectacular hike, but still had great views and was a good warm-up hike. After the hike, we checked into our hostel at Castle Mountain, got cleaned up, and headed back to the town for dinner & a walk around Fairmont at night. No luck with the luggage yet, so tomorrow would be my 4th day of wearing the same clothes - fantastic!

Day 2: Bourgeau Lake Hike

Today we did a 5 hour hike up to Bourgeau Lake and back. I really enjoyed this hike since the terrain and views varied so much on it. The trail took us through trees, places with views, and by a waterfall. At the waterfall we had a short river crossing, but fortunately I got a piggy back ride across the ankle high water. Soon after we crossed, a group of 6 women came along and trodded through no problem and made me feel silly, but I justified keeping my boots dry since it was the only pair of shoes I had until my luggage showed up. And why bother getting my feet cold if I don't have to ;) The trail continued steadily up for a bit longer and then openned up to the tundra after roughly 700m elevation gain. There were some snow on the trail, and the Bourgeau Lake was still mostly frozen over. It started to rain while at top though, so we didn't linger too long. After spotting a marmot or two and grabbing a bite to eat, we headed back down. From there, we headed up to Lake Louise hostel for the night. By now, I wasn't sure if I was ever going to get my luggage, so I decided to do some proper shopping. The village of Lake Louise is very small tho, so I had one shop to choose from. I guess that made things easier. Not a whole lot going on in terms of nightlife there either, so we ended up at the bar in Lake Louise Inn. Not a bad place. It had dart boards so that's what we did for a while and then turned in.

Day 3: Lake Moraine, Lake Louise, and Lake Agnes


My luggage had finally arrived - but in Banff :S So I had to backtrack an hour to go get it. Stupid airline. I'm glad I finally got my luggage, but by now, I really didn't need much of anything in here since I got so used to dealing with what I had. Having the CDs for the road was nice tho. Once back in Lake Louise area, my friend really wanted to do a canoe ride on Lake Moraine, but the weather was pretty crappy. It was quite cold and overcast, so we opted to do a walk around the lake instead. The trail ended part of the way around, at which point the sky cleared some and we could get better shots of the lake. The sky never really fully cleared, but at least it didn't rain. We also took a little hike up to the tea house at Lake Agnes and back (~3 hrs). The trail was not so exciting, with Lake Mirror being the only thing worth seeing on the trail, but the tea house is kinda cool. They don't have any running water or electricity there and the people who work there live there.

Day 4: Icefield Parkway - Bow Lake, Petyo Lake, and Wilcox Pass

For some reason the weather always tends to be the best when we are spending the most time in our car, as was the case today. Today we had to head up to Jasper, but not before checking out the Bow Lake & Peyto Lake. Both are very beautiful. We also stopped at the Icefield Center, but didn't really do much in terms of looking around since we couldn't get a hold of our B&B host to tell them we would not get there in time for a 5pm check-in like they asked. We had just enough time to do the hike over Wilcox Pass, which I liked very much. You get a nice view of the Athabasca Glacier (tho it can be seen from the road also), and we also saw couple of Bighorn sheeps along the way. Btw, just a note about driving in Canada. People here tend to drive really really really slooooooooooooow. I suppose with all the wildlife around, that is the smart thing to do. I didn't have much patience for it tho, and found myself speeding and passing a lot. Also, Canada doesn't do signs very well. Their roads aren't always marked well, and neither are their trails. We found ourselves backtracking a few times to get where we want to go.

Day 5: Jasper - Maligne Lake, Maligne Canyon, and Mt. Edith Cavell


Today was a bit of a packed day. We started off with a canoe ride on Lake Maligne, but it was a bit overcast. We only went out for about an hour and headed over to Maligne Canyon. On the way over, we got a close-up look at an Elk along the side of the road. We stopped here a while trying to get some nice shots. Once at the Canyon, I really didn't know what to expect here, but I enjoyed it a lot. A short trail takes you on a walk along the canyon. I think there's actually a proper hike associated with it but we weren't planning to spend so much time here so we turned around after an hour. Our next stop was Mt. Edith Cavell. The weather kind of turned again to rain, and it was getting a bit late, so we decided to skip the hike to the meadow and did just the glacier loop. This was also a very neat walk since you got to see two glaciers: Cavell & Angel. The Cavell glacier came right up to the ground where it melts into a lake. On the way back, the sky started to clear and we could hear some avalanches rumbling behind us. We sat around hoping some of the big chunks of snow up top would come tumbling down, but not much luck. We only saw a trickle of an avalanche.

Day 6: Yoho Valley & Takakkaw Falls

We had a looooooong drive back to Banff today from Jasper. So of course, it was a gorgeous sunny day. I guess the point of it being nice when we're on the road is that it gives us an excuse to stop along the way to look at things. We stopped at a few view points along the way and it was a very nice drive. Still, sitting in the car all morning was a bit tiring. We decided to check out Yoho Valley on the way so we stopped there for lunch. Afterwards, we headed over to the Takakkaw falls but we were both so tired we ended up taking a nap in the car for a few minutes before getting out the car. It was a nice nap :) We strolled around the falls a bit, and then headed back to Banff for the night. We didn't last very long into the night either. I think the long days and lack of sleep at night have been catching up to us. Oh, btw, today was another good day of wildlife viewing. We saw a Coyote and bear!

Day 7: Banff - Hoodoo Trail and Lake Minnewanka


We started the day off on the Hoodoo Trail. It wasn't supposed to be a long walk to the hoo doos, but the trails weren't marked very well so it took a bit longer than expected. I think we ended up off-trail, although we never really did figure out exactly which was the main trail. At some point the trail ends up splitting in every which direction, and the one we took led us by the water. The grasses here were high, and we almost needed a machete to bushwack our way through (ok, a bit of an exaggeration). I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. It wasn't a highly recommended hike by the book, but I think it should be. The hoo doos are interesting to see, and if you get up high over them, the view below to the river is magnificent. But you could also get this view with a short walk from your car.... We just didn't know it. By the time we got back to our cars, we didn't think we had enough time to do a 3 hr hike like we planned. Instead, we grabbed lunch in to go and had a picnic at Cascade Pond, and then headed over to Lake Minnewanka. Lake Minnewanka is the largest lake in Banff. We didn't have much planned before we needed to head back to Calgary, so we sat in front of the lake a while enjoying the view, but half disappointed we had to leave. Once back in Calgary, we had a nice dinner out to finish the day off.

I have to say this was one of the most enjoyable trips I've ever had. I really like being out in the mountains, getting away from people, and hiking. I gotta admit though that my travel partner had a lot to do with it also. We were pretty much two peas in a pod so everything went really smoothly. We had lots of fun together. So here's a shout out to my boy Brad - thanks for a great time & I miss you!


Pictures are here.