Dave & Alisha: 2017 Summer Road Trip: Banff National Park, Alberta Canada

Alisha says: Our transfer from Calgary to Banff was less than two hours so we arrived early afternoon and set up camp. It was much warmer than we expected it to be. Since this year is Canada's 150th anniversary they have waived all entrance fees to the parks which was pretty cool. We first drove through the town of Banff which looked like a fun little town but was super busy to check out Cave and Basin National Historic Site, Canada's first national park. It is a nice visitor center and a little walk to a small cave with a hot mineral spring and an outdoor emerald colored pool. After our visit it was still early in the afternoon so we debated on what to do because it was fairly hot outside, eventually we decided to drive a little ways up the Bow Valley Parkway to hike to Johnston Canyon Lower Falls. On the way we had to stop because a herd of male big horn sheep were meandering right down the middle of the road, it was fun to see them up close as they walked right past the car. The hike to Johnston Canyon Lower Falls was busy but also just what we were looking for. It was mostly shaded and followed a river in canyon. A lot of the trail was on catwalks over the river which was really cool. Skye kept wanting to reach out and grab the railing. We checked out the Lower falls and then continued on just a little further before returning back to the car. We picked up some really tasty indian food in the town of Banff on our way back to the trailer and enjoyed dinner at the picnic table at our campsite.

Cave and Basin National Historic Site

Bighorn Sheep

Hiking on the catwalks to Johnston Canyon Fall

7/7: Banff has a lot of paved paths and some dirt trails that you can ride so we did a fun 20 mile ride exploring all around including Tunnel Mountain Trail, Hoodoos Trail, Bow River Trail, Bow River Falls and Spray River Trail. We worked up an appetite so we rode into downtown Banff, parked the bikes and found a cafe with a shaded courtyard to have some lunch. We then walked around a little bit before riding back to the campsite. After a nice rest we took Skye to the Banff aquatic center and let her play around in the kid pool.

7/8: We got up early and drove an hour north to the famous Lake Louise. We arrived early enough to get a good parking spot and take some nice pictures before it was over run with tourists. It really is absolutely beautiful. The emerald lake surrounded by the mountains with the snow in the background is quite breathtaking. We enjoyed a peaceful walk along the Lake Louise Lakeshore Trail as we headed to the Plain of Six Glaciers Trail. This was definitely a highlight hike of the trip. I would have loved to make it to the tea house but with Skye it was a little bit too far for us but what we did hike was stunning. We hiked up the valley, over a few snow patches, with nice views of some glaciers. Even the desolate scree covered glacier carved valley below us was beautiful. It was fun to turn around and see Lake Louise get smaller and smaller the father we hiked. We got to a point in the trail where it started climbing so we decided to stay to the left and follow a ridge for a little while. The ridge got really high with really steep drops on each side and it was really cool but we eventually found a spot and bailed to a lower safer spot to stop, let Skye out of the pack for a while and eat our lunch. Luckily Skye had a nap on our return trip. Dave was also very tired at the end of our 8 mile trek but oh man I would do it again in a heartbeat. It was also a perfect day for our hike as it was overcast for most of it but the cleared towards the end.

We drove to the visitor center area and grabbed second lunch before heading to the opposite side of the to ride the gondola at the Lake Louise Ski Resort. It was nice to just sit and enjoy the beauty as we rode the open air chair up and the closed gondola on the way down. At the top we walked around a little bit and enjoyed the views that surrounded us including a different view of Lake Louise across the valley.