Let’s hit the road again as I continue to chronicle our expedition through the Rocky Mountains! Here’s the highlights from days four through six. If you missed the first three days of our adventure, you can catch up here.
Day Four – Kamloops B.C. to Canmore AB
Our day started with breakfast at Tim Hortons! Yum! I got a tasty apple fritter which might be my new favorite treat at Timmy’s. It was fun to introduce the kids to Canadian staple. We took off for the rugged Rocky Mountains on this leg of the journey. Outside of Golden B.C, we saw a moose from a distance. According to Jeremy, it was a bull, but I didn’t get a great look at it. We stopped at McDonalds for a second Squishmellow treat in Golden for lunch. This travel day with filled with scenic views and looming mountains. We saw a herd of bighorn sheep outside of Golden. We drove through Canada’s Glacier National Park and stopped at the Yoho National Park Visitor Centre. Because it was a big travel day, we made only one stop in Yoho – Takakkaw Falls. It was a beautiful waterfall and a scenic drive. Jeremy wanted to find the iconic red chairs at the falls for a photo opp. This inspired me to find quite a few more sets of red chairs along our journey. Parks Canada has over 200 sets of chairs set in scenic view points. It felt a bit like a scavenger hunt to find them. We crossed into Alberta and changed time zones to Mountain Time. Our final destination was our condo in Canmore A.B. Dinner was Pizza Hut directly under our condo and a quick to Safeway and Canadian Tire to end the day.
Day Five – Banff National Park, Icefields Parkway, Jasper National Park
We took a scenic drive up the Icefields Parkway which starts in Banff National Park and ends in Jasper National Park. The entire day took us about 12 hours in total. It takes about it’s about 6 hours of driving total and then add in all the stops along the way. We saw the Columbia Icefields, Sunwapta Falls, and Athabasca Falls. We had a picnic lunch at Mount Christie, where we found a set of red chairs. We walked a bit around Jasper Townsite. The kids loved seeing the trains in Jasper. The Icefields Parkway is known as one of the most beautiful drives in the world. Unfornately, we had some smoke haze so it wasn’t clear, blue skies. The mountains were still visible and certainly still impressive! Outside of Jasper Townsite, we also saw huge bull elk. It was the animal find of the day! After a full day of exploring the parks, we had a late dinner at a burrito shop in our condo building.
Day Six – Moraine Lake, Lake Louise, Banff Townsite, Bow Falls
Jeremy discovered that the only way to see Moraine Lake was to book shuttle tickets in advance. He was on right when they live to ensure we had this experience. We parked outside of Lake Louise and took the shuttle to Moraine Lake first. Such a beautiful turquoise lake! We did a short hike up a nearby rock hill to get an elevated view. Then we hiked a bit around the lakeshore. After poking around the lodge gift shop, we loaded up into the shuttle bound for Lake Louise. Yet another stunning lakeview awaited us. Lake Louise was much busier than Moraine Lake and our lunch supplies were back at the vehicles. We took a few pictures and then loaded up for lunch. We took the Bow Valley Parkway toward Banff Townsite. We stopped to have a picnic lunch along the parkway and to find another set of red chairs. We explored Banff Townsite, did a little souvenir shopping, and enjoyed a snack break at Tim Hortons. We took a short drive across the Bow River to see Bow Falls before heading back to Canmore for dinner. We selected A&W, another Canadian staple. We reserved the roof top hot tub at the condo with 360 views of the valley to end the day.
Amy Scott's Thoughts 